Transcripts For CSPAN3 FAA 20240704

Ordered. I was reminded members wishing to insert documents in the record please also email the documents i dont recognize myself for the purpose of an Opening Statement for five minutes. Thank you for being here administrator whitaker. I want to first off congratulate you for your unanimous confirmation vote. As you know achieving Something Like that in todays times is quite remarkable. Really appreciate your expertise head look forward to working with you. I hope you understand the strong support from congress but also enormous recognition of the responsibility of the job youve now taken on. We have heard a lot of descriptions about americas Aviation Industry. Everything about its the Gold Standard, its a leading edge of technology we have also seen in recent months we have had incredible challenges in the Aviation Industry. I cannot say enough the Aviation Industry needs to be successful. It used to be successful in terms of promoting technology, regulatory stability, safety and importantly often folks lose sight of is the Passenger Experience. Every american enjoys enormous benefits of a collaborative work commercial aviation has never been safer or more prosperous Aerospace Industry moves hundreds of moans of people every year creates millions of jobs, trillions of dollars in Economic Activity and a critical pillar of National Defense maintain your Gold Standard aviation standard in the United States should be an Urgent National priority. But the only guaranteed Gold Standard but got us there yesterday is not going to be what keeps us there tomorrow. In the past year and as i noted we have seen several aircraft manufacturing defects aircraft while fires, whole Passenger Air frame destroyed by fire near misses at our airports, Pilot Mental Health issues, general aviation accidents poor Airline Customer service especially for disabled passengers and other challenges. The subcommittees received testimony about struggles the agency has integrating drones and air mobilitys commercial space transportation and cybersecurity into our National Airspace updating the technology that is needed to ensure the efficiency and performance of her air Traffic Control systems. For each and every one of those instances you can find a provision in the house passed faa bill to address those issues. Im going to say that again. For every one of those issues you can find provisions of the house passed faa bill to address these issues. I want to remind you we passed that bill months and months ago well before the september 30 expiration. That did not happen by mistake we worked methodically want to thank german Ranking Member larsen Ranking Member leaders sam graves chairman sam graves and all the Aviation Team for plowing through literally thousands and thousands of stakeholder, public, member of Congress Requests that ultimately yielded a strong bipartisan bill. Despite the differences the house was successful in passing that bill of a vote of the 351 to 69 similar to your confirmation vote in these times that is absolute ordinary. Since the passage of the bill has received support from the aviation sector general Aviation Business aviation, manufacturers manufacturers, innovators, labor members of the faa own workforce commercial aviation, groups representing passengers, airports and on and on. The house produce legislation makes it transformative changes in the Passenger Experience and a private aviation. It provides innovators of the Unmanned Aerial Systems in advance air mobility space the regulatory certainty they need to deploy some of the most advanced technologies we have seen in aviation. We also make meeting for reforms and processes Position Agency to manage everexpanding Aviation System the bill contains numerous provisions aimed at improving aviation safety. With all the recent incidents, accidents, near misses and problems theres nothing short of malpractice this cent is not bothered to even mark up the faa reauthorization bill. The senates repeated failure has destroyed 650 Million Dollars in airport investments this year alone. An delayed enactment urgently needed Safety Measures and reforms. Theres never been a worse time to leave the fa unauthorized at that is where the senate in action has left us. You are doing the best that you can with a job that you have mrs clear to me the senates inability to do its job has realworld consequences directly affect American Leadership in aviation and in the safety of the traveling public we said ready, willing, able to negotiate the reauthorization bill, when the senate is ready hopefully you can do something to help us with that mr. Administrator hopefully the conversation we had to beat source underscore the urgency of getting a longterm comprehensive reauthorization bill signed into law. And i yelled. I not recognize Ranking Member cohen for five minutes for an Opening Statement. Think it mr. Gerry just went to said disgrace every thing he said. We need to fund ukraine in israel the same time quick sound like her to listen to it. [laughter] thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you it mr. Whitaker for coming before us today such an important time with aviation and we appreciate that. It is important we have leadership thats a thing i heard most from people in the industry and my six, seven, eight months as we need and administer a think everybodys pleased with your selection. We have had the recent problems is not your fault with boeing bg 737 max nine with a Japanese Airline collision, increase runway incursions have been around for a while. And i know that is on top of your mind is getting something straightened out with the potential intersections of airlines on the faa and Getting Better air Traffic Controllers or more air Traffic Controllers and we need to get a pipeline going to get more. The faa prompt response of the january 5 boeing incident is commendable in the grounding of the one or 70 aircraft in which youve done there i think everyone agrees with and appreciates. Boeing must be held accountable because as you have said and others have said safety is first that needs to be made clear. As this incident and that max eight crash complacency is a luxury we cannot afford right now its aviation safety boeing and the faa oversight lets make necessary changes so accidents dont happen again endorsed flying off in the middle of the air and planes falling out of the sky or whatever. The faa and ntsb investigations into this as subcommittee will send ready to work with you and all parties from the legislative changes necessary but of course the first thing we need to do is get reauthorization bill passed trade we have done our job now its your job to get the senate to do their job. I want to thank all the fa employees who work day and night to ensure no stone was left unturned when it came to reviewing max and nine inspection instruction as well as the Airline Maintenance technicians for implementing these instructions to ensure that aircraft can safely transport passengers again. Ntsb chair did a great job she is having some of us over for a briefing later today and showing us some of the problems we appreciate that. She has been thorough. Based on whats been communicated to us in the public thus far that work has been outstanding. We must ever can we can to pastor next reauthorization the next deadline march 8 is quickly approaching. We need her Senate Colleagues to act. Because we need to make sure air Traffic Control has more people and more beefed up. There are tricky issues with reauthorization a bipartisan way to find Common Ground of possibility contains hundreds of provisions that preserve and enhance Aviation System and ensure robust future for u. S. Aviation. That bill passed by overly bipartisan margin and we hope the senate can be bipartisan as well. I look forward to your testimony. I push at the work of chairman graves, Ranking Member larsen and the other chairman we put together good bill we hope we can have a success and confidence of the American Public airplanes flying and we dont lose business air bus. The french have already made overtures with they are trying to do to make sure there are safer planes produced all over the world. But particular their thinking the france airbus thats an important industry. Good luck, thank you. Think you rank member cohen and i reckon its a chairman for the full Committee Chairman sam greyser five minutes records thank you and rank member cohen for the hearing and thank you administrator whitaker for coming in. Its a pleasure to have you before the Aviation Committee. The nights its Aviation System has been a major focus of our committees work this congress. Last year we overwhelmingly as has been the theme here so far today, overwhelmingly passed a competence of bipartisan Aviation Administration reauthorization that is going to dramatically improve american aviation and the faa. The bill as it has been pointed out that many improvements been held up in the senate for more than six months. The senate it appears the senate is poised to resume its markup of the bill in a few days and i look forward to seeing if it finally happens and i look forward to sitting down with her Senate Commerce committee counterparts and start reconciling the two bills. Serious issues within the Aviation System have played out time and time again on the nightly news in my opinion the consequences of having no longterm fa bill are exacerbating. Now more than ever american aviation faa needs bold direction from congress and we cannot afford business as usual or half measures our bill will secure the growth and robust leadership the American People deserve an Aerospace System more progress continues to move the fa reauthorization for the finish line we are looking or depending on your to pick up that slack. Many of the provisions of the house passed bill are noncontroversial can be implemented by the fa without Additional Authority from congress and i would urge you and your staff to start laying the groundwork for an expeditious and Efficient Agency implementation of the provisions with congressional intent. In line with congressional intent. Today is a great opportunity for members to highlight the aviation there aviation produce the matters to them and ensure their issues are heard. Aunt understood and hopefully are addressed. We also want to hear your impressions of the agency are since you have taken over the agency centric confirmation what your priorities are ongoing obviously moving forward and finally we look forward to hearing an update on what the faa is doing regarding flight 1282 accident and what you have learned so far. I dont to thank you administrator and your staff for your very Effective Communication so far relating to the incidents and your related findings that you have found so far. Open communication i think is important. Its very important components in the committee having confidence in the actions taken by the faa and i hope this continues as the agency progresses with its oversight work and audits we all share the same goal of ensuring the safety of our Aviation System and maintaining that Gold Standard that we all talk about. With that, thank you again for coming before the committee and with that i yield back the balance of my time too. Piglets thank you mr. Treatment Ranking Member Esther Larson for five minutes per. Think your chair just one more administrator whitaker, thank you for joining us today. Appreciate it very much weve got a lot to discuss. This hearing comes at a critical time. First we have to review the implementation of 2018 reauthorization which expired last september. Secco it to continue to push for the passage of a competence of longrange 2023 faa reauthorization which passed the house last july and finally we must examine problems the recent exposed. Safety has always been this committees top priority the Aviation System here in the u. S. Is responsible for safely transporting hundreds of millions of passengers each year without fear of harm or injury. Americans have to have the full confidence in her Aviation System and that confidence must be justified this committee must ensure the fa has the resources and tools it needs to effectively conduct its investigations, its audit enforce of actions. As always be apt to remain vigilant to ensure Something Like this accident the likelihood of this accident happening is decreased substantially. I generate for 7 30 seven was a terrifying to everyone on board but thanks the call professional actions from the flight crew everyone landed safely. Fully support is this committee does the fas decisive response to the accident which included grounding the affected max nine fleet. A separate investigation into whether boeing delivered a noncompliant aircraft to its customer, an overarching audit of boeing max production line, suppliers and prohibition increasing by 137 max production rate untils Quality Control issues are resolved. Unfortunates out the first time weve seen aircraft Quality Control issues in recent history. May of 21 then share deposit route to the department of the faa into boeing with concerns about no less than nine reports of Quality Control issues their production facilities for it since then thereve been dozens reports of similar issues leading to emergency fixes and delays in production. The Safety Culture of any organization flows from the top and i urge the boeing leadership to take time come it now, to examine the culture. They it is currently instilled and to improve. Including the recommendation for the boeing Safety Culture review. Boeing has some of the most skilled hardworking proficient workers in the world. They depend on their leadership to instill the right policies so they can effectively do their jobs. The women and men deserve answers and the public deserves answers. I also forge a ntsb playwright report and the findings of the faa investigation. I will continue to work with the chairs of the committee on the Ranking Member. On the action say for the safety and or skies. Moving onto reauthorization. The community continue its oversight of the max nine response we cannot forget her other responsibilities to pass it fa bill in july. We are waiting senate action. This creates framework for safer, and more innovative and accessible u. S. Aviation system. Aviation safety at numerous safety gaps were enumerated in recent Safety Review Team report. The house bill addresses these issues including hiring of air Traffic Control the installation of Service Surveillance and technologies and the administrative whitaker and i look forward to hearing your takeaways from the safety review report with the fas doing to implement the recommendations. We have to do more to ensure all passengers can travel safely and with dignity the house bill improves trading for Airline Personnel and contractors on assisting travelers with disabilities and mobility devices and directs dot to reduce damage to wheelchairs and mobility aid. Mistreat or where quicker i want to hear the fas work with dot and the airlines to do more for passengers with disabilities. We are a talented aviation workforce in this country the fa reit authorization bill triples fighting for the faas aviation workforce develop programs to expand the Talent Pipeline to all americans. La porte here with fa can do more to recruit, train and retain the expertise that we need to leading globally. We also have to provide a clear printable framework for innovators to scale new entrants safely while ensuring the needs of local committees are addressed. Our bill requires faa as an example to issue beyond visual line of sight requirements for Drone Operations and ensuring their safe integration into the skies and crating jobs Rate Administrator i want to hear more about the fa is doing the rulemaking in your work to integrate these technologies. The recent boeing 7379 max door plug accident is yet a reminder of what is at stake if we continue to delay addressing systemic safety issues in u. S. Aviation ecosystem. That is in part why the senate needs to move the bill forward so we can certainly negotiate long term reauthorization to ensure the faa and ntsb have the authoritys and resources that they need to do their important work. Thank you very much i yield back. Think you Ranking Member larsen recognized Ranking Member for instructions for. Think administrator whitaker you probably know these things but theres a lighting system in front of you. Green get started, yellow get ready to end, wrap it up. Read it is over. Asking nose consent the witnesses. Must be included in the record without objection so ordered. I also rescued hims consent tohis hearing remain open until such time as our witnesses have a right answer certain questions and may be submitted in writing without objection so ordered. In the last to know hims consent the record for 15 days from additional comments in addition