Air Tour and Sport Parachuting Safety Improvement Act of 2023
Latest action. Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
Air Tour and Sport Parachuting Safety Improvement Act of 2023
This bill requires the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to update safety standards for commercial air tour operators (i.e., sightseeing airplane and helicopter flights).
Within three years of the bill's enactment, all commercial air tour operators, with exceptions, must hold an air carrier certificate or commercial operator certificate. The FAA must implement procedures to improve the process for obtaining these certificates.
The FAA must also issue regulations requiring commercial air tour operators and other specified operators to implement appropriate safety management systems. This is a formal, organization-wide approach to safety risk that includes systematic procedures, practices, and policies.
The FAA must issue new or revised regulations requiring that all certificated commercial air tour operators incorporate into their training programs avoidance training for controlled flight into terrain and in-flight loss of control.
The FAA must also convene aviation rulemaking committees and, within three years of the bill's enactment, issue final regulations
establishing a performance-based standard for flight data monitoring for all commercial air tour operators,
requiring all commercial air tour operators to install flight data recording devices and implement a flight data monitoring program,
establishing methods to provide effective traffic avoidance in identified high-traffic tour areas (e.g., requiring air tour operators to be equipped with Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) surveillance technology), and
governing specified issues related to sports parachute operations conducted in the United States.
Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Introduced in Senate" stage on March 29, 2023. It describes the bill, it is not the legal text.
Where is it in the process, and what happens next?
4 steps remain before this bill could become law.
The record's latest action, on March 29, 2023: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
- Clearing the committees it was referred to, and being scheduled for a floor vote
- Passage by the Senate
- Passage by the House
- The President's signature. If the President vetoes it, two-thirds of both chambers must vote to override.
How likely is it to become law?
Civibrief does not forecast outcomes and this page has no opinion about this one. What the record supports is a base rate, which is a fact about the whole pile, not a prediction about this measure.
In the 118th Congress (2023-24), 274 of the 16,565 bills and joint resolutions introduced became law, about 1.7 percent. That count covers every measure at every stage, including the many that never left committee.
This one is not there yet: 4 steps are still outstanding, listed above.
Has anyone actually voted on it?
No. No roll call in this Congress cites this measure. That is the ordinary outcome: most measures never reach a recorded floor vote, and a committee ends most of them simply by not acting.
A vote is not the only thing that happens to a measure. Hearings, markups, and referrals are all recorded actions, and none of them is a vote of the full chamber.
Who is behind it?
Brian Schatz (D-HI) introduced it on March 29, 2023, and 1 member has since signed on as a cosponsor.
They are 1 Democrat.
Cosponsoring is a formal signature on the text. It is not a commitment to vote for the measure, it does not bind anyone's party, and a long list of cosponsors is a measure of attention rather than of prospects.
How long has it been in play?
It was introduced on March 29, 2023, 1261 days ago. The most recent recorded action was 1261 days ago, on March 29, 2023.
Measures do not carry over. Anything the 118th Congress has not finished by January 3, 2025 dies when the term ends, and has to be introduced again from the start in the next Congress.
Every answer above is assembled from this measure's own record on Congress.gov and from published counts of what Congress has passed before. Civibrief does not predict outcomes and takes no position on any measure.
Vote history
- SenateIn committee, no floor vote yet
- HouseAwaits Senate passage
- PresidentAwaits both chambers