Securing Growth and Robust Leadership in American Aviation Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. PERRY. Mr. Chair, this amendment strikes sections 206 and 207 of the underlying bill that restricts the sale of reserved N-Numbers for profit, or as the underlying bill calls it, N-Number profiteering.

Instead of addressing the real pressures and pressing issues facing the aviation industry, such as serious staffing shortages--pilots, controllers, employees of the FAA, mechanics, et cetera--that are causing massive delays and cancellations all around the country, Congress feels the need to interfere with small businesses transferring and selling N-Numbers. What an egregious crime.

For those who don't know, N-Numbers are the clearly marked registration numbers for civil aircraft within the United States. They are transferable and reusable. When you see an airplane go by that says N123456 on the tail, that is the N-Number. When the aircraft identifies itself to air traffic control, it says, ``Air traffic control, this is November 12345 inbound,'' or whatever.

Currently, small businesses have sprung up that reserve and sell these N-Numbers, providing aircraft owners with the ability to obtain their desired N-Number, much like a vanity plate on a car, while allowing these businessowners to make a living.

These private transactions between consenting parties provide value to both the buyer and the seller. Otherwise, these transactions just wouldn't happen.

Unless the plane owner seeks a specific N-Number, they are able to get one of the 454,910 N-Numbers currently available for reservation directly from the FAA for $10 apiece. They can get them right now for $10. None of that has changed. In other words, no one is forcing anyone to do business with the N-Number brokers unless they want to.

The practice of reserving and selling these N-Numbers is not harming anyone. Instead, it is an innovative commercial venture providing value to all parties. It certainly is not something for Congress to be interfering with and bothering itself with over the behest of private plane owners.

This amendment removes this gross government overreach and allows freedom of enterprise in America to continue.

Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to stand up for the market, protect contractual freedom, and support this amendment.

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Mr. PERRY. Mr. Chair, I appreciate the chairman of the full committee and his perspective on this. Nobody likes the pirating or the abuse, so to speak, of the system, but to disallow it altogether is not the answer.

To me, this is Congress, and if this is such an egregious problem, then we can handle the software issue directly without destroying an industry that is obviously good for the buyer and the seller.

Quite honestly, I don't know how many of us who have bought and sold a car and transferred the license number said: ``Oh, my goodness, if I don't have the same license number, well, I can't sell the car.'' I am not really worried about the license number. I just need to be able to drive the car.

If it is such a problem, why don't we address that portion of the problem and not cut everybody out of the deal?

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Mr. PERRY. Mr. Chair, I acknowledge that the bill is not only about this issue, but the pressing issues that we have, the ones that you already talked about, I would say that the bill could do a lot more on those issues. Those are the things that concern the American people: safety, access, and canceled flights.

I will tell you that it is great that we are mandating the FAA to do something. We are mandating that the American people have to do something. We are mandating that the FAA fully complement controllers.

That doesn't mean controllers are coming out of school. That doesn't mean controllers want to take the job. You can mandate it all you want, but if the people aren't willing to do the job or are not available to do the job, they are not going to be there to do the job. I see that as a wholly inadequate response and solution to a pressing problem that I predict is going to get worse between now and the next 5-year reauthorization.

Mr. Chair, I urge adoption of this amendment. I think it is a good amendment. If we have to deal with the other problem directly, then let's deal directly with the other problem of the software and not punish everybody.

Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.
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Mr. PERRY. Mr. Chairman, I don't think many of our constituents have a high opinion of Washington, D.C., bureaucrats. Congressional staff spend hours helping constituents just get a human being on the telephone to get answers from agencies like Social Security or the IRS.

A recently released GAO report showed that 17 of the 24 Federal agencies in GAO's review used an estimated average of 25 percent or less of their headquarters buildings' capacity in a 3-week sample period, which means 75 percent of the building is empty.

These are headquarters, to be clear, not field offices in the middle of nowhere. This is where the people are, generally speaking, in Washington, D.C., actually.

The Republican Conference has undergone a concerted effort to ensure that these bureaucrats actually do their work in the office.

In the first few weeks of this Congress, we passed the SHOW UP Act-- which passed the House on a bipartisan basis with all but one member of the Republican Conference and three Democrats--that would simply require agencies to reinstate the telework policies in effect on December 31, 2019, and require approval of OMB for further expansion of telework policies.

This bill, as written, allows the FAA to implement out-of-control telework policies for FAA employees during a time when workforce issues--both at the FAA and in the aviation industry broadly--are hindering the efficient movement of the flying public.

In my view, this is unwise and is the exact opposite direction that we should be going.

This amendment applies the policies of the SHOW UP Act to only the FAA. This is a commonsense policy upon which the House has already voted and voted in an overwhelmingly bipartisan basis.

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Mr. PERRY. Mr. Chairman, I thank my friend for his comments regarding our work in the subcommittee.

Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to my good friend from Virginia (Mr. Good).

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Mr. PERRY. Mr. Chair, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman.

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Mr. PERRY. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

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