CNN
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President Joe Biden on Thursday signed a bipartisan Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill, enacting a legislation that goals to enhance aviation security and strengthen protections for passengers and airline staff.
The laws, which passed the House on Wednesday and the Senate last week, renews authority for the company for the following 5 years and invests in air journey infrastructure nationwide.
In an announcement after he signed the laws, Biden touted the legislation and highlighted a new Department of Transportation rule requiring automated money refunds as a substitute of vouchers.
“The bipartisan Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization is an enormous win for vacationers, the aviation workforce, and our economic system,” he mentioned. “It additionally builds on my Administration’s efforts to enhance the journey expertise for airline passengers, affirming the Division of Transportation’s rule that mandated automated refunds when flights are cancelled or considerably delayed.”
The Biden administration first proposed its change to refund guidelines in 2022 after a surge in complaints about refunds when the Covid-19 pandemic halted air journey. Below the brand new legislation, if a passenger declines an airline’s rebooking request or doesn’t reply to the request, the airline should challenge an automated refund.
Amongst different issues, the legislation requires the FAA to rent and practice as many air visitors controllers as doable to shut a niche of three,000 vacancies. It additionally requires the company to put in further runway know-how at medium and enormous hub airports, a transfer that goals to scale back collisions and near-collisions on runways.
The legislation additionally authorizes greater than $105 billion in funding for the FAA in addition to $738 million for the Nationwide Transportation Security Board for fiscal years 2024 by means of 2028.
Biden signed a one-week extension for federal aviation applications final week. The transfer allowed the applications to proceed whereas the Home took up the reauthorization invoice.
CNN’s Clare Foran, Gregory Wallace, Tami Luhby and Haley Talbot contributed to this report.