Sec. 125. Review of FAA rulemaking processes
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Not later than 30 months after the date of enactment of this Act, the Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration shall enter into appropriate arrangements with the National Academy of Public Administration to evaluate and make recommendations to improve the Administration’s rulemaking processes. In completing the evaluation under subsection (a), the National Academy of Public Administration shall— review Administration and Department of Transportation policies and procedures for drafting, coordinating, reviewing, editing, and approving rulemaking documents; review part 11 of title 14, Code of Federal Regulations, and section 106 of title 49, United States Code— as such section was in effect the day before the date of enactment of this Act; and as amended by this Act; and include in the review— advanced notices of proposed rulemakings; notices of proposed rulemakings; supplemental proposed rulemakings; interim final rules; and final rules, including direct final rules.
As part of the evaluation under this section, the National Academy of Public Administration shall analyze the scoping, drafting, analysis, and approval processes, including examining incidents in which a rule was referred back to a program office for revision, and the timeline associated with each review and step for— at least 7 rules completed by the Administration since 2012, including— at least 2 rules that leveraged the work of an aviation rulemaking committee; at least 2 rules considered significant as defined in section 106(f)(3)(B)(ii) (as amended by this Act); and at least 1 rule promulgated through rules considered routine and frequent in the Department’s Regulatory Agenda; and at least 2 rulemaking processes where a notice of proposed rulemaking has not been followed by a final rule for more than 3 years.
The National Academy of Public Administration shall provide to the Administrator, Secretary of Transportation, the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate a report containing the results of the evaluation required under subsection (a). The contents of the report shall— identify procedural or resource constraints; identify inefficiencies in the process, including any causes of delays; provide recommendations for expediting rulemakings, including— ways to improve the efficiency of the scoping process for rulemaking; the use of new routine and frequent rulemakings to allow for the expediting of activities that may be routinely needed or updated; the use of rules of applicability to provide for the expediting of activities that may be routinely needed or updated; the use of frameworks or shell rules to improve the efficiency of drafting; the use of aviation rulemaking committees; and internal process improvements; and not review the policy merits of the reviewed rulemakings, except to the extent that there are conclusions that can be drawn from the processes used to develop such rules.
The Administration and Department shall provide the National Academy of Public Administration access, as appropriate, to— the electronic management software the Administration uses to track internal processing of draft documents; appropriately redacted communications between offices and personnel that were used to coordinate work outside of the electronic software; and such other documents and records, including predecisional documents and records, that will assist the National Academy of Public Administration in completing the evaluation required under subsection (a).