A bill to create a National Center for the Advancement of Aviation (NCAA) was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday. The legislation, HR 8532, was sponsored by Representatives André Carson, D-Ind.; Don Young, R-Alaska; and Rick Larsen, D-Wash., all members of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s Aviation Subcommittee. In addition to providing a forum to facilitate industry collaboration, the NCAA would focus on aviation workforce development—including supporting the development and distribution of aviation- and aerospace-oriented curriculums—along with acting as a central repository for economic and safety data research.
“A National Center for the Advancement of Aviation would foster greater collaboration and technological innovation in U.S. airspace, help improve aviation safety, boost U.S. competitiveness in the global marketplace, and prepare the next generation workforce to meet the demands of the 21st century aviation economy,” said Larsen. “As Chair of the House Aviation Subcommittee, I will continue to work with my colleagues to ensure the future of aviation remains bright.”
As previously reported by AVweb, a similar bill was introduced in the Senate last February by Senators James Inhofe, R-Okla., and Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill. The proposal has received the support of more than 130 aviation organizations including the Aircraft Electronics Association (AEA), Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA), Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) and National Business Aviation Association (NBAA).
So, let me get this straight. Congress is now trying to create an agency to do something that the FAA was supposed to be doing all along? Gotta love Washington.
Another layer of Bureaucracy, to draw and squander tax payer money.. Aviation needs more freedom to grow, like in the days of the past..
Tom, in the mid 1920’s a committee appointed by President Coolidge and headed by a prominent business leader (Dwight Morrow, partner in the J.P. Morgan Bank and future father-in-law of Charles Lindbergh) recommended that Congress regulate aviation to ensure its future prosperity. So, business leaders of the time wanted aviation to grow and believed strongly that it would not without safety regulations.
Link here: https://www.faa.gov/about/history/milestones/media/FAA_Origins.pdf
Hmm!
Oh, come on, guys. The FAA has always struggled (usually unsuccessfully) to fulfill its mandate to “promote” and “regulate” aviation. More often than not, those two goals were at odds, if not mutually exclusive, leading to interniscene budget fights that whipsawed from one objective to the other. And let’s face it, given that oxymoronic mandate, a government bureaucracy, which lives and dies by paperwork and procedures, is much more suited for the “regulate” mission than the softer-science of “promotion”.
That being the case, I think this legislation is short-sighted, but only because it’s yet another case of “when your only tool is a hammer, all your problems look like nails”. Rather than create yet-another government agency, they should take that budget allocation and offer contracts to the ones who really know something about promotion: Madison Avenue and Hollywood marketing firms. If a fraction of the effort were put into extolling the virtues of (general) aviation as is squandered on convincing us that we need a new pickup truck (costing the same as a decent C-172) or drugs that no one can pronounce for conditions no one even knew they had, Berge’s pilot’s lounges wouldn’t be so lonely.
Given the turf wars between Federal agencies concerning overlapping functions and budgets, how will the non-cooperation between this new agency and the FAA benefit anyone?
The joys of headline reading. I parsed this headline as, “(National Center For The Advancement Of (Aviation Legislation)) Introduced”. Finally, we can have more Aviation Legislation, because the National Center which Advances it is up and running!