RESPECT Act

I 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 5105 To require the Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration to re- spond to requests for information from Members of Congress, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES NOVEMBER 14, 2019 Ms. SPEIER (for herself, Mr. CASE, Ms. NORTON, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Mr. PA- NETTA, Mr. QUIGLEY, Mr. ROUDA, Ms. LEE of California, Mr. SUOZZI, Mr. RASKIN, Ms. ESHOO, Mr. SMITH of Washington, and Mr. NEGUSE) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure A BILL To require the Administrator of the Federal Aviation Admin- istration to respond to requests for information from Members of Congress, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Responsive Employees 4 Support Productive Educated Congressional Talk Act’’ or 5 the ‘‘RESPECT Act’’. 6 VerDate Sep 11 2014 19:59 Nov 25, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5105.IH H5105 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 5105 IH SEC. 2. FAA RESPONSIVENESS TO CONGRESS. 1 (a) PURPOSE.—This section is enacted pursuant to 2 the legislative oversight responsibilities of Congress and 3 to enable a Member of Congress to effectively represent 4 their constituents and respond to constituent inquiries. 5 (b) REQUIREMENTS.—If a Member of Congress sub- 6 mits to the FAA a written request for information on pro- 7 posed, previous, or current flight procedures or other data 8 or information relating to the District of such Member, 9 the following conditions apply: 10 (1) DATA REQUEST.—Not later than 90 days 11 after receipt of such request, the Administrator of 12 the FAA shall substantively respond in writing with 13 the requested data or information in the format re- 14 quested by the Member of Congress, if— 15 (A) the data is within the control of the 16 FAA; and 17 (B) the data would be otherwise appro- 18 priate to provide if requested— 19 (i) by an airline, an airport, a flight 20 procedure proponent, an Aviation Round- 21 table, or anyone not employed by the FAA; 22 or 23 (ii) via a Freedom of Information re- 24 quest from any individual or any entity. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 19:59 Nov 25, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5105.IH H5105 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 5105 IH (2) NOTIFICATION.—If the Administrator does 1 not provide the requested information pursuant to 2 paragraph (1), the Administrator shall notify the re- 3 questing Member of Congress, Congress, and the 4 Chairman and Ranking Member of the Transpor- 5 tation and Infrastructure Committee of the House of 6 Representatives. 7 (c) STAFFING OF MEETINGS.—If a Member of Con- 8 gress submits to the FAA a written request for the FAA 9 to provide staff at a private or public meeting with the 10 Member, the Administrator shall provide such staff if— 11 (1) the request is made in writing at least 30 12 days before the meeting date; and 13 (2) the request is made on the same terms and 14 conditions as specified by FAA appearances at Avia- 15 tion Roundtable meetings. 16 (d) NOTIFICATION.—If the Administrator does not 17 comply with a request made by a Member of Congress (as 18 described in subsection (c)), the Administrator shall pro- 19 vide the requesting Member of Congress, Congress, and 20 the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Transportation 21 and Infrastructure Committee of the House of Represent- 22 atives with an explanation why the request will not be ful- 23 filled. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 19:59 Nov 25, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5105.IH H5105 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 5105 IH (e) DEFINITIONS.—In this section, the following defi- 1 nitions apply: 2 (1) FLIGHT PROCEDURE.—The term ‘‘flight 3 procedure’’ means a preplanned Instrument Flight 4 Rules (IFR) procedure published for pilot use, in 5 graphic or textual format, that provides obstruction 6 clearance from the terminal area to the en route 7 structure (departure) or from the en route structure 8 to the terminal area (arrival). 9 (2) PROCEDURE PROPONENT.—The term ‘‘pro- 10 cedure proponent’’ means a person or entity pro- 11 posing a new or modified flight procedure. 12 (3) AVIATION ROUNDTABLE.—The term ‘‘Avia- 13 tion Roundtable’’ means an organization designed to 14 address community concerns over a sustained period 15 of time regarding aircraft operations often associ- 16 ated with a nearby airport. 17 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 19:59 Nov 25, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H5105.IH H5105 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS