Sponsors (8)
The bill prioritizes local safety and reduced helicopter intrusion around the Statue of Liberty and forces the FAA to act quickly, at the trade-off of disrupting helicopter tour/charter businesses and creating potential regulatory and enforcement burdens for government agencies.
Residents and visitors near the Statue of Liberty (local communities and tourists) will experience reduced low-altitude helicopter noise and a lower risk of aircraft incidents, improving public safety and quality of life.
Emergency and critical-response operators (law enforcement, EMS, medevac, disaster response, and heavy-lift infrastructure operators) retain the ability to operate because the bill explicitly exempts essential missions, preserving critical public-safety services.
The FAA is required to finalize implementing rules within 90 days, providing industry and travelers with faster regulatory clarity and speeding the implementation of the protections the bill creates.
Civil helicopter operators (tour companies, charter services, and private pilots) will lose access to a 20-mile zone around the Statue of Liberty and face longer routings, disrupting sightseeing and charter businesses and increasing costs for operators and customers.
The 90-day deadline for the FAA to finalize rules risks rushed rulemaking with inadequate stakeholder input, producing lower-quality or less workable regulations for operators and affected communities.
Enforcement and compliance in a busy metropolitan airspace plus expedited rulemaking will impose monitoring, staffing, and resource burdens on federal and local aviation authorities, potentially diverting effort from other FAA priorities and increasing government costs.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Prohibits civil helicopter flights within 20 miles of the Statue of Liberty, with specific public safety and heavy-lift exceptions, and directs the FAA to issue rules within 90 days.
Introduced May 5, 2025 by Jerrold Lewis Nadler · Last progress May 5, 2025
Prohibits civil helicopter operations in a 20-mile radius around the Statue of Liberty National Monument, effective within 60 days of enactment, while allowing specific exceptions for public health and safety, law enforcement, emergency response, medical transport, news and research flights, and heavy-lift operations that support construction and infrastructure maintenance. The FAA must issue or update implementing regulations within 90 days to carry out the ban.