LEGISLATIVE HISTORY
1926 Commerce Act authorizes Secretary of Commerce to establish airways, encourage air commerce, create and enforce air traffic rules, license pilots, certificate aircraft, and operate navigational aids.
1938 Aeronautics Act transfers aviation functions of Commerce Department to Civil Aeronautics Authority (CAA), which also is authorized to issue air carrier route certificates and regulate airline fares.
1940 CAA is divided into two agencies — the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB), responsible for rulemaking and accident investigations, and the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA), responsible for air traffic control, certification, and enforcement. Both agencies are made part of the Commerce Department but the CAB functions independently.
1946 Administration of Federal-aid airport program is added to CAA responsibilities.
1958 Federal Aviation Act creates Federal Aviation Agency (FAA), which assumes CAA functions and takes safety rule-making responsibilities from CAB. FAA has sole responsibility for the nation's civil-military system of air navigation and air traffic control.
1967FAA is renamed the Federal Aviation Administration and placed in newly created Department of Transportation.
1968 Congress gives FAA Administrator authority to set aircraft noise standards.
1970 Airport and Airway Development Act authorizes Administrator to set minimum safety standards for airports and issue operating certificates to air carrier airports meeting standards.
1978 Airline Deregulation Act phases out the CAB, introduces fare and route competition, and permits unrestricted entry into air passenger marketplace by new domestic carriers.
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