information about members of witnesses to be created in todays hearing without objection so ordered. Three in a row. I yield your on projects that objection pickwick so ordered, thank you. Drinking member larsen. Again administrator would to welcome you come appreciate you being here today. Written testimonies been included as part of the wreck of the subcommittee asked the limit the oral remarks to five minutes without administrator whitaker you are recognized. Thank you chairman graves redgate members larson and cohen and members of the subcommittee thank you for giving me the opportunity to discuss the current and future priorities of the faa. Our number one priority is safety. Recent events especially generate fifth incident involving the boeing 737 max nine have shown us we cannot become complacent when it comes to maintaining safety and Public Confidence in the Aviation System. Since being sworn in as administrator i have focused on addressing potential risks to the safety of our National Airspace particularly in three areas. Significant safety events, air Traffic Controller hiring and continuous safety improvements. Last year it was on uptick in significant safety events including a runway incursions and close calls around airports. In response faa tasked independent Safety Review Team to look into these issues for they provided a report to me in november and we have already begun implementing many of those recommendations. To mitigate the risk of incursions we are pursuing a range of strategies and Solutions Including better data analytics, pilot control outreach improved airport signage, red and white and taxi weight redesign. We are also committed to continued development and deployment of technologies that enhance runway safety. We will continue to work this issue until we reach our goal of zero significant safety events. The safety at the u. S. Aviation system is due in large part to the scale and dedicated air Traffic Controllers who work the system. To maintain her Safety Record the agency must accelerate the pace of recruiting, training and hiring to meet increasing Traffic Volume while also integrating safely new technologies and new entrants into our system. We are taking immediate steps to grow the controller workforce through several key initiatives. We are filling every seat at our air Traffic Controller academy in oklahoma city. We are expanding the use of advanced training and facilities across the country including upgrading simulators and 95 towers. Just this last week we installed the first tower at Austin Airport in texas. We are working with aeronautical colleges to move graduates quickly to onthejob training. We have initiate yearround hiring for experience controllers from the military or from private industry. During my first three months it is administered and met with controllers in boston, philadelphia, dallas, here at d. C. And the tower. In those conversations controller fatigue came up repeatedly as a top concern. Because in large part by shifting schedules challenging overtime requirements. Increasing our control will help mitigate risks associated with controller fatigue. Additionally we have set up a panel of fatigue experts to review the latest science on sleep needs and how that can be applied to work requirements and scheduling. Expect to receive the panels report later this spring. The third priority is continuously improve our safety processes and procedures. For example our air Traffic Safety Oversight Department now reports directly to me. This gives me unfiltered candid feedback on the state and quality of the organization. We are also exploring how the agency can improve data, accessibility and collaborate with stakeholders to collect and analyze data across our Aviation System. Data is crucial to identifying and mitigating significant risks and emerging safety trends. To support these efforts are planned to hold the discussion tomorrow with Senior Leadership for major u. S. Airlines on how we can share information more transparently and improve her Safety Management system. The need to be vigilant on safety came clearly into focus on january 5 with the incident involving Alaska Airlines flight 1282 and left it made cabin door plug blew out of a boeing 737 max nine shortly after departure. I want to commend the flight and cabin crews for their professionalism, and heroic actions to ensure the safety of everyone on board during that emergency. Less than 24 hours falling the incident fa took Decisive Action to ground wondered seven max nine airplanes but we then approved a thorough inspection and maintenance process that was performed at each of a grounded aircraft prior to returning to service. We begun an audit of boeings production Quality Control practices and we have informed boeing the faa will not grant any production expansion of the max until we are satisfied Quality Control issues uncovered during this process or result. Going forward will have more boots on the ground closely scrutinizing and monitoring production and manufacturing activities. Boeing employees are encouraged to use fa hotline to report any safety concerns. Let me stress the safety of the flying public is our mission we will continue to inform our decisionmaking going forward. I am honored to lead the team of more than dedicated employees who work every day to meet our mission of the best and safest Aviation System in the world. I am confident our agencys ability to address our current challenges and those that lie ahead. I also want to confirm as chairman graves alluded to to really commend the bipartisan effort in the house toward completing longterm faa reauthorization bill. I look forward to work with congress as it finalizes this a vital legislation. Thank you for your continued support of faa and i look for to answer your questions. Thank you administrator, it records myself for questions. 2020 Congress Passed the aircraft certification safety and accountability act. Under sponsor design flaws that contributed to the crashers of two boeing 737 max aircraft. One of the provisions of the bill requires aircraft manufacturers to implement Safety Management systems. Given what you have learned so far from the Alaska Airlines flight 1282 incidents and challenges bowing his head with Quality Controls the faa considering further action with sms requirements for Aircraft Parts suppliers or others involved in the aircraft manufacturing whether that be rulemaking, regulatory changes or requesting changes in the law . Think youre chairman thats a great question. The sms process is the Core Technology for our system. Boeing has been involuntarily voluntarilydeploying that syste. One thing we have learned in this particular set of circumstances with the alaska flight is we need to make sure they are talking to each other. Make sure you get all the data we can from the system and have the tools analyze those. To your specific question their rule that is out there covers manufacturers it is not necessarily cover all the component part manufacturers but oem has the ability to impose those terms by contract we would expect part of their safety measure system they would insist on those types of controls particularly key suppliers Like Aerospace pre thank you office of the committee is going to be working very close to an ntsb to make sure you get this right. Administered and going to be really candid looking back at whats happened in the aftermath of the max incidences i cannot help but think the faa had a lot of trouble walking and chewing gum candidly. I think they really struggled with being able to carry out all of their duties and responsibilities and so i want to hurt Ranking Member larsen bring it up as well. Be on a visual line of sight a vision Rulemaking Committee estimated final report fa nearly two years ago but i dont think it was perfect its a pretty good roadmap on how to move forward can you give some projection for the Aviation Industry should be expecting in that regard . I think there has been a lot of interaction with stakeholders and i know from my roles before taking this position there has been some frustration on how quickly that might be moving. We do expect to have the mpr m out this year. It is that priority we will continue to push the forward. I cannot emphasize enough how important i think it is for the faa to be able to manage all of its various functions to maintain certain predictability these new entrants need into market but we are also continuing to advance our Gold Standard of safety in the United States last question pre i agree with that. Thank you. Administrator there are provisions in the 2016 faa bill and 2018 faa bill that have not been fully implemented yet. Here we are advancing and 900 page 23 or 24 faa authorization bill. The house and senate bills have a number of identical provisions. While it is very difficult to improve upon perfection the senate is trying to add some new things. I want to hear from you what is the faa doing to ensure theyre going to hit the ground running and be able to comply with it implement this in bill in a manner that is as urgent as the law is in regards to addressing the number of the safety Passenger Experiences that we have salts of the legislation . What i can say is i can commit to when this bill passes we will work hard to Work Together to have work plans at all these various initiatives and communicate with you and our expectations as far as when we can meet those. I think we can do is mixture of good open communication about how we will execute on the provisions of that bill. Administered in my 30 seconds here i am just going to say as much blood, sweat, tears as the folks appear the Aviation Team has gone through over the past two years and for the legislation together striving to reach bipartisan consensus and addressing many of the urgent issues in the Aviation Industry i am hopeful the faa will treat the implementation of the same urgency we have been putting the legislation together pre we will and we appreciate that effort. Thank you. Recognize frank member for five minutes pre thank you sir. Mr. Administrator, what parts of the production oversight and Quality Assurance of the boeing airplanes are delegated by the faa to the manufacturer and how does the faa oversee boeing representatives when theyre thg this delegated functions . There are a couple of answers to the question one is we have tasked to look at a technical level front where the delegations are and what our options are as with respect to the allegations Quality Control and Quality Assurance are a key function for a manufacturer. Normally falls in the purview of that manufacturer that theres no reason to not have those function done by a third party so i think that is something we want to look at as well. At a macro level with manufacturing there has been an oversight approach thats focused heavily on audits. Checking the paperwork to make sure it is correct to making sure the systems are in place. We are migrating to a system i would call on it plus. Will have more of a surveillance component much like you would find on the flight line or the maintenance where inspectors are on the ground talking to people and looking at the work thats being done. With audit and inspection which while removing inspectors in. I presume we look at whats been done around the country around the world and get best practices in all these things . Would like to think we are best practices for. I like to bit airbus clinic claims that pre we do Pay Attention to what others are doing. I think in this case we know what we need to do next which is to have more on the ground presence to verify what is going on for. Thank you sir. The committee passed into law the aircraft certification safety and accountability act which was a direct response to the max eight crashes can you provide an update to us on the faas implementation of that has been particular the sections we highlighted in the letter we sent you last week . I can. The sections you specifically highlighted we have completed much of that work. You highlighted on zero two of sms that rule has been pushed out. When systems are being deployed. The cultured Service Section 103 is due within a month we are very much looking forward to getting that data around boeing Safety Culture. That will inform some of our adjustments to the risk model approach. We have updated the policy under 107. We have completed standing up you see and sc for compliance under 122 and 125 inc. Oda best practices into our process provokes thank you syrup it i took two of my pet issues which are also important issues. That is evacuation of airplanes that requires 90 seconds and also seat size that say for safe to ingress and egress. We passed laws to say they had to do a study on seat size and evacuation. What they did on evacuation was embarrassingly poor. Did not have a model of what aircraft looks like with the passengers did it nobody over 60 years of age nobody under seven or eight they claim those for liability purposes they also did not have any dogs on their or packages or people with disabilities et cetera, et cetera. There were 26000 comments in response to that seat act the faa requested Public Comments of 26000 comments. What can we expect to issue a final rule on the issue of seat dimensions . I am emily with the work thats gone on around that and its comments. I think its important for us to make it distinction what might be economic regulation what the safety regulation. A lot focused on i want more legroom type of comment versus safety provisions. Or taking those into account typically with evacuations the problems attendant to be piling up at the exits rather than getting out of the seats. We have trouble identifying issues around difficulty with seats. There piling up on the exits but all of that information has been considered we will certainly take your feedback a swelter provokes think of going to close out but a preacher giving serious consideration to getting this done seat size does have to do with getting out of the plane. If you are crowded and there you got somebody next to you who is physically challenged because of the girth and makes it difficult to get out i cannot imagine people in japan it was 18 minutes. If you work on 90 seconds work on the seat size work on a safety and comfort could be the same. I yield back. X thank you the chairman will differ. Next i think the chairman, thank you administrator whitaker going to start off with a couple perfunctory questions would you agree Airport Improvement Program 19 operations and maintenance requires a file you want to read this right out of the manual the airport facilities which are necessary to serve users of the airport other than facilities owned by or controlled by the United States shall be operated at all times of the safe and serviceable condition and in accordance with the minimum standards for maintenance and operation. It will not cause or permit any activity or actions thereon which would interfere with its use for airport purposes. Do you agree with that . Im not familiar with it but it sounds right. Would you also agree faa airport compliance manual section 226 request for interim use of aeronautical property for other uses general requires the faa to approve the use of airport facilities for non aeronautical purposes and affected explicitly states the faa approval shall not be granted if the faa determines the aeronautical demands as a likely to exist is in the period of interim use . I believe thats accurate thats my understated work thats right out of the manual ill give it to if you want to see it. So these documents from the faa make it abundantly clear airports are restricted in their ability to use the facilities for non aeronautical purposes and when they are doing that or when they are requesting so they must receive faa approval. Restrictions are in place to protect the flying public and the safety pay but also to protect the investments of taxpayers have made with the federally funded airports. Yet i will tell you i have seen a disturbing trend in cities choosing to use their airports such as chicago ohare, midway, bostons logans as facilities to house illegal foreign nationals brought here by the administrations im going to say failure to enforce immigration laws on the books. That clearly falls in my mind into the category of non aeronautical use. Now, my question to you is has the faa approved a request use airports to house illegal foreign nationals . To your explanation the faa does have a role pre i know it does im just asking you are the administrator has the faa approved any request to house illegal for nationals . Or im going to answer that if you will let me. It is my understanding progress just went use the time efficiently. So the faa does approve a requests for Community Use. Whatever the category theres a huge number of categories for Community Use in our criteria is whether it interrupts aeronautical uses or is otherwise disruptive. So how many requests have been approved for housing illegal for nationals . My understanding is theres one airport that is made that request regrets the others that i mentioned. Was the one who made the request any of the ones i mention . I believe it was either kennedy or ohara cannot remember regrets could be ohare. It would not beat midway logo and yet their housing illegal for nationals at the airport. Did the faa make the required determination no aeronautical demand is likely to exist . This is an airport i am reading right from your regulation here chapter 22. 