H.R. 897 — Aviation-Impacted Communities Act

This section expands eligibility for Airport Improvement Program (AIP) noise mitigation funds, grants under section 7, and status under section 5 to establish community boards addressing airport noise to aviation-impacted communities below the Federal Aviation Administration's 65 DNL (Day-Night Average Sound Level) standard, notwithstanding any other provision of law. (As background, the AIP noise mitigation program funds measures such as residential sound insulation and compatible land use planning, previously available only for areas of 65 DNL or greater.)

This section directs the FAA Administrator to contract with the National Academy of Sciences to conduct a study summarizing worldwide literature on aviation impacts, focusing on large hub commercial airports and surrounding communities—including those outside the 65 DNL (Day-Night Average Sound Level) contour in King County, WA; Boston; Chicago; New York City; the Northern California Metroplex; Phoenix; the Southern California Metroplex; the District of Columbia; Atlanta; and any other metropolitan large hub airport identified by the Administrator. The study must examine (1) quantifiable and other data from FAA, airport operators, ground acoustic instrumentation, community testimonials, and organizations; (2) DNL and other noise metrics; (3) emissions from takeoffs and landings; (4) actual radar flight tracks; (5) impacts on communities near multiple airports or with unique geography (e.g., high elevation or large bodies of water); (6) community-requested data for equity analysis; and (7) mitigation recommendations. Using study findings, the National Academy of Sciences must also provide FAA with a framework and diagnostic tool—developed with community board and public input, and designed for public usability—for (1) requested community assessments; (2) measuring impacts from high-frequency overhead flights, procedural changes increasing operations, heightened nighttime noise, or reduced flight path dispersion; and (3) evaluating structures for noise mitigation eligibility.

This section establishes a process for designating aviation-impacted communities, using a numbered list: (1) directs the FAA Administrator, not later than 90 days after enactment, to conduct outreach to state, regional, and local elected officials of such communities via local print and electronic media (including social media, foreign language media, ethnic radio, newspapers, and television) in languages regularly encountered in the community; (2) requires the Administrator to designate a community upon request by its state, regional, or local elected officials (or designee) and to acknowledge each designation on the FAA website; and (3) authorizes designated communities, through their elected officials (or designee), representatives, or a community-chosen group, to select the aviation-impacted portions or entirety of the community.

This section requires each designated aviation-impacted community to select, not later than six months after designation under section 4, a community board with equal representation from (1) state, regional, or local elected officials or city managers (or designees), (2) local airport operators, (3) impacted community residents, and (4) public health and environmental representatives; alternatively, the community may designate an existing group of primarily elected local officials working on aviation issues if it includes non-airport employee community representation and adds health and environmental representatives as needed. The section specifies that community boards meet at member-chosen times and places to provide information to airport operators and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on aviation impacts (e.g., noise); directs the FAA to designate a representative and provide staff or experts for board meetings upon request; and authorizes boards to (1) draft community reports on aviation concerns, including local assessments; (2) petition the FAA for community assessments using the National Academy of Sciences framework and diagnostic tool under section 3, limited to once every three years (with exceptions for airport-commissioned part 150 noise studies or substantial increases in operations above projections); and (3) request, jointly with at least one other regional board, an FAA regional assessment. Additionally, the section requires the FAA, upon request, to provide noise measurement instrumentation; collaborate with boards on assessment scopes; and ensure assessments are culturally and linguistically accessible.

This section requires the FAA Administrator, not later than 6 months after completion of a community assessment under section 5(f), to collaborate with community boards on an action plan to address concerns raised in such assessments or related community reports. The action plan must (1) include a long-term regional plan to reduce aviation impacts on the designated community or communities through measures such as sound insulation, noise mitigation infrastructure, air filtration systems, and changes to flight paths or procedures; and (2) direct the relevant FAA district office and air traffic control facility to consider implementing changes to flight operations, flight paths, and vertical guidance if the assessment indicates such changes would decrease impacts, factoring in community population density. In implementing the action plan, the Administrator must consider such operational changes if supported by the assessment. (Thus, if the Administrator determines indicated changes would not decrease impacts, the action plan must explain the rationale.) This section further establishes an appeals process allowing a community board to challenge the FAA's decision not to implement changes under an independent panel of equal numbers of public health, environmental, and aviation experts (with National Academy of Sciences recommendations for panelists); the panel must convene within 6 months of an appeal and respond within 3 months thereafter. Panel findings must be disseminated publicly in a culturally and linguistically appropriate manner, to relevant Members of Congress and Senators, to House and Senate committees of jurisdiction, and upon request to appropriate state, regional, and local officials.

This section directs the FAA Administrator, not later than 180 days after release of an action plan under section 3, to make grants for noise mitigation (i.e., sound insulation of structures, noise barriers or acoustic shielding, or other measures indicated by community assessments under section 5(f) or action plans under section 6) in designated communities for residences, hospitals, nursing homes and adult or child day care centers, schools, places of worship, and other impacted facilities. It requires the Administrator to develop standards, using the National Academy of Sciences framework and diagnostic tool under section 3, to determine eligible structures and communities subject to significant overhead flight frequency or significant nighttime aircraft noise (10:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m.) in neighborhoods within a 55 or higher Day-Night Average Sound Level (DNL) contour (or equivalent quality-assured noise data outside the FAA's aviation environmental design tool model contour). The section further directs the Administrator and airport operators to provide such grants for those high-frequency flight or nighttime noise-impacted communities in carrying out action plans under section 6.

This section authorizes appropriations from the Airport and Airway Trust Fund of $750 million total for FY2025 through FY2034, and for each fiscal year thereafter such sums as necessary not to exceed 0.25% of the annual change in the uncommitted balance of the trust fund, to carry out the Act. Of amounts appropriated for a fiscal year, the FAA Administrator must use the funds (1) to make grants under section 7 of the Act, (2) not more than 5% for FAA administrative expenditures required to carry out the Act, and (3) any remainder for grants under 49 U.S.C. §47117(e)(1)(A) (i.e., airport noise compatibility planning and programs under the Airport Improvement Program).

This section defines terms used in the Act, including "aviation-impacted community" (i.e., a community located not greater than 1 mile from any point at which a commercial or cargo jet route is 3,000 feet or less above ground level), "designated community" (i.e., an aviation-impacted community that has chosen to be designated pursuant to section 4), "FAA designee" (i.e., a community engagement manager or Regional Ombudsman who works with each community board, engages in solution-driven dialogue, and serves as liaison between the FAA and the community board), "impact" (i.e., noise, air pollution emissions, or other aviation-related effects on a community or its residents), and "route" (i.e., including lateral trajectory and altitude of flight paths as shown by radar data and published routes).