Notes:
[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5874 Introduced in House (IH)]
116th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 5874
To require the Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration to
amend regulations concerning the day-night average sound level, and for
other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
February 12, 2020
Ms. Meng (for herself, Mr. Smith of Washington, Mr. Espaillat, Ms.
Brownley of California, Mr. Beyer, Mr. Raskin, Ms. Jayapal, Mr. Suozzi,
Mr. Malinowski, Ms. Waters, Mr. Grijalva, Ms. Judy Chu of California,
Mr. Sherman, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, Mr. Fitzpatrick, Ms. Velazquez, Mr.
Schiff, Mr. Lynch, and Mr. Meeks) introduced the following bill; which
was referred to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To require the Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration to
amend regulations concerning the day-night average sound level, and for
other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the “Decrease Noise Levels Act”.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) The day-night average sound level represents the total
accumulation of all sound energy averaged over a 24-hour
period.
(2) The current Federal Aviation Administration guidelines
for the day-night average sound level are 65.
(3) Excessive airplane noise has been shown to negatively
effect hypertension, heart disease, learning deficits in
children, sleep patterns, sleep quality, and overall mood.
(4) Approximately 10,000,000 Americans who are afflicted
with some hearing loss can at least partially attribute this
damage to exposure from noise.
(5) Aircraft and airport noise is one of the most common
“quality of life” nuisance issues in neighborhoods throughout
the United States.
SEC. 3. DAY-NIGHT AVERAGE SOUND LEVEL REDUCTION.
The Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration shall
amend part 150 of title 14, Code of Federal Regulations, to decrease
the threshold for the day-night average sound level to constitute
significant noise from 65 to 60, and adjust relative ranges of day-
night average sound level accordingly.
SEC. 4. COMMUNITY OUTREACH REGARDING DAY-NIGHT AVERAGE SOUND LEVELS.
The Secretary shall ensure that in carrying out community outreach
related to aviation day-night average sound levels, such outreach
contains the results of the evaluation of alternative metrics to the
current average day-night level standard under section 188 of the FAA
Reauthorization Act of 2018 and the evaluation of alternative metrics
carried out under section 173 of such Act.
SEC. 5. STRATEGY AND REPORTING.
Not later than 365 days after the date of enactment of this Act,
the Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration shall create a
publicly available report that outlines a strategy to reduce the
maximum day-night average sound level in all residential areas to 55
over the 10 years following the date of enactment of this Act.
