Transcripts For CSPAN Senate Appropriations Subcommittee Hearing On FAA Oversight 20240714

[gavel] the committee will come to order. Today, our subcommittee is holding an oversight hearing on the federal aviation administration. Im very pleased to be joined by senator jack reed, the subcommittees Ranking Member, senator caputo is here right from the start, and im sure we will be jo im sure aspect of aviation in our country, including the safety of commercial airlines, general aviation, and cargo aircraft. Every day, faas air Traffic Controllers are responsible for more than 44,000 flights and 2. 7 Million Airline passengers across more than 29 million square miles of airspace. Over the last year, muchneeded attention has been focused on the crashes of lion air flight 610 and Ethiopian Air flight 302. Serious questions have been raised about the effectiveness of the faas regulatory framework. For the sake of the 346 victims and their families, we need to ensure that these accidents are thoroughly investigated, their causes identified, and their solutions implemented. Unfortunately, at this point, we do not yet have the conclusive results of the two crash investigations and cannot say definitively why these terrible accidents occurred. For these types of catastrophic events, however, there is rarely just one cause, there is almost always a cascade of errors or failures that lead to an airplane crash. Nevertheless, since the second crash in march, we continued to hear of more problems with faas certification of the 737 max aircraft. A New York Times article over the weekend shed additional light on some of the problems with faas organizational, designation, authorization, or oda program. In particular, the press story details instances in which faa managers appeared to be more concerned with boeings production timeline rather than the safety recommendations of its own engineers. These stories are particularly damaging for the leadership of faas safety oversight. The ongoing investigations by the Inspector General and the National Transportation safety board are looking at all aspects of the max aircraft, including the certification of the mcas, the installation of the angleofattack sensors, the Pilot Training, the level of automation in the aircraft, and the Human Factors related to the design of the cockpit. While the max aircraft accidents deserve much of our attention this year, it is critical that the faa continues to make progress in improving air travel in our nations congested airspace. Our nations airspace continues to become more complex with new players in the Aviation Industry, such as commercial Space Operators and Unmanned Aircraft systems, or drones. During the last two years, this subcommittee has provided substantial funding to improve safety, increase the efficiency of air travel, and modernize the infrastructure at our nations airports, and i look forward to hearing from our witnesses on how these investments have improved air travel for the public. The nextgen programs, like performancebased navigation and timebased flow management, will improve air travel by reducing flight times. Planes are burning less fuel, emitting fewer emissions, and creating less noise through other nextgen improvements. By january 1st of next year, all commercial aircraft and most general aviation will be equipped with Automatic Dependent Surveillance broadcast, or adsb, allowing us to transition away from groundbased radar to more precise gps tracking. With adsb, pilots can see other aircraft in the sky, pinpoint hazardous weather, and terrain and receive important flight information. Adsb will also improve the efficiency of our skies by allowing planes to fly safely with reduced separation and also enhanced safety on the tarmac by reducing the risk of runway incursions. Turning to our nations airports, i would point to the 1. 5 billion in additional funding that this subcommittee has provided for our nations airports over the last two years. This funding has been particularly in beneficial for small, rural airports, such as those in such as the one in rangeley, maine, which was awarded an 11 million grant for a runway extension project with a longer runway life flight of maine an air ambulance system will be able to bring its twin turboprop aircraft to provide air medical services for communities in an area that has access to a few medical providers. I look forward to hearing from our witnesses on all of these key issues this morning, but particularly the issues of safety. Let me now turn to senator reid for his opening remarks. Sen. Reid thank you, chairman collins. This is a timely hearing giving the unresolved safety issues that have led to two Fatal Airline crashes and the grounding of the boeing 737 max. Every possible measure must be taken to enter the aircraft is safe before it returns to the skies. It is critical that boeing and the faa get this right in order to restore the confidence in both the aircraft and the certification oversight process. Failure to do so will jeopardize continued us leadership in the aviation sector and faa standing as the Gold Standard for safety. As the chairman indicated a New York Times investigative report released last week describes, in their words, a broken regulatory process that effectively nuded the Oversight Authority of the faa. You can see the deference granite industry reflected plainly in a joint industry faa product certification guide published in 2017, which highlights how an applicant and the faa can begin a transition to a state where theres progressively less direct involvement in the faa in the compliance activities of the applicant. The times goes on to say that the agency operated in the background, monitoring boeings progress and checking reports. The faa engineers found they had little power even when they raise concerns. These allegations are grave and speak to a need of a culture change that rebalances the relationship between regulator and industry. It extends beyond the faas certification program. The dod Inspector General is raising alarms on the faa oversight of the air carrier program, specifically the ig raised concerns that the faa has shifted its Safety Strategy from emphasizing Enforcement Actions to a more relaxed compliance assistance model to help carriers address the root causes for noncompliance of safety regulations. In doing so, the faas current guidance allows inspectors to close compliance actions for validating. Faa also lacks a centralized database. This leaves a huge gap in oversight. To add to the many challenges, there are very few technologies that are developed as rapidly as unmanned Aviation Systems, or drones. Drones are changing the way we do business in helping farmers monitor crops and improving railroads and revolutionizing the delivery of goods in this country. These are exciting developments, but there is growing concern about the incidents being reported in the news. Whether it is a drone flying dangerous a close to a passenger airplane or a camera flying over someones private property. The faa needs to establish clear rules of the air to safely integrate the technology into our airspace. Uas technology is evolving so quickly and we need to know that the faa is keeping up and responding strategically. I look forward to hearing about your progress in this issue. I know the Blueribbon Panel on uas mitigation and airports internal report was just released and im interested to hear your reactions. The faa is facing many challenges. I am hopeful with your leadership we will sustain the leadership with the u. S. And the safest, most efficient Aviation System in the world. Sen. Collins thank you, senator reid. I know want to turn to our panel of witnesses, all of whom are senior career officials of the faa. We are joined today by carl burlison, the acting deputy administrator of the faa. Ally bahrami, the associate administrator for aviation safety. The deputy associate administrator for airports, and angela stubblefield, the deputy administrator for security and hazardous materials. Mr. Burlison, we will start with you. Mr. Burlison thank you, chairman collins. Thank you for inviting us all to speak with you today to update you on the federal aviation administrations work to fulfill its mission to provide the safest airspace in the world. We are committed to advancing the infrastructure and maintaining American Leadership and innovation while ensuring safety and access for all users in the National Airspace system. The chairman just noted innovation is reshaping the nass. It is nothing short of amazing considering we have approximately 1. 