March 26, 2026
The House Transportation Committee met earlier today and approved aviation safety legislation known as the Airspace Location and Enhanced Risk Transparency (ALERT) Act, including troubling provision from the Pilot and Aircraft Privacy Act (PAPA) that would prevent airports from using ADS-B to collect any revenue from operators including takeoff and landing fees or to initiate an investigation (Section 105).
Despite an aggressive push from AAAE, ACI-NA, and individual airports, an amendment by Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-CA) to strike the PAPA provisions in Section 105 was defeated on a mostly party-line vote with nearly all Democrats in attendance voting in favor and all Republicans voting against. (Democratic leaders voted against the amendment because of an agreement with their Republican counterparts.) Reps. Julia Brownley (D-CA), Sharice Davids (D-KS), Robert Garcia (D-CA), and Jerry Nadler (D-NY) cosponsored the Carbajal amendment.
A separate amendment by Rep. Laura Friedman (D-CA) to strike a portion of Section 105 was also defeated on a mostly party-line vote. A third amendment from Rep. Shomari Figures (D-AL) that would have allowed state and local governments to continue using the technology to collect information from aircraft for the purpose of tax collection was also defeated.
Representatives Carbajal, Friedman, Davids, and Nellie Pou (D-NJ) spoke in favor of efforts to strike the PAPA provisions. Rep. Carbajal argued that PAPA would limit airports’ ability to manage their facilities and collect appropriate fees and “make critical safety investments costlier to local communities, delay needed investments, ultimately working against the very safety goals we are trying to achieve.”
Committee Chair Sam Graves (R-MO) spoke forcefully against the Carbajal amendment and noted NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy’s comments in support of PAPA before the Senate Commerce Committee recently. He also highlighted his own experiences as a general aviation pilot in arguing to maintain the Section 105 provisions. Aviation Subcommittee Chair Troy Nehls (R-TX) and lead House PAPA sponsor Rep. Bob Onder (R-MO) also spoke against the efforts to strike Section 105 and address airport concerns. Graves, Nehls, and Onder all noted that ADS-B was initially developed for safety purposes and not as a “revenue collection tool” for airports. They further argued that the utilization of ADS-B by airports for fee collection disincentivizes pilots to equip with the technology.
While today’s developments are obviously very disappointing, it is but one step in a long process toward enactment into law. In the weeks ahead, the ALERT Act will move to consideration by the full House of Representatives. Ultimately, the measure will need to be reconciled with the Senate-passed Rotorcraft Operations Transparency and Oversight Reform (ROTOR) Act, which may not be an easy task given the divergent approaches between the House and Senate on key requirements. Notably, the ROTOR Act does not include PAPA-related provisions.
AAAE and ACI-NA will continue to work aggressively against the inclusion of PAPA provisions in any final aviation safety bill. We offer our sincere appreciation to the many airports that have weighed in to express their opposition to PAPA and encourage you to continue those efforts in the days ahead. Your input continues to be critical toward our goal of striking or mitigating the provisions now in play. It is clear from today’s markup that we have our work cut out for us. It is also clear that airports are making their voices heard in the debate. Please keep it up!
Stay tuned for further updates and calls to action.