Legislative updates
SWAAAE's Legislative Committee monitors government operations, gathers information, identifies issues, and recommends courses of action to further the Chapter's mission. The committee tracks when bills or policies are introduced that have a material impact on aviation organizations and reports to the Chapter officers any issues that arise. The Committee also monitors changes in the body politic to forecast potential policy initiatives.
Current Updates
Issues on the Horizon:
Arizona State Updates
The Arizona Legislature Reconvened on January 12, 2026. The following legislation is being considered:
SB 1307 - Advanced Air Mobility Infrastructure: Requires the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) to update the statewide aviation plan to include infrastructure for electric-powered aircraft and requires the Arizona Commerce Authority (ACA) to provide educational materials to local jurisdictions regarding AAM.
The Arizona Airports Association (AZAA) continues to lobby against the transfer of funds from the State Aviation Fund to the General Fund and is looking to regulate peer-to-peer car rentals at airports.
California State Updates
The California Legislature reconvened on January 5, 2026 from winter recess to continue the 2025-2026 biennial session. The following legislation is being considered:
SB 661(Hurtado) - Airports Financial Assistance (Hurtado) was introduced in February 2025. This bill significantly increases funding for California airports by transferring state sales and use taxes from aviation fuel to the Aeronautics Account. California continues to struggle to find resolution to the statewide Aviation Fuel Tax discrepancy. Since that time, CAC assisted with developing a formula that would return roughly 70% of fuel tax revenue to airports. There appears to be disagreement between industry and the state about the estimated revenue at issue. In a recent call, it was concluded that airports, airlines and FBOs will work together to verify the revenue estimate based on actual taxpayer data before further discussions on revenue allocations.
AB 1150 (Schultz) – Local agencies: airports: alternative customer facility charges. This bill, signed into law and in effect as of January 1, 2026 authorizes airports to increase the daily maximum alternative customer facility charge collected from rental car customers from $9 to $12 per day, with periodic inflation adjustments starting in 2029. Additionally, the bill expands allowable uses of these charges to include major maintenance projects for consolidated rental vehicle facilities, enhancing airports ability to fund critical infrastructure upkeep.
AB 839 (B. Rubio) - California Environmental Quality Act: expedited judicial review: sustainable aviation fuel projects. This bill authorizes the Governor to expedite the CEQA judicial review process for up to three sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) infrastructure projects. By streamlining environmental review, AB 839 aims to accelerate the development of in-state SAF production capacity, significantly benefiting commercial airports by increasing the availability of sustainable fuels, advancing environmental goals, and supporting local economic growth. STATUS: Two-Year Bill (Senate Environmental Quality)
California Air Resource Board (CARB). CARB has released a draft document for their proposed Statewide Clean Aviation Initiative, which contains recommendations for reducing emissions at airports. The document represents 18 months of work, and contains various recommendations for airfield operations, practices, and equipment to accomplish the goal of lowering emissions. Formal comments are due March 2, 2026.
Nevada State Updates
Nevada airports are continuing the ongoing effort to establish a statewide Aeronautics office, highlighting challenges with funding at the state level. SWAAAE may want to consider a strategy to develop talking points and assist Nevada in its efforts to advocate for a statewide division
Federal Updates:
Congressional Budget Adoption
Congress has passed six of the twelve annual funding bills, with six remaining unfunded. Of those, the DOT/FAA and DHS/TSA/CBP bills remain unfunded. The House had narrowly passed the remaining bills, however due to recent events in Minnesota, the Senate is less likely to pass the DHS bill until further negotiations occur with ICE funding levels and deployments. This has increased the likelihood of a government shutdown ahead of the January 30th deadline to adopt a budget.
In June, Senators Ted Budd (R-NC), Dan Sullivan (R-AK), and Tim Sheehy (R-MT) and Rep. Bob Onder (R-MO) introduced the “Pilot and Aircraft Privacy Act,” or S. 2175 and H.R. 4146 (Budd-Onder Bill), which would:
- Prohibit the ability of an airport sponsor (or any other person) to use ADS-B data for purposes of assessing or otherwise imposing a fee on any commercial or GA aircraft owner or operator;
- Prohibit a state, local, territorial or tribal official from initiating an investigation (excluding a criminal investigation) of any person based “exclusively” on ADS-B data;
- Require a public-use airport to disclose the following information prior to imposing a takeoff or landing fee on any GA aircraft:
- Efforts taken to reduce non-airside related expenses;
- Efforts taken to obtain revenues from sources other than GA aircraft;
- Total cost estimate of the airside safety projects that the airport sponsor plans to undertake, the amount or percentage of the fees imposed on GA aircraft that will be used to pay for such project, and an estimated timeline to collect such amount; and
- An assessment of the impact of any fees on the health and vitality of GA and on pilots, students, charities, and businesses that support or rely on GA in the area of the airport; and
- Require revenue derived from takeoff or landing fees to only be used for airside safety projects.
The SWAAAE Legislative Committee is considering a recommendation to the EC that a letter opposing this proposed bill be sent to the authors.