4 million drums drones registered in less than four years. Flying taxis are in an experiment of design or testing phases with Major Aerospace companies. We have proposed a new rules to remove the red tape and streamline the Testing Process for a new generation of civil supersonic aircraft, and civilian space pioneers getting ready to take suborbital excursions offered by start up space companies. That is a challenge. And one we welcome. These whiletroduce monitoring airspace and maintaining safety and access for all users . Congress provided us a Reliable Foundation to do this through the faa reconsolidation and we are working to accomplish the directives set forth in these bills. The safe integration of ua us and commercial Space Operations are a key priority. We are adjusting processes and practices to accommodate more of these operations. We are taking concrete steps to fulfill this mission. We have deployed the prototype low altitude authorization capability at nearly 300 air traffic facilities covering about 500 airports. Lance allows operators to gain airspace authorization in a matter of seconds, compared to weeks previously. Lance is a good first step as we progressed towards automated air Traffic Management for drones. We took another concrete step for commercial space integration by opening the challenger room inside the air Traffic Control system command center, where joint Space Operations group assess proposed launch and Reentry Operations that have an impact on the nations airspace. This operational visibility coupled with space data integrators we are developing will allow us to safely reduce the amount of airspace that must be closed to other users during launch and reentry. In addition, we are also operationalizing nextgen technologies including adsb. It will be required for aircraft operating in u. S. Airspace and provides surveillance information that is more accurate than radar and more costeffective, especially in remote areas. Roughly 80 of the u. S. Airline fleet and more than 60,000 journal aviation aircraft have been equipped. We expect to start Operational Testing this summer. This will allow us to build a virtual departure queue at airports. Flights can wait at the gate with their engines off until they have a direct route to the runway. By moving electronic data exchange, it will also save time for our controllers in a tower by eliminating certain manual processes. We are also working to make sure new generations of americans are ready to enter the aerospace workforce. One of the highest priorities is to bring welltrained women and men into the Aviation System. We have established a committee to broaden the pipeline of young people interested in aviation careers, enhancing the proficiency of training and targeting skills we need in the future, and partnering with academia to achieve these outcomes. The men and women of the faa are committed to ensuring the United States is the Gold Standard in aviation safety. We will be the first to acknowledge we are not perfect, but the safety inspector helping to educate the next generation of pilots in florida or a controller working traffic in chicago, the employees are not complacent about their mission. They work every day to ensure the safety of the american traveling public. That is why we are confident with the support of this committee and the robust engagement of our stakeholders that we can safely achieve innovation necessary to continue americas global leadership. Thank you. Sen. Collins mr. Bahrami. Mr. Bahrami i appreciate the opportunity to address the faas top priority safety. The European Airlines flight 302 and lion air flight 610 accidents were tragic events that seared the safety conscience of the entire aviation community. Learning from and recovering from these accidents is our primary focus within the Aviation Safety Organization along with maintaining the continued operational safety of the National Airspace system. With respect to returning the 737 max to service, the faa is following a thorough process, not a prescribed timeline. We continue to evaluate boeings software modification to the mcas. In addition, we are developing necessary training requirements to support various investigations and audits on the way. We are working through the joint authorities, technical review, to conduct apprehensive review of the 737 maxs Flight Control system certification. We have also initiated multi Agency Technical Advisory Board reviews of boeings mcas Software Update and system Safety Assessment. Let me emphasize that despite the strong spotlight, that we are under, we welcome this scrutiny, as it will make a stronger. Our data driven riskbased approach to oversight oversight forms the backbone of the proven quantifiable Safety Record that we have come to expect in commercial aviation. In the past 10 years, u. S. Carriers have transported more than 7 billion passengers with one fatality, but one fatality is far too many. We know a healthy Safety Culture requires commitment to continuous improvement. Your new strategic plan, we are aligning our Safety Culture to be responsive to the new challenges we face, including new entrance, the fastest of which is Unmanned Aircraft systems, or uas. We have sharpened our focus on the safety of all Aircraft Operations and we worked on a number of initiatives to support integration. We are using existing rules to enable operations where we can and focusing on safety enabling and an everexpanding universe of operations and capabilities. I would like to emphasize that in our quest for continuous safety improvement, we welcome external review of our systems and processes, and we remain committed to making commercial and general aviation even safer. Thank you. Sen. Collins thank you. Ms. Linford. Ms. Lenfert chairman collins, Ranking Member and members of the subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today. The office of airports works with more than 5000 airports across the country and more specifically, 3300 airports that are part of the National Plan of integrated airport systems. We also work closely with the airline general aviation pilots, state aviation professionals, neighboring communities, local governments, and any other stakeholders. Our top priority is always the safety of the traveling public while optimizing capacity, efficiency, and the security of our nations airports. We also ensure environmental we also ensure environmental responsibility and financial accountability. We are deeply grateful to the United States congress and particularly this committee for the trust that you place in us. The needs far exceed the available resources, but the funds that you provide are crucial to keeping our nations airports as safe as the airways that connect them. The nationwide system of airports that we help maintain represents a critical safety net which is part of why the United States has the safest air Transportation System in the world. They are also crucial to our national, regional, and local economies. Understanding the importance of infrastructure to our nations economic wellbeing, we work closely with Airport Operators and their planning and development programs. In 2018, we issued a total of 3. 46 billion in airport improvement funding, including a portion of the fiscal year 2018 supplemental funds. In fiscal 2019, so far, we have processed more than 2. 4 billion in grants, including additional funds from the fiscal year 2018 supplemental program. We also continue to improve safety through inspections of certificated airports through site visits and through our latest initiative, the runway incursion mitigation program. Through construction, procedures, and signage and marking changes, we are able to reduce runway incursions at 39 locations by 93 , but we could knock on work without our highly skilled professional workforce. They too depend on the resources that allow them to perform their daily function such as helping develop runway extensions and remote areas. They help figure out how to optimize safety and capacity at constrained airports. They help determine how to justify a runway extension with a balance between community, environmental concerns, and the system capacity and safety needs. Our compliance experts and sure aviation related revenues are used for aviation related purposes, which is critical to the functionality of our system. Our people work closely with other parts of the faa as well as other federal, state, and local agencies. We are dedicated to working with you and our stakeholders that we serve to help solve problems and ensure that we have the safest and most efficient airport system. Thank you. Sen. Collins thank you. Ms. Stubblefield. Ms. Stubblefield chairman, senator reed, and members of the committee, thank you for meeting to address how the faa is safe and secure integration of u. A. S. Into the National Airspace system cannot be achieved without addressing the risks posed by malicious or errant usa operations. Just as the u. S. Government has built a Strong Foundation of aviation facility to support manned operations, we are focused on a holistic regime that includes the ability to prevent, deter, protect, and when necessary, respond to unauthorized u. A. S. Operations. The prevention efforts include Public Outreach and education and support to Law Enforcement and Public Safety agencies. We believe most noncompliant operations are committed by the clueless and careless with no malicious intent. To deter reckless operators, we are providing instructional resources and investigative support to Law Enforcement which also enables the civil enforcement. We are publishing a Remote Identification rule to support detection of potential safety and security risks. The ability to remotely identify u. A. S. And their operators in flight is crucial to locating and taking appropriate action against uas operators posing a safety or security risk. Detecting the presence and locating the operator is critical to safety, security, and integration. The faas providing information to sponsors to make informed decisions about deploying technology at some airports. Turning to response, the faa is coordinating with the departments of defense, energy, justice, and Homeland Security to ensure counter uas technologies allow them to accomplish their missions while avoiding adverse impacts. For domestic airports, several unique challenges in the airport environment require more evaluation and development of counter uas technologies. As directed in the faa authorization, we are testing detection and mitigation systems at several airports. We share concerns about the potential impact of a drone disrupting operations and are closely coordinating with federal Security Partners to finalize a National Federal Response Plan to deploy authorities and technologies to address a persistent disruption at a major u. S. Airport ensuring the u. S. Government is ready to respond to an event similar to the uas disruption at uks Gatwick Airport in december 2018. Working together to prevent, deter, detect and respond to uas risks, the faa, security and Law Enforcement, and Critical Infrastructure owners will enable the u. S. To complete and continue leading the way in innovation while maintaining the safest, most secure and most efficient airspace in the world. Sen. Collins thank you. Mr. Burleson, i want to start with you today. In your testimony, you say the faa prioritizes