WASHINGTON — The Senate on Thursday night overwhelmingly approved a sweeping aviation bill to increase air traffic controller staffing, increase funding to prevent runway proximity incidents and speed refunds for canceled flights.
The five-year, $105 billion measure reauthorizes the Federal Aviation Administration. The bill bans airlines from charging fees for families to sit together, requires planes to be equipped with 25-hour cockpit recording devices — up from the current two hours — and directs the FAA to deploy advanced surface technology at airports to help avoid collisions.
The bill adds five daily round-trip flights at busy Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and requires airlines to accept vouchers and credits for at least five years.
Efforts to increase aviation safety in the United States have taken on new urgency following a series of near-accidental incidents and the Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 from January 5 airborne emergency plug port.
The bill, which is expected to receive final approval next week by the House of Representatives, does not raise the mandatory retirement age for pilots to 67, as lawmakers attempted to do last year.
Earlier this week, Lawmakers agreed to revise language ensure quick refunds to airline passengers whose flights were cancelled, who purchased non-refundable tickets and who are not looking for alternative flights.
The bill increases maximum civil penalties for airline consumer violations from $25,000 per violation to $75,000 and aims to address the shortage of 3,000 air traffic controllers by directing the FAA to implement better staffing standards and hire more inspectors, engineers and technical specialists.
Congress will not set minimum seat size requirements, leaving that to the FAA. The bill requires the Department of Transportation to create a dashboard that shows consumers the minimum seat size for each U.S. airline.
Congress also rejected many other consumer provisions the Biden administration sought.
The bill also reauthorizes the National Transportation Safety Board and increases staffing at the safety investigative agency. It also seeks to increase the adoption of drones and flying air taxis in national airspace and extends existing government authority against drones until October 1.
This story originally appeared on NBCNews.com read the full story
