House and Senate committees overseeing aviation advanced three safety bills during hearings on September 15 and 16, 2026. The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee unanimously approved the Aviation Medication Transparency Act, which would require the FAA — for the first time — to publish and regularly update lists of medications that pilots, flight attendants, and air traffic controllers can safely use, and those they should not. The House committee also unanimously advanced the Air Traffic Situational Awareness Enhancement Act, directing the FAA to install airborne position reference tools in contract control towers that lack radar. And the Senate Commerce Committee passed the Runway SAFE-T Act, aimed at improving airport driver training and surface safety technology.
All three have bipartisan sponsorship and companion versions moving in both chambers. Here’s what each would do.
Aviation Medication Transparency Act
Sponsors: Reps. Sean Casten (D-Ill.) and Pete Stauber (R-Minn.) in the House; Sens. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) and John Hoeven (R-N.D.) in the Senate.
Status: unanimously approved by House Transportation and Infrastructure. The Senate companion cleared the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee in July.
What it does: requires the FAA to publish and regularly maintain lists of medications that airmen can safely use and those they cannot. It also requires the agency to provide guidance on how long airmen may need to limit their duties while adjusting to certain medications.
That second provision is the one pilots should notice. A great deal of current uncertainty isn’t about whether a medication is permissible at all — it’s about the waiting period after starting or changing one, and how long before it’s safe to return to flying.
Why it matters: the absence of a clear, published, current list has a documented behavioral consequence. Pilots who are uncertain whether a medication will jeopardize their medical certificate face a bad set of options — skip treatment, take the medication and not report it, or stop flying while they sort it out. None of those is good for safety, and the first two are actively dangerous.
AOPA’s Senior Vice President of Government Affairs and Advocacy, Jim Coon, framed the association’s support around exactly that: the bill would make it easier for pilots to seek treatment while continuing to fly safely.
This fits a broader pattern in 2026. Earlier this month the FAA proposed ending the Special Issuance requirement for pilots with non-insulin-dependent diabetes, allowing AMEs to issue certificates at the time of examination rather than deferring cases for an average 64-day review. Both changes move in the same direction: reducing the disincentive to seek medical care that certification uncertainty creates.
Air Traffic Situational Awareness Enhancement Act
Sponsors: Rep. Nick Begich (R-Alaska) in the House; Sen. Tim Sheehy (R-Mont.) in the Senate.
Status: unanimously approved by House Transportation and Infrastructure; the Senate version cleared committee the following day.
What it does: directs the FAA to install airborne position reference tools in contract air traffic control towers that lack radar systems.
Why it matters: this addresses a gap most pilots don’t know exists. Many contract towers — the non-FAA-staffed facilities operating at hundreds of smaller airports nationwide — have certified radar. Many others don’t. At those fields, controllers work traffic using radio communications and visual observation alone.
That’s workable in good conditions with cooperative traffic. It’s considerably harder at night, in reduced visibility, with mixed VFR and IFR operations, or when an aircraft isn’t where the controller expects. A position reference display gives those controllers something they currently lack: an independent picture of where aircraft actually are.
Coon described the sponsors’ work as excellent leadership on the issue, noting AOPA’s support for tools that give controllers greater situational awareness.
For general aviation specifically, contract towers are disproportionately the towers GA pilots use. This is a direct safety improvement at the fields where most training and personal flying happens.
Runway SAFE-T Act
Full name: Runway Surface Awareness and Focused, Effective Training and Technology Act.
Sponsor: Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.).
Status: passed the Senate Commerce Committee.
What it does: aims to improve airport driver training and support technologies to reduce runway incursions and other surface safety incidents.
Why it exists: the bill was introduced following the fatal collision between a fire truck and a regional jet at New York’s LaGuardia Airport in March.
Why the driver-training focus is the right target: runway incursions get discussed mostly as a pilot problem, but a substantial share involve vehicles — fuel trucks, maintenance vehicles, snow removal equipment, emergency apparatus. Airport drivers operate on active movement areas, often at night and in weather, frequently under time pressure. Their training requirements vary considerably by airport.
Coon noted Moran’s long record as a general aviation supporter and aviation safety advocate, describing the bill as a needed step toward safer airports for all operators.