6. Did the faa make that determination . The determination was a did it didnot interfere with aeronal uses. So in that case i guess the faa wont enforce its grant assurances which it says right here will literally number one these assurances shall be complied with and performance of grant agreements for airport development, airport planning, compatibility programs grants for airport sponsors so the federal government is paying for it, they make the agreement, agreed to it and then dont follow it the faa is not going to do a thing about it. I want to yield some time to a friend but let me just ask this question how does walling off portions of the airport to house unvented for nationals which passengers in america have to walk beside . These are unvented illegal foreign nationals how does that promote safety or utility or efficiency in these airports . I think youre out of my area of expertise are not familiar with that regrets and answers a question going to yield some time to my good friend from texas. To my good friend from texas. Mr. Administrator im going to reference a letter dated february 5, 20242 Maria Cantwell and honorable ted cruz are you familiar with this letter on february 5 that you sent . Im not sure the topic is. Im going to make sure because ive just like im going to michigan a copy of this letter i have a lot of questions regarding this letter i yield back. Thank you. The gentleman yields back i recognize Ranking Member of the full committee mr. Larson for five minutes. Thank you thank you administrator for coming here today and helping us out for the first question having your testimony mention hotline that workers can call as well as a whistleblower hotline could shoot mike you have that phone number can you for the record state what it is can you remind folks where they can go in order to make that call . We have a link on our website faa. Gov you can go fine access to that hotline. We have also set up specific hotline for boeing employees which we have had communicated out of the factory so they can reach us directly progresses out of fa. Gov as well . Yes it is. That include in spirit as well. We do have inspectors in spirit as well, yeah. And thats new. Can you give us the range of the numbers of people that youve deployed into the boeing two dozen at boeing and maybe half a dozen at spirit. And can you give an indication whether that will be permanent or short term, as part of a permit solution . We are undertaking a sixweek. Make a determination on how many poll folks we need on the ground but i do anticipate we would want to keep people on the ground. We dont know how many yet but we do think the presence its influence in your decisionmaking of oda authorities and how you wish to pull back from boeing . I think the i think the events of january 5th, it really created two issues for us. But two, whats going on with the production at boeing and issues in the past and dont seem to be getting resulted but we feel like we need to have a heightened level of oversight to get after that and triggered by the maximum. But nothing no permanent decision yet about removing some authority from the oda authorization at boeing. Weve aye heard boeing ceo mention option for third party Quality Control so i think its important that we look at all options on the table and how do we make changes that are going to make results that we have. I want to move to little bit more to the faa. We passed jokingly asked you ahead of time, i was going to ask but we really want to impress upon the senate and how important and try to get it down and how important it is to get a final bill done. Is there anything in the bill, anything that you would have needed ahead of this or you would have ahead of january 5th or do you have everything that you need at least for this particular investigation . Well, i will make two comments. We really appreciate the effort on the bill because it creates huge amount of disruption and aye only been there 3 months and probably had a dozen meetings on what happens if theres a shutdown, what happens if we dont have authorization so it creates uncertainty for us. I dont see anything in particular that its possible i will come back in six months and tell you that we need something. I think we are going the need more boots on the ground. We dont have that many inspectors on the aircraft certification side of the house. So that will be an addition and we havent scoped that the and we can do that in authorities as long as we can find the funds for it. So i did outline some of the issues in the 23 bill. Meet faa equivalent levels of safety and we know its something that we need and help address that shortage of potentially 3,000 maybe more, maybe less air Traffic Control certified controllers and bring us up to speed on what the faa has done since november to implement a new enhanced cti program, whats being done. So weve done what we are trying to do is make sure that the schools are duplicating the curriculum that we teach at the academy and what physical tools and things of that nature to put together a very clear curriculum and the Academic Year 2425. We are executing so that we start to see graduates from the schools to see faa to be controllers. The immediacy of the issue why we are pushing forward. Of the couple dozen cti schools out there half of them able to start training students beginning in the fall. Do you see new programs opening up as a result of your efforts . I would like to see that. It hasnt been our initial focus. We are working with schools that are already in the space but i dont see any reasons why other schools specifically with technical bent cant have this program as well. Okay. Thats the extent of my questioning, mr. Chairman. I yield back the remainder of my time. Thank you very much, mr. Chairman and to the administrator. Thank you for being here for coming to speak today, your first hearing before this committee and americans are upset, they have a right to be upset. Make no mistake this was a close call, too close, the incident along with reports of near misses of planes colliding as they depart and arrive at americas ports in the past year, unacceptable to all of us on this committee. We need to pass the comprehensive federal aviation reauthorization bill as currently sitting in the United States senate. It gives faa, this administrator the tools they need to enforce safety rules and prevent catastrophe. In this very committee we crafted a strong bipartisan 5year faa bill and the house passed it nearly unanimously and now the senate needs to do theirs as quickly as possible. You are the head of aviation oversight and safety, i want to underscore what the Ranking Member has discussed here today in terms of oversight particularly on Production Facility inspections. A crucial part of making sure our planes are safe. Section 521 calls for faa to update the risk model used to enforce frequency of the inspections and couple of sentences explain how the agency determine it is frequency and inspections on production. The agency uses a risk model with respect to manufacturers. Survey to identify the level of risk and how many inspections will be driven by that. That model will likely evolve based on the role of sms systems which reduce risk and better insight on what is happening also in the case of boeing Culture Survey that we expect to receive later this month. That is recent trend of mishandled or damaged wheelchairs by aviation passengers. The recent trend incidents by commercial airlines raises concerns of passengers with disabilities. How was faa work to go prevent the incidents and improve accessibility for air travel, people with disabilities. Thank you, sir, the dot has a large role in this the how customers were treated on aircraft so we work closely in supporting dot to make sure accessibility is an option and innovations can happen to make sure that is how would increasing deployment of technology affect air Traffic Controls . I think nearmisses is theres ability to have tailored solutions for each airport. Every airport has its own challenges. Awareness technologies or tools in the tower can really make a difference and avoid mishaps. I want to thank you for faa, Gateway Airport is the biggest Traffic Control tower in the region. Contributes 2 billion to the economy. 14. 4 million in the infrastructure law funds. Ribbon cutting will be held in a couple of weeks. Cooperation between faa and arizona delegation and congress has been crucial to this growth and i look forward to a continued strong working partnership to implement innovative ways to increase capacity at gateway. With that, i thank you. I yield back. Thank you. Recognize the gentleman from afor five minutes. Thank you, chairman grace. Thank you, administrator. I want to follow up with colleague mr. Perrys line of questioning. I know that your whole testimony was basically about safety and we all want safe airports. Mr. Perry read to you from the manual about how airport has to be approved by faa and you stated that one airport had approval to be used for the nonair nautical purpose for housing migrants. To my knowledge this is not an issue and ive only been there three months. Its my understanding that applications are only involved if its behind security, so other properties on airports dont come through our office for approval. Its really just behind security properties. Do you think they found a way around that . I assume they are in compliance, i have not heard otherwise. Our role to make sure that our proper procedures are followed . This is an issue that i didnt think we would have to deal with in congress. Aye chaired the committee on Natural Resources and we have a similar issue with National Park service land for the administration has approved use of National Park service land to build migrant shelters which this is kind of crazy that you would think that that would even be an issue but it has happened and in researching the the process, how that happens it appears that maybe secretary mayorkas had more to do than that than doi secretary. Are you aware of any meetings between secretary mayorkas and secretary buttigieg, using airports to house migrants . Im not aware of any no. Are you aware of any meetings with other dot the or dhs officials to discuss this issue . I am not. Have you been in any neatings ms regarding this . I have in the had meetings. Resent a letter to chairman grace, chairman of the full committee, 60 some odd members found letter last november asking about this issue and as of today received no response. I know that youre new but why do you think we would be getting delayed response on this issue . I dont know but im happy to follow up after ward. Youll follow up with secretary buttigieg as well . I will follow up on the status of the letter as well and i will let you know. Amazing that this is something thats been documented in the news and there seems to be no response from the administration and i know that youre new again and real knowledge of whats going on here for the rules associated with this, so, yeah, if you would follow up with secretary buttigieg and tell them we are waiting for his response and, mr. Chairman, i yield back. Mr. Chairman, i you if you would follow up with secretary buttigieg and still waiting for his response. Mr. Chairman i you back. I yield my time. Thank you mr. Chairman. Mr. Mistretta, you looked at that letter that i referenced on march 5th you sent to cantwell and ted cruz. Yes i have that. Did you write that letter . Directly . Bike it was drafted for me. It was drafted for you. Who drafted it for your quick i dont know. Went through the process as this issue is developed internally to respond to request for technical issues. Is this letter the official position of the faa to oppose the raising of the mandatory retirement age without a study before hand . The official position is we dont have a position on the retirement age but the changes, we would like to have data to support the change. I want to be clear. Everybody listening, the faa, the administrator does not have an official position on whether congress, we passed it in house, should raise the mandatory retirement age from 65 to 67. Our role is to identify issues around that and we identified two. One about international complaints and one about understanding the date of changing the age from 65 to 67. Did Alpha Influence your decision to write this letter . Did alpha have any influence in the drafting of this letter cut yes or no . Not that i am aware of. Okay. I yield. Henneman cut yield back. My friend from kansas. Thank you two Jimmy Garrett graves and Ranking Member for this hearing today and thank you also to jim and sam grimes and Ranking Member larsen for the leadership on passing a commonsense ipods and reauthorization of the faa demonstration house last year. Mr. Whitaker, welcome to the aviation subcommittee thank you for taking the time to be here. I do believe your experience and leadership will be invaluable with the faa. I would like you to address and issue thats affecting the National Airspace system aging infrastructure and functional obsolescence. The failure highlights the risk in aging infrastructure is not fixed in a timely way. Now the faa has the critical safety. One desperately in need of replacement is instrument landing systems. Theres a map up there and i have one here. This ils map demonstrates just how many 1970s era mark one f systems are in operated at the nas. More than 1200 systems located at hundreds across the country. Dallas is the only approve from fa to support all weather landings at the busiest airports. As such is our required to be in operation for the soap foreseeable future but the vast majority of these are placed in the 1970s and 80s are now functionally obsolete. In kansas alone 17 of the 21 systems which is 81 are functionally obsolete. This body passed the bipartisan structure lock 22 years ago with the setaside billion dollars to replace these aging systems. But the faa told Industry Leaders and members of this committee that modernization of these systems is an eligible expense of the program. Then aviation chairman larson life subsequently engaged in the colloquy on the floor on december 9th of 2021 which is shown here. Expressing congressional intent that this was in fact an eligible expense. This colloquy was shared with u. S. D. O. T. Again on august 17, 2022 when mr. Larson and i noticed there was no money directed in the fiscal year 2023 faa spent plan for replacement of the systems. Asked for a timeline and budget detailing specific allocation of i ij resources to landing navigational aids, equipment for fiscal years 22 through 26 which you can see here. The response we received which is up now contained none of the information that we asked for. In followup conversations, with opiate we have yet to receive a satisfactory response as to why the acquisition and modernization of the systems has like. In fact several text payer instrument landing systems, theres 14 of them are sitting in a cave in independence, missouri simply went to install. At the faas current pace amortization which is 45 systems but it would take more than 100 years to replace the systems. This means faa expects many of the safety Critical Systems to be in operation despite being over 100 years old. I cant imagine that is actually the expectation. And just so we are clear, what system failure looks like, the most likely impact on these airports is on capacity, on throughput and delays. When ils is out runways cannot be used for all weather operations. But theres also this inherent safety risk should a system fail in the middle of lending operations. So mr. Whitaker, what is the faa schedule for deplaning these devices systemwide. And as you might be aware, the professional aviation specialist proposed a Pilot Program for to play the systems within 18 months and im curious if to your knowledge if the faa is considering a proposal . Thank you for the questions. You hit on a very interesting issue at the faa which is how we Fund Facilities and equipment and particularly we are in a situation that we have a lot of redundant systems in the nas and facilities. We have facilities that need to be replaced as well. With respect to this particular issue my understanding is that infrastructure funding is