Subcommittee on Aviation
Thomas Petri, Ranking Republican
The Subcommittee on Aviation has jurisdiction over all aspects of civil aviation, including safety, infrastructure, labor, and international issues. This jurisdiction includes all aspects of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) except for research activities. The Subcommittee also has jurisdiction over the impacts of transportation security on the aviation industry and aviation safety.
Link to Legislation Referred to the Subcommittee
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Jurisdiction
The Subcommittee on Aviation has jurisdiction over all aspects of civil aviation, including safety, infrastructure, labor, and international issues. This jurisdiction includes all aspects of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) except for research activities, which are within the jurisdiction of the Science Committee.
Prior to the September 11th terrorist attacks, the number of air travelers in the United States had reached record levels and had begun to strain the existing infrastructure capacity. For several years after the attacks, the demand for air travel decreased and the impending capacity crunch was delayed while officials in the Federal government, at the airlines and at airports dealt with many new security issues.
Demand has returned to pre-9/11 levels, however, and the Subcommittee will continue to contend with existing capacity and security concerns, as well as an aging air traffic control system.
The Aviation Subcommittee is also traditionally the lead subcommittee with jurisdiction over the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the Federal agency responsible for investigating civil aviation accidents and other transportation accidents. The essential air service program, which ensures commercial air service to smaller communities, the war risk insurance program, which provides insurance coverage for commercial flights to high-risk parts of the world, and passenger and cargo commercial space transportation also fall within the purview of the Aviation Subcommittee.
The Subcommittee continues to exercise oversight jurisdiction over the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and continues to have jurisdiction over the impacts of transportation security on the aviation industry and aviation safety.
Issues and agencies under the jurisdiction of the Aviation Subcommittee include:
- Federal Aviation Administration
- Air traffic control modernization
- Airport capacity
- Airport Improvement Program grants
- Aviation antitrust issues
- Aviation labor, as governed by the Railway Labor Act
- Aviation safety
- Aviation security, including the Transportation Security Administration
- Commercial aviation
- Essential air service for small communities
- General aviation
- International aviation
- National Transportation Safety Board
- War risk insurance
- Commercial space transportation and tourism
- Air carrier operations
- Use of the navigable airspace
Members
Republican Members of the
Subcommittee on Aviation
Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
U.S. House of Representatives
110th Congress
Thomas E. Petri, WI, Ranking Member
Howard Coble, NC
John J. Duncan, Jr., TN
Vernon J. Ehlers, MI
Steven C. LaTourette, OH
Frank A. LoBiondo, NJ
Jerry Moran, KS
Robin Hayes, NC
Sam Graves, MO
John Boozman, AR
Shelley Moore Capito, WV
Jim Gerlach, PA
Mario Diaz-Balart, FL
Charles W. Dent, PA
Ted Poe, TX
David G. Reichert, WA
Connie Mack, FL
John R. "Randy" Kuhl, Jr., NY
Lynn A. Westmoreland, GA
Mary Fallin, OK
Vern Buchanan, FL
John L. Mica, FL (ex officio)
Ranking Member Biography
U.S. Rep Tom Petri is the Ranking Republican on the Aviation Subcommittee, and has taken the lead role for the Republicans in the reauthorization of the Federal Aviation Administration, modernization of the air traffic system, and the examination of how to finance aviation programs and investments in the long term.
Petri is a 24-year veteran of the Transportation Committee and served as Chairman of the Highways, Transit and Pipelines Subcommittee from 2000-2006. Prior to 2000, he also chaired the Subcommittee when it had jurisdiction over railroads, as well as highways and transit. In his capacity as Chairman, he coauthored the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy For Users – the largest investment in highways and transit systems in U.S. history. He has also led past Committee efforts to strengthen public transportation security, and sponsored the reauthorization of the Federal pipeline safety programs.
Petri represents Wisconsin’s Sixth Congressional District and is currently serving his 15th term in the U.S. House of Representatives. Petri is known for his efforts to apply innovative solutions to problems, with a firm commitment to cost-effectiveness. He has been recognized repeatedly by organizations such as the National Taxpayers Union, the Concord Coalition, Citizens Against Government Waste, and the Watchdogs of the Treasury as a foe of government waste. He has repeatedly been named a “Guardian of Small Business” by the National Federation of Independent Business, and has won the “National Security Leadership Award” from the American Security Council.
Petri grew up in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, taking a number of jobs shoveling snow, painting houses, delivering newspapers, working as a messenger, and hosting a radio show called “Teen Time”. After receiving both his undergraduate and law degrees from Harvard, he clerked for the federal judge for Wisconsin’s western district from 1965 to 1966. Petri served in the Peace Corps in Somalia and in the White House as Director of Crime Studies for President Nixon’s Advisory Council on Executive Reorganization, focusing on anti-drug efforts. He is married and has one daughter.
Thomas Petri, Ranking Republican, Subcommittee on Aviation