GAMA Backs Aviation Innovation and Global Competitiveness Act to Reform FAA Type Certification

The General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) has expressed support for the Aviation Innovation and Global Competitiveness Act following its passage by the committee. GAMA said the legislation has the potential to improve accountability and transparency in the FAA's type certification process.

The bill would require the FAA to publish expected time ranges for various certification activities, enhance the efficiency of the issue paper process for certification applicants, and increase transparency around delegation activities. GAMA President and CEO James Viola said the legislation could help bring innovative technologies and new products more effectively into the global marketplace, and noted that if implemented broadly — including for advanced air mobility manufacturers — the bill would facilitate improved safety oversight and strengthen aviation manufacturing leadership.

Viola acknowledged the efforts of Representatives Nehls, Carson, Obernolte, and Panetta in advancing the measure, and noted that the Senate Commerce Committee had already favorably reported its version of the bill earlier this year. On June 23, Viola testified before the U.S. Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Aviation, Space, and Innovation, stressing the need to modernize FAA certification processes to keep pace with innovation and safety technologies. GAMA represents more than 150 manufacturers of general aviation airplanes, rotorcraft, engines, avionics, and related components and services.

Certification timing has long been a point of friction between manufacturers and the FAA, with applicants often unable to predict how long an issue paper or delegation review will take. Requiring published time ranges and clearer delegation rules addresses that predictability gap directly, rather than changing the safety standards themselves.

How this plays out depends on scope: Viola's own framing ties the bill's value to whether it is "implemented broadly," explicitly citing advanced air mobility manufacturers as a category that would benefit from the same treatment as traditional airplane and rotorcraft makers. A narrowly applied version of the same statute would leave newer aircraft categories facing the same uncertainty the bill is meant to fix.

The next marker is whether the House and Senate versions — the Senate Commerce Committee having already reported its own text earlier this year — are reconciled and move toward a floor vote, and whether the FAA's implementation guidance, once written, extends the timeline-publication and delegation-transparency provisions to AAM certification applicants specifically.