available for deployment of those ils systems specifically the ones you mentioned that are in storage. So my understanding is that will be deployed in those funds will be used to play go systems. Do you have a timeline. I can certainly respond to your office with specifics on the timelines. I would very much like us a specific response given the length of time this has been going on. Bipartisan infrastructure bill gave us fiveyear timeline and we are over two years in. I yelled back. Thank you. Recognizing the gentleman from minnesota. Mr. Stauber. Thank you very much mr. Chair and mr. Whitaker. Thank you for being with us and congratulations. Mr. Whitaker, how many positions are there at the faa . How many positions, we have 45,000 employees. And what percentage of those positions are filled. I dont have an exact position number for you. Is a covert emergency over . I believe so, yes. On may 11th President Biden declared the emergency was over. I understand you used a hybrid telework model, is that correct. It depends on the function. So obvious that the controllers are on the job but other employees are still in a hybrid situation. How many days per week or how many days per week did employees have to show up for the two week work period. . It depends on the employee but the Job Description but the basic line is four days. Four days your employees in a twoweek period they have to shop for days. What if the air Traffic Controller showed up only four days in their work . Would it affect general aviation . As i mentioned they ship everyday for the job. Is in the pipe but what if the controller showed up only four out of two weeks. With that interrupt our work. They cant control traffic from home. You know what im getting at. If they only showed up wouldnt be a problem for air parts in commercial aviation across the country cut yes or no . Of course. How do track employee accessibility and productivity in this hybrid model . Its up to individual managers to manage their work force to meet the needs of their mission. I can just tell you for what im hearing from the stakeholders is the accessibility to faa staff is limited. And it seems evident that product cavity is waning. As several high profile rulemakings are still ongoing and you know this. The rule for regular nonvisual line of sight operation Unmanned Aircraft systems. That final report was concluded in march of 2022 and now its not expect it until august of 2024. I know Workplace Flexibility to record important tool in our new world but and and she was Safety Mission first, do you find that a two day in person workweek rather low . It depends on the job position. So many of our employees not only controllers but inspect yours need to be in place but others, it may work for working remotely so i think it depends on the position. I believe the fa should hold itself to a higher standard and the fa teleworks gradual requires again they are only in person four days out of a two week work period. I would like to point out again our controllers are working a lot of hours and a lot of pressure on them to keep our flying public safe. Speaking of controls the National Airspace system safety return concluded under faas controller work space plan report to congress. When hiring plan produces natural improvement over todays understaffed levels resulting in a net increase of fewer than 200 aircraft controllers but 2032. This is extremely concerning for safeties and efficiency of the aga system. Can you reassure the committee that the faa will prioritize this issue and conduct maximum hiring of new controllers and continue to request advocate resources from congress to address the problem. I can cut yes appeared and send faa committed to maximum control hired for only 24, 25, 26. Will of a commit to longerterm since it will take a lot longer than three years for max hiring to return to healthy controller Staffing Levels . We certainly commit to max hiring until we get healthy and what weve done is there are competing staffing models in place so we commission the Transportation Research board to review those models so within three years will have a new model place and i will set those goals. Thank you. Last question. Will you prioritize and support general aviation like you do commercial and will you support rural airport investment and infrastructure. Absolute. Thank you and again congratulations. Thanks. Thank you mr. Stauber. The man from illinois. Thank you. As you know boeing recently withdrew its request for the max to receive safety exemption which would allow the aircraft to be certified with known defect with it current. Boeing fleet of boeing aircraft has an issue that could cause the politics surrounding the engine to break the followup in certain conditions. This could have potentially catastrophic consequences. Boeing is now working on a long term fix that would require retrofitting entire max fleet. How did the faa in your understanding fail to detect such a defect during the certification of the max eight and max 9 aircraft. My understanding of the particular issue is that potential defect was discovered using computer modeling some years after the original certification of the aircraft. And modeling that was required by the axle legislation actually. Much my understanding of how that was discovered. Well i appreciate the faa attention to this topic, boeing has demonstrated time and time again that it will cut corners on safety in order to maximize profits. My second question administrator, is this. In response to the recent last airlines accident the faa has launched an investigation into compliance with manufacturing requirements. Has the faa comprehensively engaged with employee groups. Those involved in the production and have they and those who have filed whistleblower reports regarding reduction of Quality Assurance procedures in the manufacturing system and if so how is the fa handling these reports. On the engagement aspect we now have 20 inspectors on the ground in boeing engaging with the employees at every phase of the manufacturing process. So this is to allow us to have direct conversations with employees about what pressures they might be feeling or what instructions they might be getting an incentives they get. Whistleblower is a portal for boeing employees but also normal portal for whistleblowers and we have a pretty regimented process on how we do with those reports to make sure the identity is protected and the reports are taken seriously. Should i take that to mean theres currently engagement with those employees. Yes sir. Thank you. Of course i look forward to working with the fda to hold the Aviation Community to a higher standard of safety. Its equally crucial for the operation of her Aviation Industry, there airport workers. Are paid livable wages and airport workers are largely latino, black and immigrant workforce. Theyve been overlooked and underpaid for the vital role that they play in keep being our airports running. My bill and that would change it. Administrator, are you committed to doing what you can to ensure that the airports at the fa overseas are delivering fair wages and benefits to all employees . Im very committed to making sure they have a very safe working environment. Safety is my mandate and we are focused on safety at airports particularly on the ramp so we take some initiatives around that to make sure those employees are in a safe environment. Thank you. Can i yield back mr. Chairman. Thank you mr. Garcia i recognize the gentleman from new jersey. Thank you chairman. Welcome mr. Whitaker. You have a tiger by the tail. I was going to speak on Something Else and i am in a moment but using airports for housing on documented is a big deal. Its a big deal to the committees these airports are in its a big deal fiscally. Its a big deal for safety and i know you are new so i want to be fair but we need you to drill down and tell us more whats going on. Please check thoroughly on this issue. I think its a totally inappropriate use, safety is the number one issue. It was never meant for housing and it there was a plan and this is fact that was leaked out by whistleblower that 10 different airports that they were going to house illegals and of course we got a hold of it and Atlantic City International Airport in my district was talking about housing up to 60,000 illegals in a community of 35,000 or 40,000 people. Thats wrong. I need some commitments from you to thoroughly drill down on this issue to know how many airports are involved. A complete list of airports involved. A policy coming from the faa. We need a policy from the fa dealing with these requests and ensuring that the fda is part of the process in determining if got where and when this will be done and we need a complete list of requests and from whom it came. I brought this up to secretary buttigieg when he was here. He was unaware of it. Of course we have the information i need you to do that. I would appreciate if you get that information back to me and the entire committee. Could you commit to getting us that information. I can commit to making sure we are complying with the law around any approvals. I appreciate that. We dont on the airports. But it is a very important part of what happens at the airport. You should be included and you should be a part of it. The people quite frankly of our districts and our country should be part of it as well so ask you to please think about that and i would ask you to please commit to doing that. Its not a big request. Its a real obvious thing. And i look forward to that report. Last month domestic boeing exploded over 16,000 feet. I know youre aware of it. The hundred 80 people on board. We are unbelievably blessed that nobody died and there were injuries that it wasnt much worse then the result we had. This accident, in my opinion is the result of decades long process of globalization. In the early 2000 boeing aggressively outsourced its Business Model the strategy peaked in 2005 with the sale of the wichitabased spero air systems. I know you aware that. Spirit aero is now a quote global operation. And has been identifies the faa as responsible and you do find it as respond to both for the faulty components behind the Alaskan Airlines incident. This is one example of how boeings outsourcing has led to boeings decline. And boeing has hidden its decline, in my opinion and many by appealing to diversity, equity and inclusion. And for its investors. Because its a cool thing to be in the investors that are interested in that were more likely to invest and their stock no doubt has gone up 400 percent since their product has gone down but their stock has gone up. Which is really interesting. You should be worried of about safety when youre selling private equity firms that they were not. This is a 12 punch of globalization and social engineering job number one is safety. Job number one is safety for every man and woman child going in those airports and income in a that is struggling to reliably produce safety aircraft. Mr. Whitaker, are you concerned about the trajectory of boeing as american in your institution and American Institution . Are you concerned. My concern is that boeing makes safe aircraft im less concerned about externalities. Im more concerned about the quality of the aircraft coming off the line. I maintain its part and parcel. They have a job to worry about safety and efficiency and when youre worried about all these other issues and not the Green Economy and everything else. You should, that should be your job number one. And i hope you have a plan to put them back on track and i sent you a letter in december about the Faa Technical Center and i would like to submit this record for the chairman for the record. The needs include National Airspace systems. Electrical utilities and Technology Transfer programs. My time has run out. I wish i had a half hour with you. I appreciate you being there. I would hope that you would take my request seriously because the American Public takes it seriously and i think you and wish you good luck. Recognizing the lady from alaska. Thank you mr. Chairman. Good morning administrator whitaker. Generally aviation accident rates in alaska continue to outpace the rest of the country. Can you provide an update on faa implementation of the recommendations of the 2023 faa Alaska Aviation Safety Initiative tiger Team Including the eight automated weather observing Systems Insulation scheduled to have been completed in september of 2023. Thank you, maam. So i fully supportive of the unique nature of alaska and the role of general aviation and had a chance to visit when i was deputy and got to tour quite a bit of some the remote facilities and i think the program has been a Strong Program and we support that. And will continue to support that. On the aw asi got briefed on this. I was at the hearing and i understand seven of the eight have been to floyd. The eighth is inaccessible due to some flooding or other climate conditions. So we will make sure that continues as well. Okay. Excellent. And as you said alaska is unique and i think 82 of our communities are not accessible by any other way except airplane. The faa passed or the house passed the faa reauthorization bill and included section 510, the don young Aviation Safety Initiative which calls on aviation stakeholders to Work Together to reduce the rate of fatal accidents by 90 by 2033 in alaska, hawaii and puerto rico and other american territories. This provision includes a number of initiatives designed to further the objectives and im wondering if what you see as steps that are necessary to achieve this kind of reduction. I think its laudable we have such an aggressive goal and that is how we brought the commercial aviation accident rate down to its current level. And getting the stakeholder groups working together. I think with ga there a lot of technologies that can be deployed to create better Situational Awareness in the cockpit and more tools particularly around predictable weather and redundancies around landing systems and the like. I think this is an area where technology and Quick Deployment of technology can really be a benefit. So i think its really positive that all the stakeholders are working together toward that. Thank you so much. I yelled back my time, mr. Chairman. Regrettably i yield to mr. Mann. Thank you and thank you for being here today administrator whitaker. I represent kansas. The strong russian ship between the kansas economy and aviation. There are 91,000 jobs attributed to the Aviation Industry in my state including 42,000 from the Aerospace Manufacturing segment. Aviation ranked second in Economic Impact in kansas only to agriculture. For Aviation Industry to thrive the faa needs a roadmap above data congressional parties to adopt longoverduechanges and regulatory requirements. Delays in rulemaking and insufficiencies in the workforce are bottlenecking the industry. Its imperative that Congress Passes the authorization bill so the ftp aa in the workforce Aviation Industry are able to address the backlog of concerns that my colleagues and i have been racing for months of the american returns to his Gold Standard status and aviation. A few questions mr. Whitaker. Wave heard a lot about the faa rulemaking process and the importance of it for innovation safety and international leadership. What would you do under your tenure to make this process more timely transparent and accountable. Thank you, sir. I think the transparency in general i think needs to be improved and efficiency needs to be improved delivering services, registrations for example and certification process so we are working on those issues. Rulemaking is different because its driven by the administrative procedures act so we are required to have certain time periods for comment and certain process and procedures. I think the best we can do is make sure we get that transparency and know where we are in the process. And try to keep the process moving. Rulemaking can have a dozen different steps in and make sure we are continuing to keep sunlight on that and keep things moving as quickly as we can within the confines of the law. Can you specifically address the house the fa adapting the Regulatory Framework to accommodate rapid evolution of unmanned merit aerial systems and advanced air mobility technologies. After college that this is here to stay. Its a growing part of the Aviation Industry and a tremendous potential for kansas and the rest of the country and had we make sure the faa is appropriately and quickly reviewing these new technologies with safety front and center but also not having unnecessary delays as well. Its one of our big challenges. And right now i think mostly dealt with in a oneoff manner. So i think recently we have gotten much better on the small ua s and through this exemption process so we been able to satisfy a lot of the ev loss operations and such. Advanced air mobility currently would have to operate under existing rules which is doable but not scalable, if you will. So i think what we need to do is work as an industry with all stakeholders to develop that roadmap that integrates all these technologies and tries to keep up with their pace of development. So i think we dont want to be in the way but we need to make sure they are being deployed safely and thats our top rated. Tigray. As an aside, i hear from multiple manufacturers in kansas of all sizes that just talk about how long it takes for the faa to respond to new ideas on how do we do things better and how do we innovate and how do we make sure that the u. S. Continues and that we are the world leader in the aviation space and a big part of that is manufacturing and big part of that is being adaptable and understand technology and understands where the industry is heading and how do we partner together to promote safety. So last question. In your testimony you outlined several initiatives on increasing the air Traffic Control workforce what strategies are you implementing to bolster other fields in the aviation for such as aircraft mechanics, pilots and other segments of the industry. Thats a great question and i am remiss for not mentioning that we are actually hiring all the sectors, controllers are the most immediate safety need for us but we are hiring all sectors and we are competing with all those other industries you just mentioned in a market that is a pretty good market if you are an employee. So i often said im the chief recruiting officer for the agency so we are doing direct outreach to schools. We are trying to cut cast is brought of net as we can to interest people coming to the fa maybe they come in for 30 years or maybe 30 years so we want folks to come through and have an experience there and do Something Else afterwards. Its a priority and its not an easy one to get after. Thank you with that i yield back. Thank you. The gentleman from nevada. