Class,

Immediately following the invention of the airplane, the advancement of aviation and how it could
revolutionize the world became evident to so many. Industry leaders saw that commercial aviation had
no chance of reaching full potential unless the federal government was behind the industry to establish
safety and efficiency standards. Their voices were heard and for the first time the government
established a committee to be in charge of air traffic rules and maintaining aids to navigation known as
the Air Commerce Act of 1926. The industry continued to adapt and become more widely used which
required more power to introduce regulation and oversight. Over the coming years there were various
changes as responsibilities and government entities changed, eventually stabilizing with what we know
as the Federal Aviation Administration in 1967. The FAA is now tasked with an exorbitant amount of
responsibilities including maintaining airport and aircraft safety, regulation for pilots, environmental
impacts, concern for the public, maintaining air navigational aids, Air Traffic Control, and the future of
aviation safety with NextGen (FAA, n.d.). Regulations that are passed by the FAA are put in place to
greatly reduce the safety of all facets of aviation. The FAA have a strict adherence to the formal
rulemaking process. First, they identify a need for rulemaking which can come from the FAA directly or
others including Congress or the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). Then it moves on to
developing the proposed rule. Beginning with a draft of the proposed rule, the Office of the Secretary of
Transportation (OST) reviews the draft then it is sent to the Office of Management and Budget review,
and then published in the Federal Register. Once it is published, there is a period of public comment
where individuals and corporations can lobby for proposed changes. After this period concludes it
moves to developing the final rule. The FAA analyzes and addresses comments made during the public
comment period and then draft and approve a final rule. The OST and Office of Management and Budget
each review and finally the final rule is published in the Federal Register. This is all done to ensure a safe
law most beneficial to all is being published (Cusick, S., Cortes, A., & Rodrigues, C., 2017).

ICAO is essentially the international version of the FAA here in the United States. They are similar in that
they are both tasked with ensuring the safety and standards of civil aviation. The differences are that
ICAO is not regulatory as it cannot command sovereign states or influence their judicial power. Their
standards are more enforced by agreements between member nations. The FAA takes on additional
duties in that it can promote certain aviation interests and develop new operations and technologies
(Cusick, S., Cortes, A., & Rodrigues, C., 2017). These are only a few of the differences between the
different organizations.

References

Cusick, S., Cortes, A., & Rodrigues, C. (2017). Commercial Aviation Safety, Sixth Edition (6th ed.). McGraw
Hill.

Federal Aviation Administration. (n.d.). A brief history of the FAA.

https://www.faa.gov/about/history/brief_history