safety above all else, which is what we would want and expect. When one reads the New York Times story and the wall street journal story that came out today, one has to question what comes out of that commitment whether research, shortages, that cause the agency to be deferential to the aircraft manufacturer, and whether it is really wise in the case of boeing to have allowed the company to certify 96 of its own work. More disturbing, the New York Times story recounts case after case where safety concerns seems to be placed second to concerns about boeing being able to meet its own timelines. Would you comment on why the faa would give apparently more consideration to an aircraft manufacturers production timeline than to safety concerns that were raised . Mr. Burleson thank you for the question. Let me start with foundation. The core principle is safety. I think you see that as we are working through all the challenges of coming to a place where we feel comfortable ungrounding the max stepbystep. We constantly say there is no timeline, the issue is safety. In terms of the newspaper reports, i think that again, they offer a perspective, but i would say the professionals who are working this day in and day out have an incredible commitment to trying to get it right. They are often times, and certainly mr. Bahrami can elaborate on this, having worked in the safety part of the faa, he has more knowledge of the details of the engineering process, but i will say we do not and never have allowed Self Certification of whether it is boeing or any other project. We are fundamentally involved at the beginning of a certification project. The boeing aircraft that the max took five years to certify. We were in the beginning phases of deciding what was more routine and what could be delegated and what the key technologies and risks that have to be addressed. I think we have been fully knowledgeable in dealing with the development of that plane and i think that the process of delegation is longstanding and has been a critical part of producing the Safety Record we have in the United States. I would say it doesnt mean its perfect, it doesnt mean each decision we have made has always been perfect, but i do think the fundamental process of how we went about certifying the max was sound and i think the other positive here is as mr. Bahrami mentioned in his testimony, we have a number of views ongoing looking at what we did in the past. We are certainly committed to improvements and changes we need to make. If there needs to be a different balance, we are willing and ready to take those recommendations. There are also committees that are looking at the future to begin airplanes are not going to be less computer centric Going Forward. We are looking at what recommendations might come in terms of improving future certification process. Sen. Collins i have many questions, but i know senator reid is on a tight schedule, so. Sen. Reed thank you, madam chairman. Mr. Bahrami, it seems to me, that a pilot who flies on a day to day basis, should be involved in the certification process. If you were involved in finding additional Flight Control Software Issue when they were given access, Going Forward, will the faa reconsider not just test pilots playing a greater role . Mr. Bahrami thank you for that question. Pilots are engaged in certification and they have always been involved. What you recently heard with respect to the recent findings, the issue was a review of the system Safety Assessment, and we found out there was a particular failure which was extremely remote, and we acknowledge that and understood that, and based on what we learned from the two accidents, we decided that we need to actually verify the assumptions. That is where the pilots got involved to verify that that particular situation, if it occurs, is recoverable. In that particular case, several pilots were able to recover, but there was one or so they could not recover successfully. And because of that, they said the change needs to occur. The pilots are engaged. Sen. Reed with the question is, will they be formally engaged Going Forward, not just informally, but officially . Mr. Bahrami absolutely. Sen. Reed thank you. Today the wall street journal reported on the situation. One of the comments was that the faas early goal after the first crash was to get something out immediately and then mandate something more permanent. Specifically, the faa analysis suggests the warning would be about 10 months to design and implement changes according to a person close to the manufacturer. Boeing had planned to complete the changes by april within the 10 month period. This information appears to contradict the earlier statements by the faa. You purposely thought notification would be sufficient. Is this accurate, the report that, did the faa have a shortterm warning knowing that boeing needed something more significant fix . Mr. Bahrami one of the most important roles we play is for safety. On a daily basis, we get reports from the fleet with respect to events, occurrences, difficulties, whether it is operational or technical on a regular basis. All of those are reviewed by engineers and specialists to determine, first of all, are there serious safety risks . What do we need to do in the interim, and also longterm action . This is a normal practice. In that case, based on the data and information that we see, we recognize that in the lion air case, pilot action played a significant role. And because of that, we felt the most important and urgent thing to do until we have the most appropriate fixes in place, to provide pilots with appropriate procedures to focus on, and Going Forward while we develop this, the interim measures, and the final fix was at a later time. That is normal practice. There are numerous examples that we have done that. Sen. Reed but the implication was that this pilot change would be sufficient to provide airworthiness and there was no real mention of improvements and necessary changes in the system, leading most people to conclude that there was no longterm issue with the mcas. That lack of transparency i think is not appropriate. Mr. Bahrami when we got involved in an investigation, it is for two reasons. Number one, to support the ntsb with Technical Knowledge and information. Number two is to make sure we understand what we need to do to protect the fleet based on realtime information we got. As part of the requirement on the agreement with the ntsb is we do not disclose information or any indication what may have gone wrong in that particular case, and that is a delicate balance for us to play. We wanted to basically resolve the issue without having the disclosed information. From the safety perspective, we felt strongly that what we did with adequate and that was based on discussions with airlines, our operators, the review of the data we have obtained from our operators and canadian operators. We thought it was sufficient. Knowing what we know today, maybe we have to look at that based on the reviews that come out, we will definitely make adjustments. Sen. Reed but of concern is there are various equities, companies dont want their planes grounded because it would interfere with profitability, operations. The inspectors want to conduct an inspection and isolate as much as possible from the public. But the faa, we expect you to basically be the entity that stands up and says this aircraft is completely safe to fly, there are no further corrections necessary, or if there are, they are being undertaken. That does not appear to be the case in this situation. Thank you. Sen. Collins thank you. Senator durbin. Sen. Durbin thank you. During the federal shutdown which President Trump initiated earlier this year, i made a point of meeting air Traffic Controllers in st. Louis and chicago. I learned over 3000 aviation Safety Professionals had been furloughed during the president s shutdown and another 15,000 controllers and aviation Safety Professionals worked without pay, many working long shifts to make up the difference. It has been six months since the government reopened and we are still feeling the impacts of the shutdown on the air Traffic Control system. The air Traffic Controllers Union Reports that the shutdown led to early retirements and delayed classes at the faa academy, causing some students to drop out. For an organization already experiencing worker shortage and for air Traffic Controllers who have been forced to work longer for too long, the shutdown caused serious damage. The faa has reportedly had to lower its hiring target for controllers from 1400 this year to 900. The shutdown affected the implementation of new Safety Systems including the arrival prediction alert system, the Safety System that can alert a pilot if they are landing on the wrong runway or need to circle the airport. Six months after President Trumps shutdown, can you give us an update on the size and scale of the impacts it had on air Traffic Control . How much ground did we lose when it comes to air Traffic Controller hiring and safety updates . Mr. Burleson thank you for that question. I just want to say i appreciate your acknowledgment of what the faa did. It was pretty extraordinary. I have been at the agency for 30 years. I will say this is one of our finest hours. For five weeks, the system ran perfectly, safely, efficiently. Again, a good portion of the workforce was sitting home and the rest was working without pay. Sen. Durbin bless you and bless the controllers, but this was totally unnecessary. But would you tell me today where we stand . Mr. Burleson today, i think the good news is we have made great progress. Again, like any Large Organization if you shut it down for five weeks, there will be impact. In terms of controller targets and training, this years class is slightly lower, but in terms of overall targets, what we are trying to achieve, we sent our staffing plan to congress. You will see we are still on track in terms of getting to around 14,000 controllers. The