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Nice to see you mr. Whitaker care and congratulations on this position its got to be a tough job in a tough place but we appreciate it very much. Aviation is so important in my district in las vegas. Weve got a very crowded airspace with military and with the drones and the commercial flights and general aviation so this is really critical. I want to thank you all for your recent investments from the bipartisan infrastructure law. Youve got 49 million of the infrastructure for all the airports in my district. And thats really helpful and really appreciated to improving runway safety and taxi upgrades. I would like to go back to the issue of air Traffic Controllers. We know that air travel is increasing and yet the number of air Traffic Controllers is not. I think you hired 30 last year including trainees. And they are often forced to work overtime six days per week and that leads to stress and burnout and would you just say again for the record how you are trying to address that issue. You identified all the problems that i also identified coming in and i think one of our most pressing needs and i would add to that it takes years to make an air Traffic Controller. Its a long journey. Not an easy job and a very rewarding job but we need to hire as many as we possibly can. So we are ensuring that our own process is delivering as many as we can through the academy and oklahoma city. But we also want to work with universities in the private sector to make sure we are able to put as many from that source as well. So we become more flexible with military hires. It used to be twice a year so if you didnt happen to leave the military just the right time and you had to wait six months we have a constant hiring of military controllers which will increase the number of folks who can go directly into the towers or centers. And we are working, i think one of our most promising outlets will be these aeronautical colleges and universities where the students can get the exact same curriculum as the academy and they go directly into past exam and they go directly into a tower or radar facilities. Going forward that will allow us to increase the pipeline but in the short term because it takes a long it will be hard to move that needle very much in till you get at least two years out. I think theres a place in some of the committee colleges for developing programs like this. I think that can certainly be eligible if they are eligible to teach at curriculum and have the training tools. It often requires being around retired controllers that have a rotary retirement age and a lot become instructors afterwards. I would like to really see that Program Expand as we go forward. Thank you. Me too. Also we are seeing more and more and different modes of transportation that companies are acting in ways that tend to prioritize profits over safety and you mentioned in your testimony that the agency found inspections on the ground of 730 79 maxed showing Quality Systems and unacceptable and required further scrutiny. You have confidence in your suppliers that they can maintain this Quality Control. Its not a fox guarding the hen house kind of situation. I think we will look at this process top to bottom to see where the incentives are and where the failures are in the system. And we will demand that that quality come up to the appropriate schedule. We certify aircraft to be built two very specific specifications that they have to be built to those specifications so regardless of their other motives, they will not be able to build more airplanes until they meet those standards. Speculative probably problem with conflict of interest with self inspections. We asked the Research Firm to give us options on delegation and where we might bring in a third party for example in Quality Control and Quality Assurance to make sure you have a neutral set of eyes on some of those issues. So that is something we are looking at. Again i want to throw out there about the framework for beyond line of sight and notes based on a waiver system and we want to put those rules in place. Are you moving forward with that . We will move as quickly as we can on that. A lot of people want you to move more quickly. Ive been getting that message. Thank you. Thank you very much. I yield back. Thank you and the gentleman from utah. Thank you mr. Chair. On behalf of the listeners, utah is a remarkable place of convergences and connections and fastgrowing state in the unit and we have the topics possible so its important we have the conduit coming from a hub like utah. Having said that the faa has identified multiple time blocks with the dc airport currently underutilized. We believe more flights can be added safely and efficiently to that process. So our focus with respect to dca is whether its safe. So we are not involved in the decision around where the flights can go from dca. So our focus is entirely on the safety aspect. Its an airport thats very close to capacity. There are some hours when theres some room for new capacity but it is as you know a pretty full operations pretense to operate around 60 operations per minute or an hour, im sorry. Its basically one per minute so you cant really squeeze much when that in there. That tends to be our focus. One other ports we have is there blocks where it can be effectively done safely. We will always make sure its operating safely. Some things suffers it will be efficiency. Tens of millions of americans deserve better pricing and better value and more convenient access to dc representatives that encourage and provide a consumer free market to our nations capital. We appreciate that. My hometown airport in Salt Lake City is currently in phase 2 of a threepart 5 Million Development can you explain the impact that the delayed reauthorization of salt lake City International and airports like that going through modernization. I think youre hitting on a very important point. These projects have a certain momentum and they need to be funded and need to operate under current authorization. So i think its vital that both of those happen. I will yield my remaining time to my thank you. I apologize mr. Administration. These wonderful gentlemen given their time and they dont have anything else to say and i have so much to talk about with you. For the record weird i asked you did you write this letter and you stated you didnt but you had somebody asked you to write this letter. Can i ask you who asked you to ask you to write this letter dated february 5th . So i think the discussion would have been with our Government Affairs team. That focuses on providing Technical Assistance on legislation. But you couldnt specifically somebody came up to you and say im drafting this letter and i want you to approve this letter and send out to senators cantwell and cruz. Comes to a correspondence. Put out a lot of correspondence in the last four weeks ive mostly been busy on other topics. So it was written by your opinion some Government Affairs team within the faa. Presumably but i dont know precisely. That normally is how it would be. Fair enough. And you did state that i bring this letter up and you stated its not the official position of the faa to oppose raising the retirement age to 67 but you have some concerns and in the letter it talks up about we always prioritize a robust process to identify risk and ensure mitigations to maintain safety but we do not test in a live environment. We do not test in a live environment. Could you tell us what that means. The members appear want to know what is a live environment. Explain that to me. I believe what that means is we dont change the rule to see how it plays out. We used to like to do the research before we change the rule. Okay. Would you consider, were you familiar with basic med. The study . The basic med safety study. Right. The faa authorizes it and then let it run and they look at it after three years like 2017, 18 and 19 and reported back to congress. Its right here. Nfa report submitted to congress as required on march 10 reviewed three years of general aviation data and concluded that the basic program is safe. Isnt that a live study. They were flying around and general aviators are flying around and looking at whether a third class medical versus a basic med and found out that basic med works. That is a lie the study, would you agree . Yeah, that was based on a legislative mandate. Will i know its a legislative mandate. That is a live study though. Come on how could you not agree with that. They are flying around and reporting back three years of data and they are saying theres no issues with basic med. Thats a live study. Okay. I just want to get that. Because it says we do not test in a live environment. And thats not true. I yield back. Thank you. I recognize thank you, mr. Chair. Welcome administrator whitaker. Prior to the Alaska Airlines accident did the faa find control lapses in any of boeings production lines . So, recognizing that to answer that question and love that is before my tenure. But i think the production problems with the 787 beginning in 29 teen through recently are pretty well known. And even just in december we had an directive around a loose bolt on a rotor system. So i think there were already some recent reports of production issues with boeing. Not to hammer on that but you did mention simple issues recently. Has the faa become aware of any other lapses since the start of the investigation . The investigation is ongoing and we are supporting ntsb in their investigation of the incident itself. So theres no findings really to discuss at this point. The audit investigation is going on and the only thing i can say about that is it hasnt shown any findings that lead us to immediate action so we will take the data we get and analyze how to move forward. Thank you. Mr. Whitaker one of the faas most successful government industry partnerships is the contract tower program. 262 smaller airports participate in this critically important air Traffic Safety Program Including 21 in california. One of which is in my district and the San Luis Obispo County Airport at this critical air Traffic Safety program is important to maintain and develop Regional Service and supports dod Flight Training operations and military readiness as a pilot flight schools all across the country. Its also important to note that contract towers account for approximately one third of all tower operations in the nation and about 70 of contract controllers are veterans. Mr. Mistretta, what assurances can you give me and my colleagues that contract towers will remain a priority for you. I can assure you that we certainly support the program and given the hiring challenge were having with air Traffic Controllers no incentive to tinker with the system as its working. And we also do hiring from contract towers as well so its a source for control. We are fully supportive of the program and want to make sure its working in smaller airports. Also staffing shortages continue to be a challenge throughout the industry which you just not test on including contract towers. What measures can the faa in the industry undertake collaboratively to address having challenges at these towers. I think we are doing all we can do from what we have been able to think of for our own hiring purposes. But i think its become a very competitive market. Theres a lot of new entrants in new aspects of aerospace. So i think we have to compete for those employees and give them a good working environment. Thank you. I appreciate your leadership and i appreciate you recently becoming the administration you have it your hands full with a lot of challenges but i think youre the right person for the job and i wanted to recognize you for all that you bring to the table to this very important position and all the problemsolving you are going to help us conceive. The gentleman from oregon. Nice to meet you sir. Barbara present oregons fifth Congressional District and im grateful to be on this committee to ask these questions. Ill get started. Long delays and cancellations have become too common in airports in large part due to a shortage of pilots. It would be ridiculous for us to look at the current state of things and say everything is fine. Lets just keep the status quo. Lastly through my work on education and Workforce Committee the flight Education Access act was including a major student loan reform package. This is a huge step in resolving that shortage. The commonsense proposal closes the workforce gap violent perspective pilots access the same Loan Companies available to students at traditional four year schools. It increases the total maximum amount of federal direct and subsidized staff stafford loans and ultimate depend may borrow up to 11,000. It increases the maximum amount for independent students to 137,000 and increases the maximum amount of federal direct stafford loans to a total of 65,000. Mr. Mistretta, if perspective pilots could access these types of Student Loans and use them when completing the faa regulated training, would that help improve the Pilot Shortage . I think that would be a very useful initiative. It is very expensive to become an Airline Pilot which means 1500 hours. You can become a private pilot with as few as 40 hours. So getting from the 40 up to 1500 is a hugely expensive endeavor. So its like any other profession. Dr. Kotler, plumber. It cost money to get there. You would agree its a positive outcome . This would be a positive initiative . So moving on, what should be the most common part of air travel safety . Of course youve heard plenty about the bowling alaska accident today and amongst others but its not lost on me is that it happened in oregon, my home state. Oregonians choose Alaska Airlines as the preferred airline and i flight on them every single week backand forth. Boeing jets have caused prayer for concern and many questions can you speak to the level of confidence that once again today and faa approved inspections steps with 737 max door plug. That was a very thorough inspection process and the mechanical fix to that defect, we have a high level of confidence that takes care of the problem. So you would find the 730 79 max. Yes it would. The congressman talked on my last question on the contract tower program. I have one of those in my district in bend. I appreciate you answering that you are in full support of continuing that. So i will yield my time than to my colleague mr. Nails, the ring time. Thank you very much. Mr. Mistretta i was a this letter that you did not write but you had the Government Affairs team right i believe. You are a busy man and i think maybe you proofread this thing very clearly. There are some issues here. As it relates to that we do not test in a live environment. I believe that basic safety study is a prime example and i have a few more, i believe. Its interesting. Alpha is taking pilots in canada over the