On January 11, 2023, the Federal Aviation Administration ordered a nationwide ground stop for several hours.  Our nation hadn’t seen something like it since September 11, 2001.  The reason?  According to the Federal Aviation Administration, an engineer mistakenly “replaced one file with another.”

That mistake caused an outage of the entire NoTAM (Notice to Air Mission) system.  NoTAM is an important system that’s responsible for notifying pilots of safety hazards.  As a result, the FAA issued a nationwide ground stop in the United States, canceling hundreds and delaying thousands of flights.  That should never happen again.

That’s why the House passed the NoTAM Improvement Act, which would establish an FAA taskforce to determine what improvements need to be made to the NoTAM system.  Americans across the country rely heavily on air travel for everything from business meetings to keeping in touch with loved ones.  We cannot afford another outage that leaves hundreds of thousands stranded.

As a member sitting on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, I will make sure the House holds the FAA and the Department of Transportation accountable and keeps flights moving.