Congress·In Committee·H.R. 8597

Air Traffic Situational Awareness Enhancement Act

Air Traffic Control: New Safety Tools for Smaller Airports

2 months ago·View on Congress.gov·Read full text

This bill is currently in the early stages of the legislative process after being sent to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. It is actively moving through the system as it awaits review by committee members. There are no upcoming votes or hearings scheduled at this time.

Legislative Progress

House

Senate

President

Law

Could go either way

Aviation safety is a popular bipartisan issue, but individual bills like this are often merged into larger FAA funding packages rather than passing on their own.

Key Points

This bill requires the Federal Aviation Administration to give smaller airports better tools to track planes. It focuses on contract towers, which are control towers at regional airports that are run by private companies instead of the government.
Pilots and passengers using smaller regional airports would benefit from increased safety. Air traffic controllers at these locations would get new screens and software to help them see exactly where planes are in the sky, reducing the risk of accidents.
Many small airports currently lack the advanced radar and tracking systems used at big city airports. This policy aims to close that gap so that every control tower has the same high-quality technology to prevent mid-air collisions or runway mistakes.
The FAA would have one year to install these tools once the bill becomes law. The government would also pay back any airports that already spent their own money to buy this equipment recently.

Impact Analysis

Govbase has not yet run an impact analysis on this legislation.

Milestones

2 milestones2 actions

Apr 30, 2026House

Referred to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.

Apr 30, 2026

Introduced in House

The bill was officially filed and given a number. It now enters the legislative queue.

Votes

No votes have been recorded for this legislation yet.

News

No related news coverage found for this legislation yet.

Source Information

Document Type

Congressional Bill

Official Title

Air Traffic Situational Awareness Enhancement Act

Bill NumberHR 8597

Congress119th Congress

ChamberHouse of Representatives

Latest ActionReferred to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.

Data Sources

Congress.gov

Official legislative information

Read Full Bill Text

Sponsor

Cosponsors

(2)

D: 1R: 1

Analysis generated by AI. Always verify with official sources.