I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 3085
To amend title 49, United States Code, to establish a program to provide
assistance to underserved airports to improve passenger and flight capac-
ity, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
APRIL29, 2025
Mr. V
ASQUEZ(for himself and Mr. MANN) introduced the following bill; which
was referred to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
A BILL
To amend title 49, United States Code, to establish a pro-
gram to provide assistance to underserved airports to
improve passenger and flight capacity, and for other
purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Expanding Regional 4
Airports Act’’. 5
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SEC. 2. REGIONAL AIRPORT EXPANSION PROGRAM. 1
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Chapter 417 of title 49, United 2
States Code, is amended by adding at the end the fol-3
lowing: 4
‘‘SUBCHAPTER IV—REGIONAL AIRPORT 5
EXPANSION PROGRAM 6
‘‘§ 41781. Grants for growing regional airports 7
‘‘(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Secretary of Transportation 8
shall establish a program to provide grants to eligible air-9
ports to improve passenger and flight capacity. 10
‘‘(b) E
LIGIBLEUSES.—An eligible airport may use 11
a grant provided under this section for— 12
‘‘(1) activities that improve passenger and flight 13
capacity at such airport, including— 14
‘‘(A) the expansion of passenger and prop-15
erty screening facilities; 16
‘‘(B) runway lengthening; 17
‘‘(C) construction of hangars and associ-18
ated infrastructure; and 19
‘‘(D) improving passenger facilities; and 20
‘‘(2) costs incurred to comply with operational 21
and security requirements under part 139 or part 22
154 of title 14, Code of Federal Regulations, or part 23
1542 of title 49, Code of Federal Regulations. 24
‘‘(c) G
RANTREQUIREMENTS.—In carrying out the 25
program established under this section, the Secretary shall 26
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provide not less than 3 and not more than 10 grants to 1
eligible airports in each fiscal year. 2
‘‘(d) E
LIGIBLEAIRPORTDEFINED.—In this section, 3
the term ‘eligible airport’ means an airport that— 4
‘‘(1) is a general aviation airport or a nonpri-5
mary commercial service airport (as determined by 6
the Administrator of the Federal Aviation Adminis-7
tration); and 8
‘‘(2) serves a community with a population of 9
at least 75,000. 10
‘‘§ 41782. Authorization of appropriations 11
‘‘There is authorized to be appropriated for each fis-12
cal year $50,000,000 to carry out section 41781.’’. 13
(b) T
ECHNICALAMENDMENT.—The analysis for 14
chapter 417 of title 49, United States Code, is amended 15
by inserting after the item relating to section 41767 the 16
following: 17
‘‘SUBCHAPTERIV—REGIONALAIRPORTEXPANSIONPROGRAM
‘‘41781. Grants for growing regional airports.
‘‘41782. Authorization of appropriations.’’.
Æ
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