“(a) In General.—To promote United States aerospace safety standards, reduce redundant regulatory activity, and facilitate acceptance of FAA design and production approvals abroad, the Administrator shall—“(1) attain greater expertise in issues related to dispute resolution, intellectual property, and export control laws to better support FAA certification and other aerospace regulatory activities abroad;
“(2) work with United States companies to more accurately track the amount of time it takes foreign authorities, including bilateral partners, to validate United States certificated aeronautical products;
“(3) provide assistance to United States companies that have experienced significantly long foreign validation wait times;
“(4) work with foreign authorities, including bilateral partners, to collect and analyze data to determine the timeliness of the acceptance and validation of FAA design and production approvals by foreign authorities and the acceptance and validation of foreign-certified products by the FAA;
“(5) establish appropriate benchmarks and metrics to measure the success of bilateral aviation safety agreements and to reduce the validation time for United States certificated aeronautical products abroad; and
“(6) work with foreign authorities, including bilateral partners, to improve the timeliness of the acceptance and validation of FAA design and production approvals by foreign authorities and the acceptance and validation of foreign-certified products by the FAA.
“(b) Report.—Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act [Oct. 5, 2018], the Administrator shall submit to the appropriate committees of Congress a report that—“(1) describes the FAA’s strategic plan for international engagement;
“(2) describes the structure and responsibilities of all FAA offices that have international responsibilities, including the Aircraft Certification Office, and all the activities conducted by those offices related to certification and production;
“(3) describes current and forecasted staffing and travel needs for the FAA’s international engagement activities, including the needs of the Aircraft Certification Office in the current and forecasted budgetary environment;
“(4) provides recommendations, if appropriate, to improve the existing structure and personnel and travel policies supporting the FAA’s international engagement activities, including the activities of the Aviation Certification Office, to better support the growth of United States aerospace exports; and
“(5) identifies cost-effective policy initiatives, regulatory initiatives, or legislative initiatives needed to improve and enhance the timely acceptance of United States aerospace products abroad.
“(c) International Travel.—The Administrator, or the Administrator’s designee, may authorize international travel for any FAA employee, without the approval of any other person or entity, if the Administrator determines that the travel is necessary—“(1) to promote United States aerospace safety standards; or
“(2) to support expedited acceptance of FAA design and production approvals.”