Senate passes bill improving air safety, service for travelers

WASHINGTON — The Senate has passed a $105 billion bill designed to improve safety and customer service for air travelers, a day before the law governing the Federal Aviation Administration expires.

The bipartisan bill, which comes after a series of close calls between planes at the nation’s airports, aims to boost the number of air traffic controllers amid a shortage, improve safety standards and make it easier for customers to get refunds after flights are delayed or canceled, among other measures.

After passing the legislation on a strong 88-4 vote, the Senate passed a one-week extension to ensure that the law doesn’t expire before the House considers the bill next week. The FAA has said it would have had to furlough around 3,600 workers if the law expired at midnight Friday.

The bill stalled for several days this week after senators from Virginia and Maryland objected to a provision that would allow an additional 10 flights a day to and from the heavily trafficked Reagan Washington National Airport. Other senators tried to add unrelated provisions, as well, seeing it as a prime chance to enact their legislative priorities.

But Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called a vote Thursday evening after it became clear that senators would not be able to agree on amendments to the bill before the law expired. The Senate then passed the one-week extension that the House had already passed, sending that to President Joe Biden’s desk.

The FAA has been under scrutiny since it approved Boeing jets that were involved in two deadly crashes in 2018 and 2019. The Senate legislation would govern FAA operations for the next five years and put several new safety standards in place.

The bill “gives the FAA the stability it needs to fulfill its primary mission — advancing aviation safety — while also making travel more convenient and accessible,” said Senate Commerce Committee Chairwoman Maria Cantwell, D-Wash.

The legislation aims to increase the number of air traffic controllers, provides for more safety inspectors at manufacturing facilities and requires the FAA to use new technology designed to prevent collisions between planes on runways. It would require new airline planes to have cockpit voice recorders capable of saving 25 hours of audio, up from the current two hours, to help investigators after safety incidents.

It would try to improve customer service for flyers by requiring airlines to pay a refund to customers for flight delays — three hours for a domestic flight and six for an international one. Lawmakers tweaked the bill this week to make it even easier for customers to receive refunds, revising language that would have put most of the onus on the customers to request them. The change put the Senate bill more in line with new regulations issued by the Biden administration last week.

In addition, the bill would prohibit airlines from charging extra for families to sit together and triple the maximum fines for airlines that violate consumer laws. And it would require the Transportation Department to create a “dashboard” so consumers can compare seat sizes on different airlines.

The legislation would also improve access for passengers with disabilities, requiring airlines to accommodate seating requests for disability-related needs, setting new training standards for airline personnel who handle and store wheelchairs and awarding grants for airport accessibility upgrades.

Failure to pass the popular bipartisan bill by May 10 would have been the latest setback after months of delays on the measure, and the last-minute deal to pass it was the most recent example of Congress struggling to pass major legislation that had broad bipartisan support. Schumer, who had urged lawmakers to drop their objections and come to agreement on the legislation, said after passage that “passing this FAA bill is the best thing Congress can do to give Americans the peace of mind they deserve.”