119-hr3477

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3477 Introduced in House

    (IH) ]

<DOC>

119th CONGRESS
 1st Session
 H. R. 3477

 To direct the Secretary of Transportation to require certain air 
 carriers to develop and regularly update an operational resiliency 
 strategy, and for other purposes.

_______________________________________________________________________

 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

 May 17, 2025

 Mr. Larsen of Washington (for himself and Mr. Cohen) introduced the 
 following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Transportation 
 and Infrastructure

_______________________________________________________________________

 A BILL

 To direct the Secretary of Transportation to require certain air 
 carriers to develop and regularly update an operational resiliency 
 strategy, and for other purposes.

 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

 This Act may be cited as the ``Ensuring Airline Resiliency to 
Reduce Delays and Cancellations Act''.

SEC. 2. AIRLINE OPERATIONAL RESILIENCY PLANS.

    (a) In General.--Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment 
of this Act, the Secretary of Transportation shall require a covered 
carrier to develop and regularly update an operational resiliency 
strategy to prevent or limit the impact of future flight disruptions on 
passengers.

    (b) Operational Resiliency Strategy.--In each operational 
resiliency strategy developed under subsection

    (a) , a covered carrier 
shall include a description of--

    (1) the potential impact of severe weather and other 
 reasonably anticipated disruptive events on the operations of 
 the carrier and how the carrier seeks to prevent or limit the 
 impact of such events on passengers;

    (2) the potential impact of severe weather events and other 
 reasonably anticipated disruptive events on--
        (A) staffing models, including the ability of such 
 models to ensure the workforce is able to adequately 
 respond to such events and reschedule passengers, 
 flight crews, operations staff, and other appropriate 
 personnel; and
        (B) the current information and technology systems 
 of the carrier, including crew scheduling systems, and 
 the preparedness of such systems to continue operations 
 after such an event or disruption;

    (3) the preparedness of the carrier to maintain operations 
 and limit or prevent the impact of other potential disruptive 
 events identified by the carrier;

    (4) the extent to which the carrier addresses known 
 cybersecurity risks and information technology deficiencies and 
 vulnerabilities to prevent potential flight disruptions; and

    (5) any other issues the Secretary determines appropriate 
 to protect consumers and maintain the operational stability of 
 the airline industry.
            (c) Proprietary Information.--The Secretary shall develop a method 
to protect the confidentiality of any trade secret or proprietary 
information submitted in an operational resiliency strategy under 
subsection

    (b) .
            (d) Evaluation.--

    (1) Audit.--Not later than 3 years after the date of 
 enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General of the United 
 States shall initiate an audit to evaluate the effectiveness of 
 the operational resiliency strategies developed under this 
 section by covered air carriers.

    (2) Stakeholder feedback.--Upon completion of the audit 
 under paragraph

    (1) , the Comptroller General shall solicit 
 responses from the covered carriers regarding the findings of 
 the audit and include any such responses in the report in 
 paragraph

    (3) .

    (3) Report.--Not later than 1 year after completion of the 
 audit conducted under paragraph

    (1) , the Comptroller General 
 shall submit to the Committee on Transportation and 
 Infrastructure of the House of Representatives and the 
 Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the 
 Senate a report on the findings of the audit.

    (e) Rule of Construction.--Nothing in this section shall be 
construed to--

    (1) grant additional authority to the Secretary beyond the 
 authority to require a covered air carrier to develop or update 
 an operational resiliency strategy in accordance with this Act; 
 or

    (2) prevent the Secretary from assessing an operational 
 resiliency strategy and providing guidance and technical 
 assistance to a covered carrier in developing and updating such 
 a strategy required under this Act.

    (f) Covered Carrier.--In this section, the term ``covered carrier'' 
has the meaning given such term in 

section 259.3 of title 14, Code of 
Federal Regulations (or successor regulations).
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