The NOTAM Improvement Act of 2023
As it turns out, the House passed legislation in the previous Congress (the 117th) as well as the one before that (116th) seeking to address problems in the NOTAM system; obviously the legislation went nowhere in the Senate.
On September 12 of this year, Rep. Pete Stauber (representing Minnesota's 8th Congressional District, and a member of the GOP Conference), reintroduced the legislation, the NOTAM Improvement Act of 2023. (H.R. 346; items re: prior legislation from Rep. Stauber's website). The main feature of the measure is to authorize and direct FAA to empanel a "task force" to address specific aspects of the NOTAM system.
To elaborate, FAA Adminstrator would be directed to appoint representatives, with expertise, from several aviation sectors and constituencies. These are air carriers; labor unions; general and business aviation; aviation safety (with specific knowledge re: NOTAMs); human factors; and computer system architecture and cybersecurity.
The list of tasks for the task force appears fairly broad and encompassing -
DUTIES.—The duties of the Task Force shall include—
(1) reviewing existing methods for presenting NOTAMs and flight operations information to pilots;
(2) reviewing regulations and policies relating to NOTAMs, including their content and presentation to pilots;
(3) evaluating and determining best practices to organize, prioritize, and present flight operations information in a manner that optimizes pilot review and retention of relevant information; and
(4) providing recommendations for—
(A) improving the presentation of NOTAM information in a manner that prioritizes or highlights the most important information, and optimizes pilot review and retention of relevant information;
(B) ways to ensure that NOTAMs are complete, accurate, and contain the proper information;
(C) any best practices that the FAA should consider to improve the accuracy and understandability of NOTAMs and the display of flight operations information;
(D) ways to work with air carriers, other airspace users, and aviation service providers to implement solutions that are aligned with the recommendations under this paragraph; and
(E) ensuring the stability, resiliency, and cybersecurity of the NOTAM computer system.
The legislation directs a report to Congress within one year on results of the task force's work with respect to the first three items listed above; any best practices and recommedations identified by the task force pursuant to the fourth item; and any recommendations for additional regulatory or policy actions to "improve the presentation of NOTAMs". The bill also requires an answer as to "the degree to which implementing the recommendations" with regard to best practices "will address [NTSB] Safety Recomendation A-18-024."
As probably nearly everyone reading this thread already anticipates, or already knows, the referenced NTSB Safety Recommendation is part of the set of Safety Recommendations NTSB published as of Oct. 11, 2018 (adopted on Sept. 25, 2018) in the follow-up to the "Taxiway Overflight" incident involving Air Canada 759 at San Francisco International Airport on July 7, 2017. (In an NTSB hearing on that incident, Chairman Sumwalt referred to the NOTAMs as "garbage".) The fact that Runway 2-8 Left was closed was, in fact, included in the NOTAMs given to the crew of the incident flight, although it was deep within the quantity of pages, and iirc was either not seen or not recalled by the aviators. (Not rehearsing the other salient details of the incident here....) So, it may have taken a system crash to get attention focused on the creakiness of the NOTAM system, but as it has been said before, the times, they are a-changin'.