This bill requires the FAA Administrator to form an independent expert review panel within 60 days. The panel will study how the FAA implements a safety management system (SMS) and will make findings and recommendations to inform a comprehensive, integrated SMS across FAA lines of business.
The panel must review whether the FAA's SMS follows relevant FAA orders and policies; what safety improvements have resulted or are expected from past SMS work; how well SMS works across four parts (safety policy, safety risk management, safety assurance, and safety promotion); and whether FAA safety culture supports SMS consistent with the ICAO Safety Management Manual. The panel will also review the FAA's internal audit process, how SMS is integrated across FAA offices (for example, Air Traffic, Aviation Safety, and Airports), how SMS is taught and communicated to FAA staff, the role and effectiveness of voluntary safety reporting programs, and whether the U.S. should seek changes to ICAO Annex 19 about state and regulator-level SMS. The Administrator may add other related review topics in the public interest.
The bill specifies who sits on the panel. Appointed members include NASA experts, labor organization representatives (including airline pilots and FAA air traffic controller bargaining representatives), at least five independent SMS experts with at least 10 years of applied experience and no prior FAA political appointment, air carrier SMS administrators, holders of certain FAA certificates who manage SMS, other aerospace industry representatives, and a U.S. Mission to ICAO representative. The NTSB may join as a non-voting member. Up to five FAA employees can serve as advisory members.
The panel must issue recommendations and, within 180 days after its first meeting, submit a report with majority-endorsed findings and recommendations to the Administrator and the relevant congressional committees. Any dissenting views must be appended. The FAA must publish the report and dissenting views on its website within 5 days of receiving it. The panel ends when it files the report.
The bill gives the panel certain information and site access powers if a majority of appointed members agree. Non-federal members may see only de-identified records protected by law. Non-federal panel members must sign nondisclosure agreements. The bill preserves legal protections for confidential or proprietary information and makes the panel exempt from the Federal Advisory Committee Act. The Administrator must brief Congress on implementation status of panel recommendations periodically. If the Administrator does not concur with any recommendation, the Administrator must explain that decision publicly within six months.
No publicly available information.
The bill states its purpose is to create an independent expert review to evaluate FAA orders, policies, and practices to inform the FAA's implementation of a comprehensive and integrated safety management system across its lines of business.
No publicly available information.