composition is a little different in terms of 3500 trainees as part of that. Again, there was some delay at the academy, but the classes have restarted and we certainly are not concerned making sure we have the right level of controllers in the system. We did have delays in the implementation of the number of nexgen projects. If you shut down an organization, that will happen. The good news is we are working to schedule waterfalls of how we get different parts of the next gen systems out in the system, coordinating schedules for controllers and technicians. There has been some delay. Im confident we will be able to address those issues over the next year and get that work back on track. Sen. Durbin i think more than anything, the words safety and the faa are almost synonymous. That is your reason for being. The point i hope i made and that i think you reinforced is that Government Shutdown compromise the safety of our Aviation System, at least threatened to compromise the safety. It wasnt until the air Traffic Controllers announced they would start slowing down traffic at airports that this Government Shutdown finally came to an end. What youre telling me as well is that many projects that congress has asked for and you have initiated to make the Aviation System even safer have been delayed because of the Government Shutdown. I said earlier that the faa is reportedly lowering the targets for air Traffic Controllers from 1400 to 900. We have received that information from you. Is that the case . Mr. Burleson yes. The classsize this time went down. But in terms of what we need for filling controllers on the overall target, it will not have an appreciable impact. Let me come back to you, i have to fundamentally disagree. At no time in the five weeks was the Aviation System in the u. S. Unsafe. We would not have allowed sen. Durbin i think it was not unsafe because air Traffic Controllers still on the job or working long hours to make up the difference. Despite many of them facing the reality of no pay. I can tell you specific stories of the air Traffic Controllers that i met with and the sacrifices and pressure they were under because of the shutdown. I would like to believe an air Traffic Controllers working a normal shift without that kind of pressure and family pressure with no paycheck and doing their job and doing it professionally. I dont think we made it any easier with the Government Shutdown. Let me ask you pointblank. Do you . Do you think the shutdown made their job easier . Mr. Burleson no, sir. It did not make the controllers jobs easier, the airports or the safety folks. All i want to say is because of the commitment, and this is what i said in my statement the men and women of the faa have an amazing commitment to the safety of the Aviation System and this is what you see in the shut down. They reported to work, they did their work as the government sorted out its issues. Our focus is not that. Our focus is making sure the system runs safe every day for americans. Sen. Durbin if you can also give me a report on secondary cockpit barrier progress, i would appreciate that. I would appreciate that. Sen. Collins senator manchin. Sen. Manchin thank you. Im going to get right to the 737 max. I think mr. Bahrami, this will mostly be for you. It seems like every few months, we are learning something new about the problem. First the mcas system. We didnt know about that. It wasnt even included in the pilots manual. Second, changes were made to the system late in the design process that made it more powerful, allowing it to push it nosedown more aggressively. Even so, it relied on a single sensor and had no redundancy. Third, we learned of the faa never performed its own assessments and the system had delegated oversight to the boeing company. We are still in a position to be helpful. We want to be helpful. We need to get planes moving again. At last count, i have 389 planes that are grounded, 200 built and not delivered. What does that do for the safety of the system if we are running planes that should be timed out or grounded . Are we running planes longer than they should be . Are we losing flights, which is a tremendous economic hurt to all areas of the country . I question basically what our role is for federal oversight, making sure the skies are safe, the planes are going in the skies are safe, people are trained properly, tank indicator, things of this sort. It is unbelievable we got to this position and understanding it was driven by the industry who did not want to go through a retraining process. If you can talk to that i know you started out with the 737 max then went back to the private sector, then back to the faa. If you can explain to me how we got this position. Mr. Bahrami thank you for the question. You have multiple questions. Lets just put things in the proper perspective and i will defer to you to tell me where i need to explain. First of all, let me talk about myself. I have 40 years in aviation. All a bit involves transport. I was a designee of the company. I know what it is to be a designee. It is a badge of honor. The greatest Safety Organization in the world tells you that you are trusted to do work on my behalf in terms of data improvement, that is probably the highlight of an individual career. I would say it that when we talk about delegation, delegation, over the years, we have been able to prove it and get better at it by shifting from individual designee to organizational delegations and to the point that we are today, it is supposed to be the most comprehensive, and in terms of oversight, system oversight. That is our focus. The reason i went back to the industry, i spent 25 years at the faa intern in charge of large transports. Sen. Manchin if i can just because of time this was a complex plane. A Software System was not even mentioned in the pilots manual. It wasnt even mentioned. Yet, the faa agreed pilots only needed one hour of ipad training to get up. That is incomprehensible to me to be in that position when we did a complete makeover, and we changed the dynamics of the plane to perform differently. Mr. Bahrami thats a great question. The Pilot Training decision is not made by one individual or one inspector or pilot in the faa. It is done through a process called a flight standardization board. Sen. Manchin is that under the faa . Here the other thing on that, the biggest selling point for the max was it would require minimum Pilot Training. Boeing promised southwest millions in rebates if the max required Simulator Training. You basically eliminated Simulator Training to adhere to the southwest demands. Mr. Bahrami if i may finish, what i wanted to point out was that when we have a new design, whether it is a derivative or a new model, the pilots, including line pilots for the airline, they get together as part of the group and see what changes are made to the flight deck. They compare it to the previous model. Then they go through the training and make a decision whether it is what type of training is needed. It was a decision of that body that said they mcas training, computerbased, is sufficient. Im not a pilot, but i can tell you that from the perspective, you want to make sure you provide the pilots with sufficient information to be able to control the aircraft, but you dont want to overwhelm them with all kinds of information that may not be relevant. The mcas system is supposed to be a system that works in the background and it should be transparent. That was the logic. Knowing what we know today and what the acting administrator has said, we should have included more description in the computerbased training in order to explain what mcas is and what we do. What we should be focusing on, and im going to do that, and that is what the team is doing, is a better appreciation and understanding of system Safety Assessment. Sen. Manchin are we doing investigation into the agency that has oversight of a training . Im a pilot. So anything i know is i have to override the autopilot and i have a couple switches to flip, and that is the first thing i learned. If i go back to Pilot Training, the same thing i am being basically trained in case of an emergency. I already know how to fly the plane. I want to know what happens if i have to try and fly in an emergency. For some reason, i guess these pilots had no idea they could turn the system off . Mr. Bahrami thank you very much. That is a very important point you are making. In our business and the business of safety, you want to be focused on the issues that you need to focus on and help make things better. I do not to pass judgment on the qualifications of the pilots that were on those flights, but i will say a review of the flight data recorder and preliminary information and what we know, the actions they took were inconsistent with what you would think. Manchin thank you for being kind, madame chairman, but i want to wrap up by saying we have relied on the industry more than we should have to do the job we should do to make sure the American Public is safe. I would say for the 737 max to get back into the air, every boeing official should be plying flying that plane for one month to make sure we have the confidence for a passenger to get back on the plane. Im not getting on the 737 max until i see the president of boeing and all of their Associates Get on the plane first for any substantial amount of time. Mr. Bahrami we agree that it is necessary for us to do everything we can to gain the confidence of the public. Let me assure you that i have talked to airline authorities, labor unions, to make sure that when we are there, we understand how we got to where we are and what we have done is the right safety action. [inaudible] sen. Collins thank you, senator. Senator bozeman. Sen. Boozman thank you, madam chair for holding the hearing. I would like to talk about a few things that are important. Not that these others arent. That is the nice thing about having you all, we can talk about a variety of issues. Some