taking dues from pilots in canada over 65. West it is flanked alpha representative pilots over the age of 65 right now. That is your life study mr. Administrator. Lets talk about the part 135 operators. We allow pilots to fly over the age of 65 under part 135. Is that not a live environment. Can you explain to everybody what a part 135 is versus a 121 . A part 135 carrier is typically under 30 passengers. Net jets would be an example . Thats right. Do part 121 and 135 share the same airspace . They do. So they taxi with part 121. I. E. The big airliners folks, delta and united everything. You can get this net jets to taylor swift lying to the super bowl in her supersonic jet. They could be in the same airspace taxing on the same runway. Why do part 135, that flies around with the millionaires and billionaires across the country, why can they fly for the h over the age 67 up to the age 67 and united and delta we find them at 65. How does that make any sense . Congress passed a law limiting them to signify. Congress passed a law limiting them to six about . How do you feel about that . Do you think that is justin right . I think it is what congress did so we dont secondguess congress but our point was if you change it we would like to have some data around it. I think thats perfect. I am back. Thank you. For the record. Im not sure taylor swift flight supersonic. I want to make note. Jumping from massachusetts. Thank you chairman. And i want to second with the chairman said that the imperative for the scent to pass the faa reauthorization. This committee did good bipartisan work and it needs to happen in the senate now. Mr. Whitaker, you earlier getting questions from the public and colleagues about housing migrant housing at the airports. My statute, fda has jurisdiction over air side and not inside over airports. Thats correct. One incidence of air side of the airports asking to house immigrants. Theres no document document tatian of air side being impeded at jfk at that is the standard, yes. The fda in aeronautical safety organization, or an immigration is a quick our mission is safety, sir. The hardworking men and women of Border Patrol which actually is this government endorsed the government as a confirmation. If my republican colleagues are so wanting to solve this problem i suggest they stop asking you for answers but asking speaker johnson for answers. Questionable and are you Donald Trumps Campaign Manager or speaker of house . Sir, back to your job. You authorize a max airplane to fly again after the Alaska Airlines second. Why do believe the max airplane is now safe . The max 9 was grounded because of concerns up out the quality of manufacturing for the flood door. The focus of that was the directive was to inspect those aircraft and come up with a repair the venture that it met standard safety built into the certification of the aircraft. Once that inspection and repair scenario was agreed upon, then the aircraft was allowed to return to service. In 2020 you took back not you but the faa took back ticketing from. What did that do for oversight of boeing then and was at the site sufficient regarding the max 9 quick i wasnt there at the time as you noted. In retrospect and given what happened with the plug door, its hard to call that oversight sufficient so were looking at that process. And what additional steps need to be taken to make sure that oversight is sufficient. Last august faa announced on was 45 million in funding for boston logan International Airport to simplify the layout to decrease the risk to airline runways. Whats the faa doing it for near misses nemesis. Issues on the airport environment and runways at each airport is unique and has its own geometry in certain geometries to natural situations that can cause confusion. So trying we call them hotspots. Trying to edify hotspots and correct them either through signage, lighting, or sometimes moving taxiways is highly effective in keeping them safer. So the good news about these type of events is they are really straightforward solutions and weve been deploying those solutions. I want to join by calling something how happy we are to have you in this position and how qualified i think you are for this job. And looking for to sing the work that you can do for maintaining and improving americas Gold Standard reputation for airline safety. I you back mr. Chair. Thank you. Is a vice chair of the subcommittee the gentleman from indiana. Thank you mr. Chair. And thank you administrator whitaker for being here today. After post open entrance toward an bipartisan process the house passes faa reauthorization last july in it overwhelming 35169 vote. It appears we are finally going to see some Welcome Movement from our colleagues in the senate later this week. Hopefully that means we can provide certainty and stability to the Aviation Committee and find public with an faa reauthorization center around the Gold Standard of safety and continued american aviation leadership. Its that leadership i would like to think about today this particular case the lack there of. As we held hearings in the lead up to our reauthorization bill we heard from witnesses especially the drone delivery industry who said they were expanding in markets like australia instead of the United States due to a lack of regulatory certainty. Ive been chris to see the faa recent months a number of part one of seven waivers that beyond visual line of sight operations for Drug Delivery companies. The waivers represent another step in a long journey that must strike that fine balance between safety and forward momentum. But its a journey that in my estimation has been moving far too slow. Mr. Whitaker, you told my colleague chairman graves that the bb loss opposed rulemaking will be published quote this year. Last september, and faa official had pegged that timeline at august of 2024. Is that timeline slipping or is august still the goal . I can look if youd like i can give you a specific answer. I was covering for my lack of memory on an exact date. I would like a specific answer if you dont mind. Furthermore, the timeline from august for the administrator i will circle back with you. I will give you precise answer but i just dont recall. I would like a precise answer and that and furthermore if the timeline from august which was an faa administrator or official told back in september, if the timeline from august is slipping i would like to have you circle back and articulate why within the faa that timeline is slipping. My second question is once that notice is published, are you able to commit to publishing a final rule within 12 months of the notice of opposed proposed rulemaking. I can commit to keeping the role moving as quickly as possible. It depends on what comments come in and how they get arbitrated. And that has to go through a review process as you know up through ira. Will give as much transparency as possible and keep it moving is much as possible. Support role and we want to get up at i agree with you. Its Important Role and due to so many timelines we have companies reevaluating their innovation and r d right here in the art sites. We Want Companies to continue to make those investments here in the United States. Inc. You for your commitment to moving forward. With that mr. Chairman i would like to yield the health of my time to my colleague mr. Nehls. Thank you sir. We talked about this letter and talked about the fact that i dont leave its proofread sir. You seem to be a great guy. I think you have a bright future. But this letter is full of in accuracy and has flaws. It says we dont test in a live environment but i do believe you believe that. I just think that is not what you believe and i think we can point that out. The last sentence of the letter says quote it is critical to provide the agency an opportunity to conduct research and determine mitigation. You talked about conducting research. Everyone who is listening is japan, new zealand, australia, our friends to the north, canada. All have pilots above the age of 67. They have had no safety issues. Zero. No safety issue. The head of the faa interesting, i went up there and i flew to canada and went to the meeting. The faa and mr. Doesnt say have pilots flying up to the age of 75 and have no issues. That is your live study sir. Call them. Ask them. I even got i believe it or not john prater the former president of Airline Pilots Association Says that in the past commercial Airline Pilots who did not want to stop working at age 60 took jobs with International Airlines or charter operators for which the retirement age was hired. The spirit of the spine should also be studied said john prater president of alpha quote you can look globally and look at canada and look at pilots flying in Corporate Aviation and Ondemand Services like net jets. He said referring to a large private aviation. The gal could expand and ask airlines themselves, that the avenue that they could investigate if they choose to expand their look. I yelled. Thank you, sir. Recognize the gentleman from texas. Thank you mr. Chairman i want to thank you for holding this hearing. Its incredibly important topic and important time and thank you mr. Administrator from being here. I know we are all united in wanting to restore confidence in our air travel. When we have some americans that travel quite a bit as we all do, i sit next to some folks in the day who said they are filtering out in their travel plans the planes that they think are unsafe. And when we have that, we know we have to respond. And so we have to respond together. Our responsibility is that we remain the Gold Standard and i want to remain that. I want to ask about in reference to boeings internal oversight, you say its time to reexamine the delegation and assess and safety risks. Can you see how fa will have manufacturing site oversight . We are doing a number of things. An audit of the manufacturing process and we are looking into whats delegated and what could be overseen by third party. And inspectors at the ground talking to employees to understand the Ground Troops of whats happening. And what the pressures are and based on that outcome we will look at putting together a program to continue to add direct oversight to what otherwise is an auditing approach. Much more hands on approach going forward. That will be designed after the six week audit. Is finished and have a better understand. Do you need any further operations. And any fa authorization that would assist in that. I appreciate you saying the willingness to Work Together. A different skill set. We may need to we need folks who are trained to be on the ground, and more handson. We have the authorizing authority to do that. We need to find the money to do it. That will be a top priority. We will come back for that. This is the competition, and the need to rush politics to market. Initially a few years back, some internal discussions about needing to compete. We are doing our own internal reviews . This is on the internal investigators. I realize the cost associated with that. With the american find public, it is worth us bearing to make sure that we have another incident like what we had. We cannot rely on the manufacturers themselves. Is this something you would agree with . The Current System is not working. We have to make some changes to that. We have to look at the culture. To your point, it is a different type of behavior. If they let us be our own referees, offensive lineman tried to block me. It would have been a holding call. This is another issue that we should work on. They are announcing this issue from the first modernized the town relationship. Can you elaborate how this technology will control the workforce that is already stretched so thin . The simulators, they have a simple technology. It is a circle of screens. That works for new controllers. If you have a problem with your airport, or a hotspot, you have another problem identified. Existing controllers can train to that problem. It can be thrown at them is another situation. Its really important for current training. Also helping moving controllers fast. Thank you so much. I yelled back. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you, mr. Whitaker. We welcome your leadership. It goes without question. Many others have been in need of leadership. They are going to be critical. The senate is moving earnestly. They are going to be for law. Without question, americans have not witnessed too many alarming incidents from employee treatment. This is to Aircraft Safety and Passenger Experience. I appreciate them briefing last week regarding the gore plug incident. I look forward to the reports. This is the reaction and response. On the topic of safety, this was the rulemaking on drug and alcohol testing. One of the first bills are introduced, with the global eight Aircraft Safety act. This ensures safety protocols between domestic and foreign actions. This provision has been included. The has passed the authorization. Im hopeful that it will remain part of final law. Treatment of aircraft employees and Passenger Experience, supporting Mental Health breaking down barriers is a top priority of many of ours. This is why i joined chairman graves to modernize the Mental Health protocols. Taking immediate steps to dismantle barriers that discourage individuals from seeking care. I appreciate your testimony. You reference the faas Mental Health. They have the Rulemaking Committee. Certainly as do others go, they were trying to get it here today. Supporting the Mental Health and treatment. They are treating these as health issues. They have a clear path to treatment. We certainly acknowledgment health rules. This is more dangerous. We are confining all these things within the aircraft. Theyre keeping you from a safety net. We have adequate care. This is from the progress and urge. Swift action. Another question that i wanted to touch on, as was the top ability. Can you provide us a timing . Can you provide us that so far . They committed all of this. The completed this in 2024. Im sure that you have some insights and stages of developments. We expect a final rule by the end of the year. I just want to reinforce my support of your efforts. He still has a great deal of influence. This is certainly when they need it. I encourage it. Thank you again, sir. I want the opportunity to conduct research and determine mitigations. We talked about the research. Thank you for being here. I mentioned japan, australia, and canada. This is all the way until 67. Do you think it would be a good idea to reach out to those countries . How is it working for you . Canada to the . Do you think that would be a good idea to try to help accomplish what you ask for in this letter . Are you conducting research and determining mitigations . Certainly, we will look at that option. It is all there for you. I mentioned that i talked a little bit about the 135s. These part operators that are flying. A lot of players cant fly that. They have millionaires and billionaires. Those pilots can be 67 years old. The faa is okay with that. In the same airspace, they embrace the argument with that one. They dont operate the same. Hes not being truthful. How can we allow pilots to be 67 to fly the millionaires and billionaires, but not allow delta and united to do it when we know we have a Pilot Shortage . We dont set the age limits. The congress does. We are going to fix it today. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Appreciate that. Welcome, administrator. Thank you for being here. Last week, we learned again about spirit aerospace. They incorrectly drilled holes in the fuselage. They determined how many aircraft were delivered with two customers with these problems. This is with boeing and the suppliers. We are working to understand what happened here. We are investigating that piece of it. These are small rivets that hold a window in place. Likely, what that means, we know it is not compliant. We want to understand why it has not been manufactured or designed. We want to see what corrective actions need to take to prepare the windows. Im talking correctly about the incorrect drilled holes in the fuselage. These were around another window holding. Very good. Very good. The house faa authorization bill, would create a new deputy administrator for safety operations. This is to engage in certification and operational approval of lifesaving technologies. Can you share your thoughts on how technology will improve aviation safetys . We are looking at Deputy Administration roles for exact advanced technologies. I think technology has been one of the great tools that we have had. Producing the accidents from aviations. There are a lot of benefits in expanding what is available. Particularly in the general aviation aircraft. This is part of the cockpit. They are bringing back that technology to market. They are trying to facilitate this. They are right here. I think we always want to prioritize safety. This is an additional resource to perhaps look at these limitations. Thank you for that. The faa have passed the professional aviation specialists. They have been in a collective Bargaining Agreement for two years now. What is the status of that . Understanding is the vast majority of terms that have agreed, have been a handful of things are outstanding. I understand that following the january 24th faa approval of the 737 max nine inspection plans, and united returning aircraft to service. You know that they are going to be inspected . Do you know from his hairlines with the total estimated losses are . Is the since the original grounding . I dont have any information on the Financial Impact of this. Im sure they are dealing directly with boeing. As far as the number of aircraft that returned to service, they have a precise number. Thank you mr. Chairman. I get back. Yielding your time to the gentleman from texas. I thought about it. I thought i would pass. Thank you. I recognize the gentleman from new jersey. