Aviation Supply Chain Safety and Security Digitization Act of 2025
Click any stage to learn more about the legislative process.
The bill would direct the Government Accountability Office to study why the aviation industry has been slow to adopt digital documentation and verification tools that could help catch falsified parts records and counterfeit parts.
It would require a report with recommendations to Congress and a Transportation Department response, aiming to modernize a supply chain still reliant on paper-based certificates and physical signatures.
What this bill would do
What it would do
The bill would direct the Comptroller General (head of the Government Accountability Office) to study the obstacles to using digital documentation and verification in the aviation supply chain, focused on helping identify falsified paperwork and counterfeit aircraft parts. The study would examine challenges faced by manufacturers, repair stations, air carriers, aircraft lessors and brokers, and parts brokers in adopting digital authorized release certificates such as FAA Form 8130-3, as well as the Federal Aviation Administration's own transition from paper records and physical signatures to digital equivalents. Within one year of enactment, the Comptroller General would submit a report to House and Senate committees with recommendations on encouraging industry adoption of digital tools and accelerating the FAA's digital transition. The Secretary of Transportation would then have 120 days to respond to any recommendations directed at the Department. The bill does not itself mandate any digital documentation requirement.
Key provisions
- 1Would require the Comptroller General to study impediments to digital documentation and verification in the aviation supply chain aimed at detecting falsified documents and counterfeit parts.
- 2Would require evaluation of challenges faced by manufacturers, repair stations, carriers, lessors, and brokers in adopting digital authorized release certificates like FAA Form 8130-3.
- 3Would require evaluation of the FAA's transition from paper records and physical signatures to digital documentation and signatures.
- 4Would require a report within one year of enactment to relevant House and Senate committees with recommendations for industry and FAA adoption of digital tools.
- 5Would require the Secretary of Transportation to respond to any recommendations directed at the Department within 120 days of the report's submission.
Who would be affected
Aircraft parts manufacturers, repair stations, air carriers, aircraft lessors and brokers, and parts brokers involved in the aviation supply chain, along with the Federal Aviation Administration and the Department of Transportation, which would receive study findings and must respond to recommendations.
Why it matters
The study could lay groundwork for future action to reduce falsified documentation and counterfeit parts in aviation, a safety concern across the supply chain. Because the bill only requires a study and report rather than new rules, any concrete changes to industry practice or FAA procedures would depend on later action.
What would change
Agencies directed to act
Effective dates
- Deadline for GAO to submit its study report to Congress
- Deadline for the Secretary of Transportation to respond to report recommendations
Funding and costs
Congressional Budget Office estimate
CBO estimates that H.R. 6267 would cost less than $500,000 over the 2026–2030 period, with no effect on direct spending, revenues, or the deficit.
H.R. 6267 would require the Government Accountability Office to report to Congress on the use of digital documentation to verify parts in the aviation supply chain, and would require the Department of Transportation to respond to that report's recommendations. CBO estimates the bill's reporting requirements would cost less than $500,000 over the 2026–2030 period; this spending would be subject to the availability of discretionary appropriations (funds Congress must separately approve each year). The bill would have no effect on direct (mandatory) spending, revenues, or the deficit over the 2026–2035 scoring window, and it contains no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates.
How implementation would work
GAO would conduct the study by evaluating input from aviation supply chain participants and the FAA, then compile findings and recommendations into a report submitted within a year to the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee. The Department of Transportation would then have 120 days to formally respond to any recommendations directed at it or its offices, creating a paper trail but no binding mandate for action.
Legislative status & sources
Latest action
Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
Official CRS summary
Show the CRS summaryHide the CRS summary
This bill directs the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to study the impediments to the use of digital documentation and verification in the aviation supply chain as an aid in identifying falsified documentation and counterfeit parts.
GAO must submit a report to Congress on the results of the study and include recommendations on (1) ways to encourage the aviation industry to adopt the use of digital forms and authentication tools, and (2) how to accelerate the Federal Aviation Administration's adoption of digital documentation. Within 120 days of GAO's submission, the Department of Transportation must respond to any recommendations in the report.
Legislative subjects
Aviation and airports; Congressional oversight; Digital media; Fraud offenses and financial crimes; Government Accountability Office (GAO); Government information and archives; Government studies and investigations; Product safety and quality; Supply chain; Transportation and Public Works; Transportation safety and security
Committee report
H. Rept. 119-546