Airport curfew measure defeated

A proposal that would have allowed a mandatory nighttime curfew at Bob Hope Airport failed to gain the support needed to pass in the U.S. House of Representatives this week.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) offered the amendment to a House Appropriations bill last week. It would have barred funding for enforcement of the law that prevents Bob Hope Airport officials from imposing a ban on flights between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., the latest in a long-running battle for such restrictions.

The airport in 2009 completed a nine-year, multimillion dollar noise study as part of a request that the Federal Aviation Administration allow officials to enact the overnight curfew, but the FAA denied the request. In 2011, Schiff and Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks), along with then Rep. Howard Berman, tried to have the curfew added to an aviation bill, but that also failed.

The latest measure failed 157-266 during a vote Tuesday night.

“Although our amendment was unsuccessful, it enjoyed substantial bipartisan support and demonstrates to the FAA the continuing importance that we and others place on providing meaningful relief to their constituents who live near air traffic,” Schiff said in a statement this week. “We will keep fighting on behalf of the thousands of San Fernando Valley residents who have long sought relief from aviation-related noise, and continue to look for opportunities to press this issue.”

The airfield has a voluntary rule restricting takeoffs and landings of commercial flights between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. daily, except for those due to emergencies, weather or air-traffic-control delays. The curfew does not apply to cargo jets or private planes.