The technology component complements work already underway. The FAA has been installing surface awareness systems at airports as part of its air traffic control modernization program, and manufacturers have moved in the same direction — Garmin’s Runway Occupancy Awareness, introduced this year, uses ADS-B data to alert pilots to potential incursions involving both aircraft and ground vehicles.
What Happens Next
Committee approval is a meaningful step, not a finish line. Each bill now needs floor time in its chamber, and the House and Senate versions need to be reconciled where they differ.
Coon indicated AOPA is looking toward the chambers resolving differences between the medication bills and sending legislation to the President.
Two things work in these bills’ favor:
Bipartisan sponsorship across both chambers. Each has sponsors from both parties, and the medication and situational awareness bills have companion legislation moving in parallel.
Unanimous committee votes. The House committee approved both the medication and situational awareness bills without opposition — an indication these aren’t contested measures so much as ones waiting for floor time.
The constraint is the calendar. Bills that clear committee with broad support still die regularly for want of floor scheduling, and the legislative year is finite.
Why These Three Together
Taken as a set, the bills reflect where aviation safety attention has moved in 2026.
Medical certification as a safety issue rather than a gatekeeping one. The recognition that opaque medication rules push pilots toward worse choices — and that transparency produces better outcomes than ambiguity — is the same reasoning behind the FAA’s diabetes proposal and the broader BasicMed framework.
Surface safety as a distinct problem. Following several high-profile incursions and the LaGuardia collision, runway and taxiway safety has become its own focus rather than a subset of general operational safety.
Infrastructure gaps at smaller airports. Contract towers without radar are precisely the kind of quiet deficiency that doesn’t generate headlines until something happens. Addressing it is unglamorous and useful.
For general aviation pilots, the medication bill is likely to have the most direct personal effect — it addresses a question nearly every pilot faces at some point. But the contract tower provision may matter most operationally, since those are the towers GA flies into every day.
The Bottom Line
Three aviation safety bills advanced through committee on September 15 and 16. The Aviation Medication Transparency Act would require the FAA to publish and maintain lists of permissible and prohibited medications along with duty-limitation guidance. The Air Traffic Situational Awareness Enhancement Act would put position reference tools in contract towers lacking radar. The Runway SAFE-T Act targets airport driver training and surface safety technology following the fatal LaGuardia collision in March.
All three have bipartisan support and companion legislation in motion. What they need now is floor time.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Aviation Medication Transparency Act? Introduced by Reps. Sean Casten and Pete Stauber in the House and Sens. Tammy Duckworth and John Hoeven in the Senate, the bill would require the FAA for the first time to publish and regularly update lists of medications that pilots, flight attendants, and air traffic controllers can safely use and those they should not. It also requires the FAA to provide information on how long airmen may need to limit their duties while adjusting to certain medications. The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee unanimously approved it, and the Senate companion cleared the Commerce Committee in July.
Why does medication transparency matter for pilot safety? Uncertainty about whether a medication will jeopardize a medical certificate can lead pilots to avoid treatment, take medication without reporting it, or stop flying while they resolve the question. Published, current, authoritative lists reduce that ambiguity, making it easier for pilots to seek appropriate medical care while continuing to fly safely. AOPA has supported the legislation on those grounds.
What is the Air Traffic Situational Awareness Enhancement Act? Introduced by Rep. Nick Begich in the House and Sen. Tim Sheehy in the Senate, the bill directs the FAA to install airborne position reference tools in contract air traffic control towers that lack radar systems. At those facilities, controllers currently rely on radio communications and visual observation alone. The House committee unanimously approved the measure, and the Senate version cleared committee the following day.
What is the Runway SAFE-T Act? The Runway Surface Awareness and Focused, Effective Training and Technology Act, introduced by Sen. Jerry Moran, aims to improve airport driver training and support technologies to reduce runway incursions and other surface safety incidents. It was introduced following the fatal collision between a fire truck and a regional jet at New York’s LaGuardia Airport in March and passed the Senate Commerce Committee.
What happens to these bills next? Each bill has cleared committee but still requires floor consideration in its chamber, and House and Senate versions must be reconciled where they differ before going to the President. All three have bipartisan sponsorship, and the two House bills were approved unanimously in committee — but bills with broad support frequently stall for lack of floor scheduling.
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