Bill Would Require DHS To Formulate A Plan For GA and BizAv

Legislation introduced on Capitol Hill Wednesday would reopen Washington's Reagan National Airport to general aviation and business aviation traffic for the first time since the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

The measure, introduced by Washington's House Delegate, Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), among others, would require the Department of Homeland Security to present its plan for readmitting GA and BizAv to the airport, which is within site of most major monuments inside the District of Columbia. DHS would have six months to implement its plan.

"The resistance of the administration to opening general aviation here while small planes fly everywhere else has now met the two-fisted response of two bills demanding reopening now," she told the Associated Press.

National hosted 44,000 GA and BizAv flight operations in 2000 -- the year before the ban went into effect. The TSA says it's proceeding toward allowing the return of general aviation at the airport with what a spokesman called "appropriate prudence."

FMI: www.dhs.gov, www.metwashairports.com