things that are really important to all of our states and commerce. One of that is the Contract Hire program. Mr. Burleson, i think its one of the most successful government industry partnerships we have had. As you well know, a very strong bipartisan, bicameral support in congress and validated numerous times from the department of transportation Inspector General. The Program Continues to provide highquality, costeffective and critical air Traffic Control services to over 250 smaller airports in our nations Transportation System including five in arkansas. Given the critical importance of the towers at smaller airports, what steps are the department and the faa taking to work collaboratively to ensure the continued success of rule airports that depend on contract powers . Mr. Burleson thank you for the question. At the faa, we agreed this is an incredibly important and Efficient Program in terms of providing air Traffic Services to large parts of the country. Currently, in the budget Going Forward, we have 169 million for contract towers from the assessment and appears to cover the existing contract towers in the program as well as it appears to cover what the new applicants that are coming our way. In terms of the steps we have taken recently, in june of this year, wed reopened the application process for contract towers and currently have six new applicants going through the process of review. Also based on the congressional direction, we are doing costbenefit analysis required for the new entrance and the cost share towers. Those would be accomplished by september of this year. I know theres also an issue we are seeing in terms of staffing challenges. Part of it is because a lot of the controllers, we are recruiting them and it is potentially creating challenges for some of the vendors. Our air Traffic Organization is Holding Discussions to see if there are ways we can try to address and help this area. Sen. Boozman april 9, 2019 the department of transportation ou implementing executive order 13 807 known as the federal decision framework. It signals a continued emphasis on expediting Infrastructure Project reviews by requiring improved coordination among all federal agencies within a single process. Understanding this is a relatively new framework, has the one federal decision had an impact on streamlining approvals thus far . Mr. Burleson thank you for the question. Again, i would actually differ to winsome lenfert, who has a lot more experience in the environmental world. Sen. Boozman she looks like she knows the answer. Ms. Lenfert thank you for that question. I would actually like to recognize that the office of airports and the overall entire faa has actually been working very hard to streamline environmental processes for many years. We appreciate the executive order that was put in place. It increases the governmentwide emphasis on streamlining. We have worked very closely and done a lot of planning upfront in the project and working closely with the airport sponsor to ensure we are implementing the environmental requirements and executive order. We also have to strike a balance and make sure we are following environmental Due Diligence in a thorough review of the project while ensuring we are implementing our Infrastructure Projects. Sen. Boozman very good. So things are moving forward. You are having some success. This is so important. We struggle with the debt, the deficit. This is an area that actually would save a lot of money. We dont want to shortchange any of the environmental considerations or anything else for safety considerations, but we want to make sure we work together. Is there anything that are there any improvements we can help with as far as helping in that regard . Ms. Lenfert not at this time. I think one of the things that was approved in a recent reauthorization is section 163, which actually allows us to look at a project and make a determination that there is minimal federal impact required, especially on nonaeronautical development on an airport. We have been very successful with this program. So far, there have been about 25 different projects throughout the country where we have had to do minimal review and airports are Going Forward and putting the projects in place without minimal environmental and federal oversight. Some of the project examples are in lafayette, indiana. They were able to go forward and put in an Industrial Research park with minimal federal oversight and Environmental Review. Spokane, washington is another one we recently did. Sen. Collins thank you. Senator hoeven. Sen. Hoeven thank you, madam chair. Administrator, you and i had a conversation last week and i appreciate that. We are working on some things, the Northern Plains test site in grand forks, north dakota. One of those we work hard on was beyond visual line of sight. Someone wondering, do you have a list of milestones or specifics that we would need in order to b. V. L. S. , the beyond visual line of sight flights without trace plains . Have we gotten to those specifics . We have worked on those diligently and put a tremendous amount of resources in place. We need to know what is required to fix that up. Mr. Bahrami thank you you, senator. I want to thank you for the opportunity to talk to you about this just recently. As i said on the phone the other day, we have a very Strong Partnership with north dakota, the test site. They are supporting us in so many different ways, numerous projects. As you know, they are engaged in the integration pilot program. They are engaged in supporting us for operations beyond visual line of sight. They are also working on as i committed to you and with respect to beyond regional line visual line of sight, specifically the company, i commit to you we will have this resolved and changes made by the end of this week. I was informed actually this morning that we made progress and we are going to be communicating that to the test site. With this decision, they will be able to eliminate the observers that were a costly aspect of that. That is one issue i was told this morning, which resolved the concern they had. To the the issue is work and coordination between several airtraffic centers. Today, there is a meeting taking place to talk about that with the test site officials, and they will follow a discussion on general economics. What im trying to point out is i would be happy to provide you a list of all of the projects, but frankly, these are the most important ones that were brought to our attention and we have already taken actions on those. Sen. Hoeven thats good the key is understanding the timeline. I want to take the opportunity to thank not only yourself, but the others for the relationship we have with the faa. We are trying to keep things moving along so we just want to make sure we understand what the requirements are and that we have timelines we can set to achieve them. Mr. Bahrami if i may say one important thing in honoring your partnership, it is to keep commitments. I understand that. Your appreciation of our mission, which is safety and making sure we balance safety and appropriately, that is where we need the input and the data and expertise that they will bring to us and we welcome that. Sen. Hoeven thank you. Ms. Stubblefield, thank you for traveling to see our u. S. Operations. I guess the questions i would have for you in regard to when do you expect to complete the current rulemaking process on Remote Identification . For u. A. S. . Ms. Stubblefield thank you for that. I appreciate the trip to north dakota. It was helpful to talk with the test site and folks out there. The Remote Identification rule is the top priority for the faa on you uas rulemaking. Uas rulemaking. There are several other pieces we are working on. We are working hard to publish that rule this year. It is important to remember a couple things as we talk about some of your frustration with the timeline. One is the fact that up until october of last year, the faa did not have the authority over all uas operators in the airspace. We are extremely grateful to congress for restoring the faa authority over all uas operators, in particular the recreational operators. Before that time, we were struggling with putting together a rule that really needed to identificationte for the safety perspective and enabling integration. Once we had the authority, we were able to move forward and really build out the rule, but there are two other facets that have to come together to enable Remote Identification implementation in the airspace. One is standards. There are several Industry Groups the faa is supporting. Putting together industry standards that will be necessary to execute the rule. On top of that is the infrastructure piece. When the remote id requirement is out there, how will the information be transmitted, how will it be communicated to Law Enforcement and other Security Partners . That infrastructure has to be built out and we had an rfi on the street in december to get a cadre of industry to work on that. The goal is when the rule comes out, we have the standards we need and infrastructure in place to execute those altogether. On top of that, we are also, in june, the Drone Advisory Committee is seeking input on the 90 day timeframe to have the members who are industry, state and local Law Enforcement and state and local government, other Aviation Industry players coming together to talk about how we can incentivize early equipage of Remote Identification to take advantage of that as quickly as possible. I do have additional questions. Are we going to have another round . Sen. Collins thank you. Senator murray. Sen. Murray thank you, chairman collins and Ranking Member reed. I do want to note my top priority here is the safety of the flying community, and i know faa is working to revise the resolved the many safety challenges we are facing including recertification and oversight efforts that are ongoing with the boeing 737 max plains. I understand the work of the technical