On June 20, the Federal Register published the FAA’s final rule “Updates to Rulemaking and Waiver Procedures and Expansion of the Equivalent Level of Safety Option.” The agency accepted the two suggestions made by ARSA in comments to the 2016 notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM).
In general, the rule focuses on 14 CFR 404’s rules for commercial space transportation – reorganizing and clarifying its “regulations and licensing requirements” into “petition and rulemaking procedures.” The agency updated language to reflect “current practice” and expanded the equivalent level of safety options available to commercial space applicants and certificate holders.
ARSA’s NPRM comments focused on minor edits to the general rulemaking procedures in part 11. The association encouraged the FAA to avoid overly specific references to online resources – the evolution of the internet could send CFR readers to broken web addresses – and unnecessarily exhaustive lists of standing committees.
“ARSA believes that regulatory text should be clear, concise and free of explanatory information that is more appropriately included in guidance documents,” ARSA said in its comments. “The association applauds the agency’s attempt to streamline and clarify existing regulations; however, the … revisions [proposed by the agency] fail to achieve that objective.”
In response, the FAA’s final rule simplified an edit including the agency’s website in § 11.63 and left § 11.27 unaltered.
To read the final rule, which becomes effective on Aug. 20, click here.
To read ARSA’s complete comments to the 2016 NPRM, click here.
June 29, 2016
On June 29, ARSA submitted comments on the FAA’s proposed revisions to 14 CFR part 11. The purpose of the rulemaking was to improve the clarity and flow of the rules; however, the proposal needed some input from the public to achieve that objective.
For instance, in § 11.27 the agency proposes to enumerate advisory committees from which the agency can receive rulemaking recommendations. This revision is unnecessary. FAA already has statutory authority to form advisory committees, making the proposed additions duplicative. Furthermore, the revision could confuse the public – and perhaps even the agency – regarding the ability to accept rulemaking recommendations from non-enumerated committees.
ARSA also believes agencies should refrain from including website addresses in regulations. If an agency feels compelled to use a web address in a rule, it should only use those that are the least likely to change. Web addresses and similar explanatory information are more appropriate for inclusion in guidance documents.
ARSA maintains that regulations should be clear, concise and free of superfluous text.
To read the association’s comments, click here.
To see all the ways ARSA works on behalf of the aviation maintenance industry, visit the ARSA Works page.
