Legislation Filed In Rules Committee Would Preserve Opt-Out

The NBAA said Tuesday it welcomes legislation filed with the House Rules Committee that includes language to preserve the Block Aircraft Registration Request (BARR) program. At the request of U.S. Representatives Sam Graves (R-6-MO) and Leonard Boswell (D-3-IA), the language has been included by Rep. John Mica (R-7-FL), Chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure (T&I) Committee, in the manager's amendment to the FAA Reauthorization and Reform Act of 2011 (H.R. 658), which was filed with the Rules Committee Tuesday.

The legislation directs the FAA to allow aircraft owners and operators to opt-out of having their flight information published by flight-tracking services. The amendment goes on to note that the online broadcast of general aviation movements by government against citizens' will "does not serve a public policy objective."

NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen thanked Reps. Graves, Boswell and Mica, as well as Rep. Thomas Petri (R-6-WI), Chairman of the T&I Committee's Subcommittee on Aviation, for their work to include the BARR-related provisions in the manager's amendment to H.R. 658.

"On behalf of NBAA Member Companies across the U.S., we commend these Congressional leaders for supporting the BARR program, and taking this important action to help protect citizens' privacy, prevent corporate espionage, and preserve the security of business operations," Bolen said.

The action taken by the Congressmen comes in response to the FAA's recent publication in the Federal Register of a plan to severely limit participation in the BARR program. The government's plans for curtailing the BARR program have been met with strong objections by NBAA, which has noted that the proposal represents an unwarranted invasion of the privacy of aircraft owners and operators, a threat to the competitiveness of U.S. companies and a potential security risk to persons on board general aviation aircraft.

"Today's action in Congress comes as very good news, not only for the thousands of companies that rely on the BARR program, but for any citizen who recognizes that privacy is a fundamental value, and that government should take steps to preserve that privacy, not facilitate its intrusion," Bolen said. "We thank Congressmen Graves, Boswell, Mica and Petri for recognizing the importance of this issue, and taking this critical step to protect citizens from electronic stalking of their aviation movements."

FMI: www.nbaa.org