Advisory Board is well underway and i look forward to their findings as well as those of the faa. I would ask all of you to continue to work as transparently as possible to keep members of congress in the loop if new information becomes available so we can prevent future tragedies. I know its already been talked about here, but i just want to know that we are following closely the question i did want to ask is the issue of Sexual Assault on airplanes. This is an issue i have been working on for a long time, because i heard from constituents who were sexually assaulted during flights and experienced a complete lack of information as to how to respond or who to report to, what would happen next. Both the fy 18 appropriations bill and faa reauthorization act required dot to work with relevant federal agencies and other stakeholders, including Sexual Assault survivors themselves and representatives from the flight attendants, airports, and air carriers to establish a task force that would address Sexual Misconduct on airplanes. Im glad the task force has started its work and i hope it will work with all of the stakeholders to recommend swift, effective action. I wanted to ask you today, how is the faa working with d. O. T. And office of the secretary on the task force . Mr. Burleson thank you, senator, again for raising this question because it is an important issue. Certainly no one should be exposed to the risk of Sexual Assault taking a flight. Again, as you noted, the congress has set up provisions where the office of the secretary is leading the effort. Faa is cooperating with that task force. Again, we are waiting for the outcome of the task force to decide how we can best adopt the recommendations both in terms of general prescriptions, and i know the attorney general is working across agencies to decide how best to do the metrics. We stand by to based on the recommendations that come out of that task force to figure out how best to adopt that in the Aviation System. Sen. Murray i know the faa issues advises all related to cabin safety. Outside the task force and waiting for the task force to complete its work, are you undertaking any efforts at the faa to deal with this issue . Mr. Burleson i know we have collected some basic data to try and help provide information, but again, we have been there has been at least one meeting already of the task force. Again, i know it is working and pace, so we are waiting to see what we can do. Again, we take the normal as flights happen in the system, we again work closely with the normal Law Enforcement community as issues are reported to try and do as much as we can to ensure that Law Enforcement officials are meet the plane, things are dealt with. But again, in terms of the larger strategic effort, we are awaiting the recommendations of the task force. Sen. Murray ok, well this is a critical issue and waiting means someone will have an issue between now and when the task force comes back so i encourage you to keep this top of mind. Let me pivot quickly. There are seven contract towers in my home state of washington. These towers, like all the other contract towers in the country, support a wide array of critical aviation operations like scheduled passenger and Cargo Airline service. They do medevac, military, aerial firefighting, aircraft manufacturing, corporate and general aviation, just a wide range of things. I want to ask you, given the workforce challenges including the hiring of aircraft controllers into the faa, i understand many contract controllers are being drawn from contract towers at rates high enough to cause challenges for contractors and the program. This has created a growing concern in the airports they serve and has led to questions about whether contract towers will be actually fully staffed. I want to ask what steps are being taken by the faa to work collaboratively with contractors and industry to make sure they have full staffing levels. Mr. Burleson thank you, senator. As i shared to an earlier question, we are supporters of the contract program. This issue of staffing has come up. It is of concern to us. We want to make sure there is the right staffing available for vendors that man the towers. Our air Traffic Organization is having discussions to explore what options we might have in terms of workforce. Workforce generally is a very important issue for us. We have taken a number of steps to try and tackle the broader issue of the aviation workforce Going Forward. You probably have seen the reports that over the next 20 years, we need 600,000 pilots, almost the same amount of technicians. We need new skill sets. We held a summit last september with industry and academia unions to start tackling the issue. Faa has formed a task force inside the agency. We are working to figure out how the pipeline of interesting the next generation of men and women in aviation careers. How do we target the right kinds of proficiency and skills in the training process and how do we partner with education and industry to try to make aviation careers attractive . We are working very hard sen. Murray do you have a task force . Are you going to be bringing recommendations . Is there policy things, funding things we need to be focusing on . Mr. Burleson that is what we are working on in terms of how best to do some of these activities. Going forward, i suspect we will have some recommendations. At this point, we are doing a lot of assessment on how best to deal with some issues in terms of pipelines, proficiencies, and partnerships. Again, this is a top priority because the heart of aviation being successful in america has relied on the workforce. Whether it is working for us in the faa or industry. Again, we see this is critical for the vitality as well as safety of the system. Sen. Murray i appreciate that and look forward to your recommendations, hopefully sooner rather than later. Thank you. Sen. Collins thank you. Mr. Bahrami, i want to followup on the line of questioning i began in the first round. I would ask that you bring your mic a little closer so we can hear you more clearly. The New York Times story i mentioned asserted that at one point in the certification process, faa managers conceded that the max did not meet Agency Guidelines for protecting Flight Controls, but then the faa considered whether any requested changes would interfere with boeings timeline. Faa managers wrote that it would be impractical at this late point in the program for the company to resolve the issue. I have two questions for you. First, is that accurate . Second, should faa managers and engineers be concerned about boeings production timeline when making decisions that are related to safety . Mr. Bahrami first of all, that is not correct. In every certification program, there is debate, dialogue, exchange with respect to compliance with the specific regulations. As you know, some regulations are very prescriptive. Frankly, those are the easy ones to find compliance with because it is either this or not. There are others that are very subjective, and in some cases, those regulations often are debated and discussed tremendously in the period of the one or two year timeframe. I have seen in my career 380 and like airbus a others, i have seen those situations occur. That is why we put in place processes. Thats why we put in place processes where appropriate people get together to discuss the facts and information. In that particular case you are referring to, there was a prior discussion as part of the process that the documentation of that particular access was taken. Several folks were not happy with that. That issue was elevated and went through a prototype process we put in place. After that, based on all the data, managers made the decision and the decision was made, not necessarily to the liking of one or two individuals. Frankly, thats what i get paid for. That is what managers get paid for. To look at the data, facts, and information and make decisions. Those are very tough issues we need to deal with. In my view, the process was followed, and i will look forward to all these different reviews being conducted, for them to take a look at them to see if they could have done anything differently or there are areas with shortcomings. Sen. Collins so is your frommony that pressure manufacturers to meet deadlines for production has no impact at all on the decisions that you make with regard to safety . Mr. Bahrami when it comes to safety, absolutely, safety is number one. Thats what we focus on. Sen. Collins let me follow up on senator reids question about the article in the wall street journal this morning. According to this account, after the Ethiopian Air crash, the faa internal analysis found the underlying risks of the mcas were unacceptably high and that they exceeded internal faa safety standards. In the past, whether faa has when the faa has found that an aircraft poses an unacceptably high safety risk, it has mandated equipment changes, inspections, or training. But in this case, what faa appears to have done is simply to issue a reminder to pilots on how to respond to an mcas malfunction. Faa gave boeing many months to fix the underlying issue. What troubles me about this is if the agencys own analysis found mcas to be an unacceptable risk, why did the faa not take immediate action to address those risks . Mr. Bahrami i want to make sure, a clarification. The discussion we had was concerning the event after the lion air, not the european airline. We understand what happened in that case i shortly after, we got the data and information. On the lion air situation, when you say a reminder and notifications to the flight crews, we do what is directed. What is directed our laws. They are not just reminders. They have to comply with that and typically what happens, in case of a procedure or a change or focus on a particular process, a copy of the directive is put into the flight book for the pilot, so they know this is something they need to be mindful of. It is not just