Lawmakers are calling on the Obama administration to expedite its review of certification rules for small airplanes.
In a letter Thursday, Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.) and six of his congressional colleagues, including three Democrats, asked the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Shaun Donovan to review revisions to the rules, so that the agency can issued a notice of proposed rulemaking before the end of the year.
{mosads}Since the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will miss the Dec. 15, 2015 deadline for the final rule under the Small Airplane Revitalization Act, Pompeo said they need to at least publish the proposed rule before the year is out.
“Unfortunately, federal regulators are far behind in the rulemaking process for small airplane certification regulations,” he said in a statement.
The revisions to the rules, mandated by Congress, aim to make small aircrafts safer by removing prescriptive methods of compliance, developing safety objectives that address future technologies, utilizing FAA-accepted consensus standards and developing globally acceptable regulations.
“The FAA must move forward now or it risks losing its international leadership,” the lawmakers said in their letter to the agency. “As an example, the European Aviation Safety Agency has already published a similar draft proposal that could be implemented in early 2016 in a move that would seriously compromise FAA’s leadership on the issue.”
This story was updated to reflect that the letter was bi-partisan.