Bill Includes Budget Increases For Three Years, New Staff
The House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
approved and ordered reported out the reauthorization bill for the
NTSB on Wednesday. The Committee also marked up and approved its
Budget Views and Estimates for Fiscal Year 2011.
H.R. 4714 reauthorizes NTSB and provides increased funding over
the next four years: $117.4 million in Fiscal Year 2011, $120.258
million in FY 2012, $122.2 million in FY 2013, and $124.2 million
in FY 2014. This funding level would allow the board to hire an
additional 66 full-time equivalent positions, increasing its
staffing to 477 FTEs. This number represents the Safety
Board’s optimal staffing level and would enable the agency to
take on more investigations and accomplish detailed examinations of
transportation safety issues.
“NTSB is widely acknowledged as the world’s premier
accident investigation agency. Thanks to the NTSB’s diligent
work in investigating the causes of past transportation accidents,
and in recommending solutions, the traveling public is safer today
than ever before,” said Committee Chairman James L. Oberstar
(D-MN). “But we must not be content with the progress we have
made in improving transportation safety. That is why H.R. 4714, the
‘National Transportation Safety Board Reauthorization Act of
2010’, provides the Safety Board with additional tools it
needs to accomplish its crucial mission. To maintain its position
as the world’s preeminent investigative agency, NTSB must
have the resources necessary to handle increasingly complex
accident investigations.”
H.R. 4714 contains an explicit authorization for the NTSB to
investigate incidents as well as accidents. The bill also clarifies
that NTSB is not required to determine a single cause or probable
cause of a transportation accident, but may determine that there
was more than one probable cause.
The bill requires the Safety Board to develop a list of
criteria that it will use to determine whether to hold a public
hearing in any particular investigation, and permits NTSB to
delegate its full authority to investigate major marine casualties
to the Coast Guard if the NTSB determines that Coast Guard
personnel assigned to investigate marine casualties possess the
training, experience, and qualifications necessary to employ best
practices in use by marine casualty investigators. In addition, the
bill ensures coordination and cooperation between NTSB and the
Coast Guard in investigations of major marine casualties.
H.R. 4714 also permits the NTSB, in coordination with the State
Department, to investigate transportation accidents overseas, and
to use appropriated funds for that purpose. And, with commercial
space travel on the horizon, H.R. 4714 gives the Safety Board
authority to investigate commercial space launch accidents.
The mark-up also adopted an amendment that provides NTSB with
the explicit authority to issue interim recommendations whenever
its investigations uncover urgent safety issues that require
immediate action. A companion bill is pending in the U.S.
Senate.
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