49 U.S.C. § 44723 — Annual report

By January 1 of each year, the Secretary of Transportation must submit to Congress a comprehensive report on the FAA's safety enforcement activities during the fiscal year ending the prior September 30. The report must include: (1) a comparison of year-end staffing levels, by operations, maintenance, and avionics inspector category, against staffing goals, and a statement on how staffing standards were applied to allocate air carrier and general aviation inspectors; (2) schedules showing the range of inspector experience by workforce category, and how many inspectors in each category are considered fully qualified; (3) schedules showing the number and percentage of inspectors who received mandatory training by individual course, and the number who received all mandatory training, by workforce category; (4) a description of the criteria used to set annual work programs, how those criteria differ from the prior year's, and how the work programs ensure compliance with applicable regulations and safe operating practices; (5) a comparison of actual inspections performed during the year to the annual work programs, by field location, with an explanation for any location that completed less than 80 percent of its planned inspections; (6) a statement on whether FAA internal management controls adequately ensure field managers comply with FAA policies and procedures, including on inspector priorities, district office coordination, minimum inspection standards, and inspection follow-up; (7) the status of FAA efforts to update inspector guidance documents and regulations for technological, management, and structural changes in the aviation industry, including a list of the backlog of proposed regulatory amendments; (8) a list of the specific operational measures used to evaluate (A) progress in meeting program objectives, (B) the quality of program delivery, and (C) the nature of emerging safety problems; (9) a schedule showing the number of civil penalty cases closed in the two prior fiscal years, including total initial and final penalties, dollars collected, the range of dollar amounts collected, and average and range of case-processing time; (10) a schedule showing the number of enforcement actions taken (other than civil penalties) in the two prior fiscal years, including total violations cited and how cited cases closed — by certificate suspension, revocation, warning, or no action; and (11) schedules showing the aviation industry's safety record for the year, for both air carriers and general aviation, including (A) inspections that found deficiencies compared to those that didn't, (B) how often each air carrier had safety deficiencies, and (C) a data-based analysis of overall industry compliance with aviation regulations.