Creating the FAR/AIM: How a Bill becomes a Regulation

With the election around the corner, knowledge about how the government works is at a premium. The Learn to Fly Blog has talked about additions and upcoming changes to aviation regulations, but we haven’t covered how these get created in the first place. Who writes them and what is the process they go through?

To learn about aviation regulation, your first stop is the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The FAA is the governing body for aviators and equipment operating in the United States National Airspace System (NAS). The FAA uses several regulatory and nonregulatory documents to oversee all aviation operations, and one of the most important is Title 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations (aka 14 CFR), the piece that pertains to aeronautics and space. While the FAA no longer uses the term, people in the industry commonly refer to 14 CFR as the Federal Aviation Regulations (or FARs).

All regulations in the CFR evolve through a series of steps. They start as a bill, only a bill. (Be sure to sing along!) The legislative branch of the US government—Congress (a word that refers collectively to both the House of Representatives and the Senate)—passes a bill, and, once it is signed by the President, it becomes a law, which can also be referred to as a statute. Next, governing agencies, a part of the executive branch, turn these statutes into regulations. (In the case of aviation, that governing agency is the FAA.) Regulations are considered official once they’re published in the Federal Register as Final or Interim and include an effective date. Both statutes and regulations have the force of law, and both need to be considered to ensure compliance (i.e., to stay out of legal trouble).

Statutes vs regulations

The differences between statutes and regulations can be seen clearly in their purpose and relationship. Statutes protect the integrity of the government and cover matters entrusted to an agency or department, while regulations impose requirements on individuals and private firms to achieve government purposes. Statutes establish obligations or mandates for federal agencies, which then create regulations to comply with those mandates.

Regulations are often not published in the same place as statutes or laws, so government agencies or other publications might be the only place to find them. Again, the FAA primarily publishes regulations in Title 14 of the Code of Federal Regulation. Title 14, Aeronautics and Space, is further broken down into chapters, subchapters, parts, subparts, sections, and paragraphs. You will often hear them referred to by part and section number. For example, Part 61, Section 96, of Title 14 (referenced as 14 CFR §61.96) contains the eligibility requirements to be a recreational pilot. The regulations that apply to aviation are managed by the FAA and can be sourced from them.

ASA publishes the FAR/AIM Series, which includes the Federal Aviation Regulations (FARs) and the Aeronautical Information Manual (AIM). Each regulation in the ASA FAR/AIM includes both the authority—the legislative efforts that preceded the regulation—and the citation—how a regulation has evolved over time. With this information, readers know when, why, and how a rule came into effect, as well as how it may have changed since it was enacted.

Updates

The FAA publishes an updated Federal Register daily, and ASA tracks new and changing regulations. These updates are available from the ASA website free of charge. (You can subscribe and receive an email whenever an update is added.) To give you an idea of how important this is, the most recent in the FAR/AIM Series started shipping last summer, and the update for October 16, 2024, already includes 15 pages of changes to the FAR and seven pages that bring the AIM up to date. Currently, we’re waiting to include a new regulation (Part 194) that the FAA Administrator has signed but has not yet published in the Federal Register.

The interpretation and understanding of these regulations and how they apply to the individual people, aircraft, airports, and airspace around us are covered in the other books, ebooks, and apps published by ASA.

Featured image by Tom Fisk via pexels.com.