a notification. Be aware this is an issue. It is there for them to act upon should they encounter that issue. That was an interim action. We knew the eventual solution would be to have the modification and based on our risk assessment, we felt we had sufficient time to do a modification and get the final fix. That means typically, we refer to it as closing action. Closing action basically eliminates all the interim action, remove that particular piece of paper from the flight manual, and then the mcas modifications are incorporated. Those processes are what we use and we did the same in this particular case. Sen. Collins of course i will yield to senator reid, but one issue here, which senator manchin mentioned, is that the mcas was not in the original manual, which seems strange. Sen. Reed thank you very much, ms. Chairman. You are aware of department of transportation ig is conducting a review of certain air carriers management and maintenance programs. We understand they developed a systemic concern that faa is transitioning from a strategy that emphasizes enforcement to one that is more relaxed in terms of compliance, and they have also indicated questions have arose about the agencys ability to effectively document maintenance issues and identify persistent problems with trends problems occurring over time as a result of the new approach. As i indicated in my opening statement, they contained content inspections to close out without ensuring the corrective action has been implemented and is effective. Given these comments, can you explain how the faa is mitigating safety risks and holding air carriers accountable to appropriately maintain the fleet instead of this relaxed approach . Thank you, senator for the question. What i would like to do is set a larger Historical Context to let my colleague talk about specific issues with the ig report. Where we have arrived today in the Compliance Program is all about how do we identify risk and deal with safety proactively . Its not relaxed enforcement we still take enforcement. If you cant comply with standards, we will take appropriate action. This is a process that has been developed over two decades. I have been so long at the faa, i remember in the 1990s when we were facing significant challenge with the growth of air traffic and the accident rates wewere facing, potentially were going to face worldwide an accident every other week. This clearly was not going to be acceptable for the Aviation Industry. We had to find a different approach. This is what has developed, all whole process of working closely to find information from industry. Congress was a critical part of that, of setting up the voluntary reporting system. This is how we have developed the commercial aviation safety team, this process of being able to access information that was not disclosed to us and being able to take action for compliance. That does not mean that we do not do enforcement when there is egregious and criminal behavior. When you look at the accident rates in the 1990s versus where we are today as we said earlier, we had one fatality over 10 years, 7 billion passengers. Thats quite extraordinary. I would say the approach that we started in the 1990s and gradually developed has been successful. That said, it does not mean that there are not improvements. We continue to try to work and his input appreciate in the program on the maintenance and let me turn to elucidatei so he can there. Bahrami i just want to give you a number. That number is 23,000. From 2015, when the Compliance Program went into effect until recently, these are the number of compliance actions that have been identified. I can assure you that its virtually impossible for any audits to get to that number of finding throughout the system because no matter what we do, we go out and look at areas, we have traditionally found problems. If you look at the iceberg analogy, what we did in the past, we only saw the tip of the iceberg. What we are doing with the Compliance Program, we are actually getting below the waterline and we are getting into areas we have not necessarily been able to get into or do not have the knowledge to be able to understand because a lot of those issues come through operational understanding and the details of operations. So, i believe a Compliance Program has been very effective and will continue to be effective. The other point i want to point out, i am very thing thanks for the recommendation that came from the ig and gao is conducting a review of the effectiveness of the Compliance Program. An area that you mentioned, which is followthrough, that is an area of purpose. In fact, we are revisiting our training because in certain sectors of aviation, specifically ga, we have to get better. Sen. Reed i think our committee would be wellinformed if you could get back to us indicating when the report is official, indicating what corrective action you have taken, response, and any issues you have had. When it comes to safety, you cant do enough. I just want to thank miss lanford. Thank you for your help. As you have learned, you will be rewarded with more work. We will be back. Thank you. Sen. Collins thank you. Senator capito. Sen. Capito thank you. I apologize for being late. We had a markup in the Commerce Committee and i was unable to hear all of your statements so i apologize for that. Yount to begin with a thank to the faa. We had an issue at yegor airport. I see nodding heads. We had a hillside collapse in 2015 which wiped out our emergency overrun area and we had to literally do an act of congress so we were able to secure the grants to replace. We just had the final ribboncutting which will allow for a lot of safety issues, and if you have thrown into yeager, you know its on top of three i Three Mountains actually and it is critically important to have bigger planes coming in. So i just want to thank you all for all the work you did with our offices to make sure that happened. I do want to ask a question. Since i missed a lot of the testimony, i apologize if this been covered. But on the last hearing of the Commerce Committee i asked about Pilot Training in airworthiness between the lion air and the Ethiopian Air crashes. I am surmising that more stringent Simulator Training is has helped identify a separate Software Issue. Maybe this is not the best forum to ask a question, but hindsight is always really great. If you look at what you did after the lion air crash and then what youve done subsequent after this subsequent crash, ethiopian, would more Simulator Training or more simulator exercises after lion air have been able to have shown some of these things to light . I am just throwing that question out because i always wondered two is different than one and if you had been more aggressive and gone all out after the first crash, would we maybe have had better information . Mr. Bahrami thank you for that question, senator. First, i want to go back to the comment about through the simulator for testing that we found out the other anomalies. Shortcomings in the design. Thats not correct. Let me tell you why. What happened was through the system Safety Assessment and because of the accident, and all the work that we are doing today, we have canadians and brazilian colleagues supporting us, and based on the data from the preliminary accident report. We recognize that some of the actions these flight crews took was inconsistent with what we assumed, which is a function of action, which becomes a function of airmen training. What you read about, we identified a very remote failure case, and at that time, we said, you know, knowing what we know, we really need to go back and see if this occurs, can flight crews recover. And that is where we ended up with the simulator, to model that particular scenario, and see other pilots react. Once we did that, we recognized the decision with our test pilots, the level of proficiency that is required to recover from this event is exceptional, and because of that, we could not leave the decision to leave it as it is and not make the changes. That is why we are making the design changes, why the software is being incorporated. So, the simulator is not the one that identifies the issue. The actual system Safety Assessment identified, but we had to verify as part of our Flight Simulator testing. Sen. Capito so then it goes into the simulator as a scenario . Mr. Bahrami thats correct. An engineering simulator, and the difference between the regular simulator and engineering later, you have the flexibility to actually change certain systems. You cant do it in a regular simulator. So, we have a lot of latitude and we exercise those. I would say that on the decision to verify the assumption was based on the information being gathered by the two accidents. Sen. Capito thank you. Sen. Collins thank you. Senator boozman, did you have any questions . Senator hoeven . Sen. Hoeven i had a couple of questions i wanted to followup inford with regard to the airports. The city of bismarck wants to relocate the radar to a suitable location. Commercialward with to relocate the radar to a suitable location. I know you are not purchasing 11, of the digital chaoasr but will you work with us in order to accommodate that commercial growth and expansion . On that particular subject, senator, mr. Burlison would be better to handle that. Sen. Hoeven i will direct that traffic to mr. Burleson. Mr. Burleson we had challenges. At one time, we thought about replacing this, but the needs of changed. If the airport is interested in moving it, we have a number of agreements across the country which we have entered into with airport authorities. Since we dont have an operational need, we really cant pay for it. But we are more than willing to work with the airport if they are willing to pay for the move. It will create a challenge with temporary radar, but i have talked to air traffic folks. They are willing to explore options if there is a willingness to pay for the move to work out a temporary