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you for mr. Whitaker being here today. This is a critical aspect. Many runway instances, and near misses, have been reported over the past year. New outlines, new testimonies, the action was taken. What are some of the challenges that you still face interesting such safety risks . We have a lot of direct barriers. This deals with the capacity of manpower. We dispatched runway safety teams to a major airport in the country. Reviewing the geometry of the airport. Assessing the technologies that might be helpful. The Service Technology in the tower is the most helpful. Okay. How are we addressing workforce challenges . This requires expertise for certifying new technologies. Unmanned aircraft systems, managing unbilled technologies. These technologies to present challenges for us on the certification side. We have a lot of new systems and new capabilities that are new to aviation. Bringing in the right workforce for those positions. We are competing with all these companies out there that we are developing. We are working to make sure that we have those resources. What is the faa doing to make sure the agency is a fully implementing the faa authorization legislation . This has yet to act on different signs of the president. I get doing anything to participate in house . The legislation is complete. We have a process that will run. Identifying the projects for us that come off of that. They will set up a Program Management approach. Tracking those trying to meet the deadlines. Deadlines are not achievable. Dedication is possible. We will have communication that is open with the committee. There has to be a broad agreement. People with this committee and chamber, they are looking at anticipating at what is coming in number of areas involved. Im trying to look at some of these efforts. With that, im trying to yield my time. Thank you sir. In your early testimony, you talk about what you established. It was an independent Safety Review Team. Is that correct . There was an independent Safety Review Team. This was last year before i came to response from the near misses. They put out a report in november. I am all about safety. We got the greatest Aviation Team. Our reputation is rock solid. We are safe. We have done a very good job in this country as it relates to aviation safety. Would you consider asking a group like that to go review some of the records . Is this on japan, new zealand, and canada . Are they looking at it . Is it a Safety Review Team . Tell us a little bit about your history over here. Tell us about your programs. Having these pilots at 67 flying around. How is it working out . Dont you think that would be very useful information . Not only to congress, but the faa and other administrators . It does raise the age limit. We will look at that. I think that is fantastic. Even part 135. Are you aware of any issues related to the 135s . Has your office received phone calls about potential issues related to involving 135 operators that are flying right now . You get all the data, dont you . Are you a receptacle of a lot of complaints and the data safety regulations as it relates to that . We would certainly look at that data as part of that. Are you aware of any issues with these pilots flying around . I have not looked at the data to see if there are any issues around that. I you back. Thank you. Thank you. Taking a motion of privilege. We are going off of this list. I have had enough of this. We are going to go ahead and fire him. [ laughter ]. Seriously, to my right, he has served in the military. He has a masters in aviation. They have no interest in the market. They have incredible asset to this committee. We have built this nearperfect aviation bill. I think this is going to be the last subcommittee action. Hes going to be taking off at the beginning of next month. I just want to thank him for his dedicated service. Working in a bipartisan manner with the entire Aviation Team. I will say it again, it has been a tremendous asset to the committee. I really do appreciate your service. I did want to fire him before he was able to resign. Thank you very much. We really do appreciate your service. Good luck. With that, you have five minutes. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Youre not going to get any of my time. Mr. Administered her, you have a long, illustrious career. I agree with the comments. In this industry, your organization regulates both of the manufacturers. They include airline companies. Runway incursions. All those things to me, send bright red warnings. What im hearing from you so far, you expect that. Not to be polyamorous, but we cant press on worlds. Many of these hearings prior to you getting your position, my senses is that the faa is lessening on its previous track record. Quite frankly, the organization reminds me just before the challenge. They have a different commission. Institutional deviation is going to be large into the culture. That is the Safety Culture of these countries. The perfect storm to me, is this long, wonderful relationship to the market of defense. Both contractually and within the workforce. We have issues around climate change. We are coming out of covid. Airbus and boeing, they are making great profits of her consolidation. Boeing is losing money. The airbus is close to losing money. Similarly in your conversations with the air carriers, enormous pressure. Warren buffett had a great line about investing in the airlines. I have another 800 number that i call at 3 00 in the morning. This is warren buffett. Im afraid im going to invest in air stocks again. Please talk me out of it. The Safety Culture. This is another risk assessment. Details, we have one of the parts that we are putting in right here from this case. The root cause, we can go back and find out who actually work on that. We know what hours we worked on. There was has that information. These are the simple things from the Safety Culture. They talked about enormous pressure. We have it all going up. We have another investment market that can move very quickly away from them. They can create greater damage. On top of that, you have boeing that is not going to be able to supply the product that the contract is looking at. They are artie into it. They are delaying that. This is a long question of Safety Culture. We are one disaster away from industry. We are imploding. Thank you for the question. They cant rest on our laurels. We have to be vigilant. We need to look at the system. Has been a focus for the past three months. We have a Safety Culture review that was commissioned as part of the legislation. Is going to be complete later this month. I think that will be informative. At the end of the day, the goal is to make safety plans. I think it is hard to make surf airplanes if we dont have that culture. We are going to be very focused on that quality process. Really, we are looking at whatever the data takes us. We are doing this audit. We have to get back to a culture where safety is first. Safety has to be first. That is what we need together. This is on the operations side. This is the same thing. We are pushing a lot of product. We have different pressure from these operators. A lot of folks are working overtime. They have been doing so for years. This is not a sustainable thing in this year. We are looking at fatigue as a risk that needs to be mitigated. Thank you. I yield back. I recognize myself for five minutes. Mr. Administered her, i want to thank you for being here today. This was touched on by a couple of my colleagues already. I have some further questions. 92 days ago, you were copied on a letter that was sent to the transportation secretary. This is for members not only of this committee, but other committees. You have straightforward questions from President Joe Bidens administration. They have some of the largest transportation hubs in this nation. They are going to be looking at it. We requested a response by november 2023. Today, is february 6, 2024. We havent gotten any response. I would like to submit the letter for the record again. 60 numbers of the house, since 92 days ago. I would like to pose questions from the letter to you right now. They have airports regulated. This is temporary for permanent shelters. This is for illegal immigrants, or other persons. I dont have any other information about that. I also want to point out, not mentioned in the letter, it wasnt mentioned by my colleagues, i took a visit to jfk airport, just days after this site was apparently approved. I coordinated with the mayor adams office. I quart needed with the Port Authority tsa. I spent a career in the nypd as a detective. One of the most startling things that i found when i got to jfk airport, was not the fact that the faa was the city of the new york police department. They told me the meeting was canceled. They were not going to allow me to tour the facility. The biggest facility i have, there is zero communication amongst agencies at that airport. Nobody knows who is in there. Nobody knows what is going on. This is the transportation of probably one of the largest in the country. We have people wandering the streets coming out of this facility. I dont think anyone thought this was a good idea. Has faa received any grant or request from an airport or local state or federal Energy Agency between january 2021 and today . Temporarily using a facility for purposes of hosting a migrant shelter. I dont have information. Im happy to respond. To what extent has dhs consulted with the faa about the appropriateness of proposing to house migrants at airports . If they have consulted with the faa, when response is right here. Committee staff, asking in a followup email. The faa could provide a detailed scription of many analysis is scriptions. This is going to be in accordance with the safety Risk Management policies. The decision to approve housing, they are posing the greatest security threat. They represent failure from the President Joe Biden administration. Does the faa have a plan in place to ensure that any of the sites, even perhaps the ones you dont know about yet, are longer being used to house migrants . I dont have an action for that. We have the administers of the faa looking at these informations. We have many locations that wanted. We are housing migrants. We have locations that are housing migrants. They have locations that are housing them. I dont consider an airport another faa location. They have to approve in order for them to become migrant shelters. We improved Community Use agreements. At no point did the faa think that it was a bad idea to house migrants in these locations. I dont have the information that was there before i got there. When did you take them as the administered her . End of october. November 6, 2023, is now february 6, 2024. We are still looking at a response. Will you come in today in front of this committee, that at the end of one month, you will respond to the questions that have been asked in this letter . From one month today. March 6th, 2024. We will have an answer to all the questions. Yes. Thank you very much. We are recognized from new jersey. Thank you, chairman. This is what we looked at the district. They are populated in urban areas. They are flying at low altitudes for prolonged periods of time. They have the enjoyment of public spaces. Residents are also concerned that they have a new flight path. How does the faa monitor and force helicopter altitudes . They have decibel limits. We dont have direct authority over noise. What we have, is operating rules for the compass. We have certain altitudes. This is a traverse land. They are flying routes into what is available. This is the monitor of the altitude. They monitor their own altitude. They have deviations that can come from a variety of sources. All operations right there, they have a minimum amount. What can faa do to address persistent helicopter noises . The most effective tool, or community meetings. They are usually within the airports. They are open and inclusive. They include not only the immediate affected areas, but the area surrounding that. This is another inmate ability to have community dialogue. Last week, i wrote to you highlighting the attack helicopter noise. They have received a growing level of complaints. There were questions the opportunity to discuss the solutions during a Public Meeting with your representative. I want to formally invite you to our district. This is firsthand. Working together toward solutions. We would be happy to have you provide the government sponsored meeting. This concludes a very broad meeting. It is useful to include zoning officials. Some of this is zoning related. Absolutely. We would be happy to build this with folks right there. We are trying to ensure another meeting for the representative. They are able to attend. Switching gears, im glad the faa has taken steps to assault within the flight crews. They are taking on this issue. They are trying to look inside other employees. They are not seeing the same level of response. They are working directly with customers, expressing delays, or looking at other complications for travel. The reauthorization bill passed the faa with employee assault and response plans. Those plans have yet to be put into place. I have tried to fix this problem through my airline assault prevention act. This includes pieces of this bill. Mr. Whitaker, you know why these plans have not been implemented yet . Im not familiar with that. We are not looking only at flight crew, but the airport. That space becomes a little bit more congregated. We have clear authorities, and the captive environment. Its unclear what the airport involvement might be. This issue has been raised to me. I have had discussions with the airport. I have had discussions with the directors about that. We understand it is a jurisdiction issue. We are trying to address this to make sure these assault prevention plans cover the land and air side. All employees are kept safe. They are looking at some of these travel challenges. Upsetting passengers. Unfortunately, helpful woodwork is going to be on this issue. We appreciate your testimony today. I you back. I recognize him for five minutes. