Mountain State Times

The NOTAM Improvement Act will help prevent future Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) system outages.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Last night, the NOTAM Improvement Act, legislation introduced by U.S. Senators Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), and Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), passed the U.S. Senate by unanimous consent.

Senator Capito, who is also a member of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, introduced the NOTAM Improvement Act in January 2023 to help prevent future Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) system outages. Specifically, the legislation would require the FAA to establish a task force to update and strengthen the resiliency and cybersecurity of the NOTAM system, which alerts pilots of safety and location hazards on flight routes.

“The system failure that grounded all flights in January cannot happen again,” Senator Capito said. “The bipartisan NOTAM Improvement Act creates a taskforce of experts to develop specific improvements for this critical system, and I’m glad to see it pass the U.S. Senate. I encourage the House to quickly pass this amended version and send it to the president’s desk, so we can prevent similar outages in the future.”

BACKGROUND:

The NOTAM Improvement Act would require the FAA to establish a task force to update and strengthen the resiliency and cybersecurity of the NOTAM system, which alerts pilots of safety and location hazards on flight routes. The task force would be composed of representatives from air carriers, airports, and airline pilot, aircraft dispatcher, and FAA personnel unions, as well as aviation safety and cybersecurity experts. Representative Pete Stauber (R-Minn.), who has previously introduced legislation to improve the NOTAM system, introduced similar legislation that passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 424-4 on Wednesday, January 25.

Full text of legislation is available here. 

Original source can be found here.