The House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure has approved reauthorization of the National Transportation Safety Board, increasing funding each year over the next four, the reauthorization period. The bill now goes to the full House for approval.
Funding starts at $117.4 million in fiscal year 2011 and increases to $124.2 million in 2014. These levels will permit the board to hire an additional 66 full-time employees, increasing the staffing to 477 full-time employees. This added staffing will permit the board to take on more investigations and accomplish detailed examinations on safety issues, NTSB officials say. The bill also contains explicit authorization for the NTSB to investigate incidents as well as accidents.
For more information: NTSB.gov
Charles Spence is GAN’s Washington, D.C., correspondent.