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I have heard from several manufacturers, that the certification process that the faa has become, is more long and arduous than others. They are not returning to work yet. Employees know that they dont have as much familiarity as any of the senior employees that we have. What are you doing . What do you plan to do to improve this certification process . U. S. Companies can be competitive, and improve safety and efficiency for pilots and passengers. It is a very important issue. We have a number of things that we are looking at doing. We are within the process. We are identifying where the application is. This is because we are still waiting for data. We are not moving fast enough. We want to certainly get around that. I think there has been a little bit of overcorrection, following the max events. A more conservative approach. I think having clear leadership and clear process, so that we can resolve decisions, is an important part of that. It is an important issue. There is another area of efficiency. I have heard from people, that it may need to be addressed. I might not be articulating this exactly correctly. A pilot explained it to me, when pilots have to leave for health reasons, they are overcoming this. They are trying to get back into the system. There are not enough people. That process is also being delayed. It has delayed all of the time. It is problematic. We have a chronic shortage of pilots. It is correct within that. He is correct using that. I have had two flight instructors that have looked at it. No matter how long they have taken. It is not unrelated to the Mental Health that we have set up. We are trying to make the system clear. We are able to make decisions more quickly. That is something we are looking at as well. In that line of questioning, training is a big issue. Getting pilots through the process, it just came to my attention. The g. I. Bill, it is a Great Program for veterans. It covers a lot of things. It doesnt cover some of the things that you need to become a pilot. I would think using a g. I. Bill to get those hours that you need, to become a certified pilot, maybe it is more important than basket weaving. The g. I. Bill will cover. Would you be supportive of having more flexibility in the g. I. Bill . Is it part of that money that these veterans have earned . Are they servicing the country in order to become pilots . Absolutely would. Im in favor of pilot training. You cant shut off any other educational statuses. It takes a long time. I would fully support that. Another question that i have, we used to see these notices at the airport. You need to have a real i. D. To fly a certain day. That date kept getting pushed back. Now, i dont see the signs at all. Are we going to have to have the new and improved cycle . That is regularly going to be advocated by tsa. I think it is a concern. There is a lot of your receipt that is implemented. Maybe not a lot. They have the same issue. What are you doing to come back to work . It is not an issue that i have brought across. I am happy to respond. You are aware that some pilots did leave because of the Covid Vaccine mandate . That is between the pilots and the airlines. I can look into the controllers. I would be happy to look at it. I appreciate you looking into that. We are looking into a chronic shortage. This affects issues that you have to deal with. That is an important thing to deal with. I appreciate your time today. Good luck finding all the inefficiencies. Im sure that you will find all of them. You have Perfect Solutions to everything. Thank you for addressing the certification process. I think that is really important. We want to make sure that u. S. Companies are competitive. They can get their products certified, to increase Safety Awareness for pilots. Thank you. I recognize this gentleman for five minutes. Thank you. I want to thank our chairman and Ranking Members for hosting this hearing. Thank you so much, for emphasizing this committee. We are trying to look at this deeply personal issue. This is home to my kids. Air travel is essential. We have been tasked in this new role. We know we are up to it. We have to make sure that we are coordinating all the questions today. I have two questions for you. All air travelers, and specifically in our district, we have talked a little bit about his hearing today. We have the differences in approval delegations. We on this committee, understand the differences between design and manufacturing approval delegations. For the American People, they dont necessarily know that. Hundreds of people died in 2018. This is because of the boeing 737 max planes. Now, terrifying experiences are happening to travelers on essentially the same planes. What are you doing to not only usher safety, but assure that people can feel safe after this investigation process . More specifically, what are you specifically tasking them to examine in terms of reclaiming certain approval authorities . Can you give some examples of that . The tasking is looking at what has been delegated. We know what our options are for reeling in the delegation. What areas are being undertaken by the manufacturers . It could be done by a third party. It is a question of looking at having a neutral thirdparty. This is part of this process. You are right. There is confusion between the design and delegation. This is where a lot of the delegation happens. Manufacturing, has less delegation. Functions look like oversight. Quality control, dont seem to be properly executed. The audit is designed to allow us to understand with impacted areas are. Why is it not working . What are our tools for fixing it . Is that bringing a third party in to oversee it . Are they changing other incentives . What about the process . Thank you. For the passengers in the sake of industry, which we all rely on, we implore you to make it clear in the studies. One has been undertaken to ensure safety for the American People going forward. This is a little bit more district specific grade grand rapids is home to the Gerald R Ford International Airport. One of the busiest 75 airports in the entire country. One of the first airports to return to prepandemic levels. This is close to 4 million travelers. This is close to 6 from the previous record. It has the oldest airport tower. This is from all of the top 75 busiest. Currently, there are no standards for how and when to replace these airport hours. Im trying to change that through my bill that was included in the faa reauthorization. We are hoping that the senate whacked on anything now. The important thing is, we dont need to wait for them to ask it. They cannot replace it. Can you speak to the importance of infrastructure, and ensuring safety around the country . I can. Infrastructure is a huge challenge. We have a lot of it at the faa. This includes, for example, a lot of the highaltitude actions. This is no more than 50 years of service. The funding for that has been a challenge. I can certainly look into that particular instance that you have cited. It is a problem. Thank you. We would be grateful for you having a look. Thank you for your testimony today. Thank you. I recognized mr. Collins for five minutes. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Administrator, whitaker. I just want to start out things running like crazy. I had to change hats. We are looking at that area. We are looking at the tower airport. This is at the top. We are down to just one more facility. Visiting up there. Very impressive. We need your work cut out for you. Like so many agencies, so many hearings that i attend, i think one of the main things that i get over and over again, is how we have such a lack of modernization. I dont care if it is software or hardware. Whatever it is. It seems like the federal government doesnt do anything to stay or improve their technology. Last year, they have been notable with that. From my perspective, it looked like the department of transportation that has spent a lot of time on changing the acronym, instead of updating that 30yearold software, can you tell me what steps you have taken every time to speed up the modernization of technology . Where are we at . What other specific systems can you do . I think one of the challenges that we have here, as we modernize, we are getting a lot of these legacy systems. It is hard to take out of the airspace. Even some of systems that are replaced, it is the military. They rely on those systems. That is impeding our ability to modernize it. They have a lot of modernization over the past 10 or 15 years. This is within the center. We have new systems. We have technologies that are right here. We are trying to make sure that there is a failure for the whole system. We are very focused on the resiliency of the system. Part of that going forward, we need to have conversations about what the next phase of modernization is. The next phase is over. We are talking about how these new technologies and advanced problems are coming into the next operation. One of the other policies that i am focused on here in this committee, highspeed, High Altitude travel. Civil aviation, as a matter of fact, the faa reauthorization amendment states that the need to come up with a study. They need to certify new hypersonic engines. If you note, if you look at faa european counterparts, they already have issued a road map for highaltitude operations. This is for supersonic aircraft. Can you tell us what the faa is doing to prepare a similar guidance for faa airspace . What can they do to ensure that the American Companies that are looking at this innovative field . I dont have a specific answer on the highaltitude airspace. This is part of what we look at as we look at this airspace action. We can also look at what they are doing. We are looking at the other jurisdictions. We need our own comprehensive road map. It integrates these new technologies. This is a good way to bring them on. As quickly as possible, keeping the same level that we are all on. My time is almost up. Im looking at the last, quick comment. They were about 40 down on air Traffic Controllers. They are very organized, and very dedicated. I would just caution, it seems that we have made a move to get away from hiring people and qualifications. They are hiring them on classifications. I can assure you that we are hiring everyone on qualifications. I can also tell you that we recently put in changes to be much more flex will, with how we hire out of the military. We are able to hire that and put them directly into the facilities. One area we are really trying to apply for. I yield back. I know recognize another five minutes. I thank the chair and Ranking Member for holding this hearing, to learn more about the challenges the federal Aviation Administration is currently facing. Emphasizing the importance of passing a longterm faa reauthorization bill. Mr. Whitaker, as cochair of the client skies caucus, and the member who represents the district of columbia, which is plagued by aviation noise, i have been fighting to reduce aviation noise in d. C. , and across the country. The safety of the Aviation System should be a faa priority. They need to do much more to combat airplane and helicopter noise. This will harm the Health Quality of life and structural integritys of homes. Last year, i got two revisions looking at the faa reauthorization bill. This is combating helicopter noise within d. C. One of these rescissions revisions are trying to create and implement a helicopter noise sharing mechanism. They are looking in the capitol region. They are making the Data Collective accessible to the public online. This data would help us develop Additional Solutions to address helicopter noise. What other provision, would direct the Government Accountability office. Conducting a study of her loosing reducing government airplane noise. The study, would be required to consider the extent to which military operators consider operating over unpopulated areas outside of d. C. This is the extent of which vehicles and aircraft other than helicopters, could be used for emergency and low Law Enforcement response. The extent to which helicopter operators have assessed and addressed the noise and the impacts of various factors. This is from the helicopter operating businesses. Altitude, number of flights, flight paths, we have different types of aircraft. We are operating within these procedures. We have all of this training. Mr. Whitaker, what if any steps, is the faa taking to reduce airplane and helicopter noise . We have over populated areas, like the district of columbia. I can say in the past several years, they made some improvements in that area. They have hired specific folks who were focused on community engagement. Situations where spaces are being redesigned. They have different organizations. They have actual realtime changes that are going to happen within this airspace. We certainly have not heard that. It has not failed us. I dont know the specifics. I know we are on a fairly tight footprint. Our paths are limited by the restricted airspace. There probably arent a lot of options beyond the north and south arrival and departure for gca. That could be another instance. Thank you. I yield back, mr. Chairman. I recognize mr. Nelson for five minutes. Understanding this, mr. Administered her, im looking at my own committee. Hopefully we can finish it. We are falling into that. Thank you so much for your time. This is very important to the industry. It really is. They were going past his house. They have passed it overwhelmingly. It is sitting there over in the senate. Everybody knows. The faa and nose. The pilots are flying around. 67 years old. Everybody else, is what we are doing to fire them at the age of 65. That just doesnt make a whole lot of sense to me. Im finding this letter that was issued. This is just before the senate markup. A bill that was for over a year. It has been repeatedly proposed. A matter of that. You were specifically asked within the hearings. The Appropriations Committee a few months ago, you asked quite matteroffact, to execute the legislation of congress. This is what you will make. You will implement this once it has passed through. I believe it is full of flaws. It seems to have some opposition to raising the age. If you read the letter, and you read between the lines, it appears that the faa that you serve, would be in his edge. That is just not true. You are not opposing it. My intent was not to oppose it. My intent was to identify these issues that we have looked at during Technical Assistance. This is the data for what this means. I think we have addressed all of these issues. All of these issues got worked out. Remember all of the gray on gray. We obviously had that right here. The point is, i think about looking at your background. I think you are 62 years old. I think you have a fiveyear term. Do you think that we should give you a cognitive test when you turn 65 . Do you not believe that we should give you a test to make sure that you are all there . When you turn 65 . You do it for the pilot. They get the ekgs in their physicals. They had an extrusion process. Why should we do that for you . With respect to regulating airman, medical certifications are there to protect. I agree. We have the safest aviation record for the past 10 years. Things are going very well. Knowing that we have passed legislation that allows them to look at flying 767s. Do we have any issues . Are they right there right now . Do you have any concerns of the Safety Record . As i said earlier, i would have looked at that record. There is no problem. Wheels up. Do you know who that is . That is private, little version . I wonder how they would feel. Without the ceo would start raising concerns about their safety as it relates to part 131. This guy right here, they felt it for 30 years. They have been forced within the plane pilots. We are going to fire this guy in 18 months. Arbitrary number. Its just fire him. He does it all. This is because of that age. You are recruiting tired, experience, air Traffic Controllers. We have fully qualified and not your retired pilots. It nobody in this hearing, my friend. I think he brought it up once. He talked about retirement age. Nobody brought it up. It has been passed this committee. It passed the house of representatives. This is overwhelming. This is over in the senate. He got beat over here. Now he is going to a train wreck. Trying to get you to confuse the other members of the senate. They are making it sound like this is insane. All of the data is right there. The live environment testing is right there. You can reach out in japan. All of these other countries. We have pilots flying at 637 miles per hour. They have been affected. They were served last night with a loss of 2500 alpha union paying members. Filed a lawsuit on him, for a breach. A breach of duty for fair representation. Shame on him. Lets get this done. It is incumbent upon you to get some clarification, as it relates to this letter, before the senate meets. This is on thursday. Would you be willing to do that for me . Look at this letter. Im sorry. Would you be willing to look at this, and try to say hey listen, there are some problems with this letter . It is not true. I have clarified the intent of the letter. I yield back. The gentleman yields. Any further questions from members of the committee that have not been recognized . See none, that concludes the hearing for today. I would like to thank the witness for his testimony. The committee stands adjourned. Cspan is your unfiltered view of government. Funded by these Television Companies and more. The world has changed, today a fast reliable Internet Connection issomething nobody can live without so wow is there with speed, reliability, value and choice. Now more than ever it starts with great internet. Wow support cspan as a Public Service along with these other Television Providers giving you a front row seat to democracy. Next testimony from fbi director christopher wray, National Agency director and other top cyber officials to talk about threats from china and National Security before the House Select Committee on could you china competition warning that chinese hackers plan to attack critical u. S. Infrastructure with a goal of supplanting the u. S. As the worlds leading superpower, the director of the Cyber Security and if a structure Security Agency claims china is preparing for opportunities to incite societal panic and chaos. Noises]