FAA must make rules safer for low-flying planes.
H.R. 9695 — McCarty and Heideman Air Safety Enhancement Act · Filed by Cliff Bentz (R-OR) · 2 cosponsors · Introduced Jul 15, 2026 · Referred to committee
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What it does
The FAA must review its safety rules for low-altitude airspace. The review must take 6 months. It must focus on marking and lighting for temporary obstacles. These obstacles include slacklines, tightropes, and wires. If gaps exist, the FAA must update rules within 1 year. The FAA must brief Congress on findings and recommended changes.
Who it affects
Pilots and the public benefit from safer low-altitude airspace. The FAA must do the review and update its rules. The National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, and Forest Service must work with the FAA.
One thing to notice
The bill focuses on marking and lighting for temporary obstacles. These obstacles include slacklines, tightropes, and wires in low-altitude airspace.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
2 cosponsors: 1 Democrats, 1 Republicans.
- Jul 15, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Jul 15, 2026 — Referred to House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- low-altitude airspace — The sky close to the ground where small planes fly.
- FAA — The Federal Aviation Administration, the government agency that makes flying rules.
- temporary obstacles — Things put up for a short time that block the way.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (3,910 characters) on Aug 12, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,707 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
As of — page rendered 2026-09-23.
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