U.S. President Donald Trump Friday afternoon signed into law the sweeping Federal Aviation Administration funding bill, providing one of the longest reauthorization periods for the agency since the 1980s and addressing a range of issues from consumer protections and regulation reform to the safe integration of unmanned aircraft systems. The enactment of the legislation into law comes as the agency’s authorization approached expiration on Friday under a one-week extension Congress approved in late September.
Passage of the Aviation, Transportation Safety, and Disaster Recovery Reforms and Reauthorization (H.R.302) ended a four-plus-year process that involved six short-term extensions, several versions of the bill, hundreds of meetings on Capitol Hill, dozens of hearings, and one of the most contentious debates surrounding the future of the air traffic control organization.