solution for the radar while we move the sr8. Sen. Hoeven thank you, at the university of north dakota, we have one of the 25 busiest airports in the country because of the university. People dont realize it, but they have more than 100 aircraft there. The students have over 100,000 hours at the airport last year alone. They have a master plan they are working on. I want to know if the faa will work with the grand Forks Airport to make sure that this master plan is finalized and the expansion project is green lit so they can continue to not only conduct the existing flights, but to grow. Ms. Lenfert, is this one you want to take . Ms. Lenfert i can take this one. Thank you for the question, senator. We are working very closely with the grand Forks Airport. I am very familiar with this project. I met with the director and representatives from the university of north dakota. We went through the whole project from beginning to end. We are working very closely with them on their master plan and we hope to have their airport layout plan approved and signed. In august. Sen. Hoeven thats pretty quick. Ms. Lenfert yeah. Theyve done their homework. Sen. Hoeven tomorrows good. Ms. Lenfert we hope. We are getting close, and we will be working with them closely to develop an Environmental Review once the alp and master plan is approved and we will work on a potential funding plan once we get past that. Sen. Hoeven i am glad i direct ed that question to you. How about the air Traffic Control tower . That is part of it too. Ms. Lenfert i believe we will start the design in august and once funding is complete, we we will look for funding to begin actual construction after that point. Thank you very much. Sen. Collins thank you. We will do one final round of questions. I know senator capito has one additional. Sen. Capito thank you. Have one additional question. We have two schools with aviation schools. I guess they are called the cti schools . In our hiring reform act, we did say you could hire out of giving prioritization to the schools for air Traffic Controllers. What is the faa doing . We always hear about how difficult that is. What are you doing to help schools stand up these College Training initiatives, or in general, what kind of help can we do to address these challenges to schools that are just beginning . Mr. Burleson thank you for the question. We have staff talking with congress on the act legislation and we certainly want to quite right with you because we do think it could be helpful. I think you missed earlier i made remarks to frame a larger issue that the aviation workforce, broadly, not just controllers, but pilots, technicians, we are very concerned. Sen. Capito i was talking more about the pilots. Mr. Burleson we are very concerned about the future workforce. We are taking steps to broaden the pipeline of young people into the workforce as well as improve proficiency and training. We are working very diligently to try to lay out frameworks. Our regional administrators have been doing a lot of outreach. I think we have increased fourfold the number of activities to increase future aviation professionals. We are very interested in this area and certainly would be glad to talk with you and your staff as a follow up. Sen. Capito thank you. Thank you. Sen. Collins thank you. I am going to switch to issues that affect the state of maine. Ms. Langford, this question is for you. At the Budget Hearing and march, i described an accident that occurred at an airport in northern maine where a commuter airplane hit the ground, balanced numerous times, injured three individuals, terrified everyone on the plane, and the plane itself sustained substantial damage. And the secretary committed with us to working to improve the safety at the airport. I know you have been instrumental in helping the airport to secure funds for better snow equipment removal, snow removal equipment. But we have a problem when you have a Severe Weather condition in this small airport like this. Could you provide us with an update on what else faa is exploring to improve the safety of this regional airports. Thank you, senator. To note, the followup on your request, the faa has made satellitebased procedures available at the airport. We are also currently continuing our investigation of this particular accident, working with traffic partners and the actual operators, the ntsb and of the parts of the faa to determine what were the causal factors in this particular factors in this incident. Its not just one incident that causes the accident. In the meantime, we are preparing to work with the airport. We work with them to procure additional snow removal equipment. Once the final investigation is completed, we will continue to work with them to make sure they have a safe and efficient operation. Sen. Collins thank you very much. Thank you for your assistance in that matter. Mr. Burleson. And if this question should not be direct to do you, feel free to pass it on to one of your colleagues. I am hearing a lot of complaints from my constituents in South Portland about increased noise from aircraft landing above their homes at night, often just 600 to 1000 feet above their homes. While most aircraft use the harbor visual approach over casco bay during the daytime, they cannot rely on visual ground references at nighttime, and instead, they have to fly directly over the city. The portland jet ports has submitted to the faa a request for a new required navigational performance or rnp approach to provide another option for incoming flights that would approximate the visual roots at nighttime. Route at nighttime. The faa claims very few of the aircraft coming into portland have the equipment to be able to use it but if you take into consideration the fact that only commercial aircraft are causing the noise complaints at nights, more than 21 of the aircraft would be able to use this new approach. I am seeking from you a commitment to take a hard look at this in to consider working with the portland jet board to get the rnp approach approved as quickly as possible. Or if that is not the right answer, help us come up with the right answer to deal with this noise problem for the residents of South Portland. Mr. Burleson senator, i am glad to make that commitment. I was provided the same information. Only about eight percent of the aircraft are capable of an rnp approach. I will say, i understand that our air traffic have gone back to the noise round table with another proposal, which is to change waypoints on existing procedures to see if that might also help address noise, given the problems but we recognize aircraft noise can be considerable problem with local communities. We are taking a lot of steps nationally. Increasing technology, better communication roundtables, trying to take advantage of next technologies to reduce noise. I am glad to commit to work with the roundtable to see what might be possible. Sen. Collins thank you. The jet port tells me that when you look, the fact that it is commercial aircraft creating the noise, the number who could use this new approaches 21 , so that could make a significant difference, but you have a lot of expert sees expertise in this area and a very much appreciate your commitment to work with the community and the jet port. Senator reed . Sen. Reed i simply want to point out that you can stop at Providence Rhode island at the tsa screening and whatever you can i appreciate that stop at Tf Green International airport. Madam, thank you. Sen. Collins i will be certain to submit several questions to the record for you. On drones and the integration of them into the airspace, and also, the issue of counter drones and why faa is not enthusiastic about that approach, or so it appears. We will do that and i know that senator reed will have additional questions for the record. I want to thank each of you for being here today. I want to follow up on a comment senator durbin made earlier about the Government Shutdown. I want to applaud the work of the faa during the shutdown. That was an extremely difficult faaod of time and the really rose to the challenge, and so i want to thank you for that. The faa did not cause the shutdown. The shutdown never should have occurred. Shut downs never produce good results and they are never worthwhile. Appreciate how hard your agency work to get it through that very difficult period. I know it did set back one of the contracts for the next gen by, i believe, around seven months and that is the unseen consequence. Those are the unseen consequences of Government Shutdowns. It prevents agencies from Going Forward with needed projects. And the irony is, we end up spending more in many cases than if government had remained open. I just wanted to add my comments on that. I appreciate each of you being here today and candidly answering our questions. We will know more after the investigations are finished. I know that you are committed to finding out exactly what happened with the max and making sure that we have procedures and staff and resources in place to prevent such an accident from ever happening again and claiming not only 346 lives, but also causing tremendous heartache for the families and friends of those who were killed. This hearing record will remain open until next friday. August 9, and this hearing is now adjourned. Thank you. [gavel] announcer the white house did not release a weekly address. Senator chris murphy of connecticut gave the weekly democratic address, focused on health care coverage. Each week, i walk 100 miles across my state from one end to the other. Findked to everybody i can about what matters to them, what worries them, and what congress should be doing to help. Every year when i have done this walk, health care is the dominant issue people raise. A few years ago, a young woman tracked my route on social media and staked out a spot on the side of the road, waiting an hour to talk to me about her lupus diagnosis. She told me without protections for people with