Urges Appropriators To Include Senate-Passed Provision, Expanded To Include D.C. And Other Areas, To Strengthen Protections Against Airplane Noise In Final Spending Bill

Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), a senior Member of the House Aviation Subcommittee, has released a letter she wrote to the chairs and ranking members of the House and Senate Appropriation Subcommittees with jurisdiction over aviation in a renewed effort to address late night and early morning airplane noise in the Palisades, Foxhall, other District of Columbia neighborhoods, and communities across the country.

Norton (pictured in official photo) urged them to include in the upcoming Omnibus appropriations bill an amendment introduced by Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Jeff Flake (R-AZ) to the fiscal year 2016 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development appropriations bill and passed unanimously in the Senate last month.

The McCain-Flake amendment would require the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to review and address community concerns about recent flight path changes that were made by the FAA without any public involvement. Based on town meetings and other evidence from D.C.’s Wards 2 and 3, Norton requested that the McCain-Flake amendment be expanded to include reviews of Environmental Assessment Findings of No Significant Impacts, made by the FAA administrator over the last few years, because they too did not adequately evaluate human impacts like the airplane noise effects from the new flight paths at Reagan National Airport.

“In conversations with colleagues, I have learned that airplane noise is not a D.C.-only issue,” Norton said. “Many communities across the country, like those here in the District, are suffering from new and outrageous airplane noise during sleeping hours as a result of the FAA’s new NextGen flight paths. The amendment introduced by my Republican colleagues is only the latest of several different ways I am trying to close in on airplane noise.

"New NextGen flight paths have been touted for upgrading the speed and safety of air travel. FAA has been in the air while ignoring communities on the ground. With more attention about the effects on communities on the ground, FAA also can ensure that airplane noise for communities across the U.S. is not the tradeoff. Airplane noise has harmful environmental and human impacts. If the FAA starts giving the requisite attention to the increasing evidence of unacceptable airplane noise when developing new flight paths, FAA will be successful. The agency should review all NextGen flight paths that were developed without a full environmental review.”

Norton also has requested a congressional hearing to explore airplane noise and its impacts on residential communities in the District and across the nation. In May, Norton held a community meeting on airplane noise with residents in the Palisades, Foxhall, Georgetown, Hillandale and other impacted neighborhoods in the District and summoned representatives of the FAA and the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority to explain action it had taken or planned to take as residents expressed great frustration at an increase in air traffic activity during late nighttime and early morning hours.

(Source: Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton news release)

FMI: http://norton.house.gov