Subcommittee is holding an oversight hearing on the federal aviation administration. Joinedry pleased to be by senator jack reed, the subcommittee Ranking Member, and im is sure we will be joined by others. The faa is a 17 billion agency with 44,000 employees who are responsible for virtually every aspect of aviation in our country, including the safety of commercial airlines, general aviation, and cargo aircraft. Every day, faas air Traffic Controllers are responsible for more than 44,000 flights and 2. 7 Million Airline passengers across more than 29 million square miles of airspace. Over the last year, muchneeded attention has been focused on the crashes of lion air flight 610 and 6 6. Thiopian air flight 302 syrias questions have been raised about the effectiveness of the faas regulatory serious questions have been raised about the effectiveness of the faas regulatory framework. For the victims and their families, we need to make sure these accidents are thoroughly investigated, their causes identified, and their solutions implemented. Unfortunately, at this point, we do not yet have the conclusive results of the two crash investigations and cannot say definitively why these terrible accidents occurred. For these types of catastrophic events, however, there is rarely just one cause. There is almost always a cascade of errors or failures that lead to an airplane crash. Nevertheless, since the second crash in march, we continue to hear of more problems with faa certifications of the 737 max aircraft. A New York Times article over the weekend shed additional light on some of the problems with faas organizational orignation, authorization, od program. Instances intails which faa managers appeared to be more concerned with boeings production timeline rather than the safety recommendations of its own engineers. These stories are particularly damaging for the leaders of faas safety oversight. The ongoing investigations by the Inspector General and the National Transportation safety board are looking at all aspects of the max aircraft, including the certification of the mcas, the installation of the tag sensors, the Pilot Training, the level of automation in the aircraft, and the Human Factors related to the design of the cockpit. While the max aircraft accidents attentionch of our this year, it is critical that the faa continues to make progress in improving air travel in our nations congested airspace. Our nation airspace continues to become more complex nations airspace continues to become more complex with more players in the Aviation Industry, such as commercial Space Operators and Unmanned Aircraft systems, or drones. During the last two years, this subcommittee has provided substantial funding to improve safety, it increase the increase the efficiency of the air travel, and modify the infrastructure at our nations airports. I look forward to hearing from our witnesses on how these investments have improved air travel for the public. The next gen programs, like performancebased navigation and timebased Flow Management will improve air travel by reducing flight times. Fuel, are burning less imaging fewer emissions, and creating less noise through other next gen improvements. By january 1 of next year, all commercial aircraft and most general aviation will be equipped with Automatic Dependent Surveillance allowing tor adsb, transition away from groundbased radar to more precise gps tracking. With adsb, pilots can see other aircraft in the sky, pinpoint weather, and n, and receive receive important flight information. B will also improve the efficiency of our skies by allowing planes to fly safely with reduced separation and also enhance safety on the tarmac by reducing the risk of runway incursions. Turning to our nations airports, i would point to the 1. 5 billion in additional funding that this subcommittee has provided for our nations airports for the last two years. An 11 billion dollar grant for a runway six engine project. And air longer runway, ambulance system will be able to bring its twin turbo prop aircraft to provide air medical services for communities in an area that has access to few medical dividers. Providers. I look forward to discussing these issues this morning. Let me now turn to senator reid for his opening remarks. Thank you. These are unresolved safety issues that have led to crashes. Every possible measure must be taken for safety before we allow her to return to the skies. It is critical that boeing and the faa to get this right to restore confidence in this aircraft. Jeopardizedo so will leadership and faa standing as a Gold Standard for safety. Report there is a broken regulatory process. Reflected int is joint industry faa certification an applicant how and faa can begin a transition to a state where there is less direct involvement in compliance and to these of the applicant. It goes on to say that a crucial mode been in they maxs development is operated in the background. Client was treated as a with faa officials making decisions based on the companys deadline and budget. These allegations are grave and speak the need for culture change that rebalance is a relationship between the regulator. General on theor oversight on the air carrier maintenance program. It raise concerns that the faa shifted its Safety Strategy and emphasizing enforcement activities on Compliance Systems finding the root causes for safety regulations. Before validating that the corrective action has and implemented. Faa also lacks centralized toabase that allows us identify and track safety violations and compliance. This bridge is a huge gap in faa oversight. There are very few technologies developed as Aviation Systems or to. Drones are changing the way we do business. Tohas the potential revolutionize the way we get goods in this country. There is also concern about incidents being were boarded whether its a thrown flying danger he close danger close to an aircraft. We need to establish safe rules of the air. Revolving sogy quickly and we need to know the faa is keeping up. I looked for to hearing about your progress, mitigating the risk of drones. I know the panel on u. S. Mitigation was just released and i am just sitting here and your reactions. Many challenges in a increasingly complex hairsprays. Airspace. Thank you. Thank you senator reid. Panelwant to turn to our all of whom are senior career officials of the faa. Carol ined today by bullocks and the acting deputy administrator of the fact, the associate administrator for aviation safety, the deputy associate administrator for deputy asknd the administrator for security and hazardous materials. Mr. Burleson we will start with you. Thank you. Thank you for inviting us all to you today to update you on the faas work to provide the safest, most efficient airspace system in the world. We are committed to advancing the at illustration priorities in providing a strong infrastructure and maintaining innovation while ensuring safety and access of all users. Innovation is reshaping, it the pace of change is nothing short of amazing. Consider that we have one. 4. Illion drones registered flying taxis and experimental design with Major Aerospace companies. We propose new rules to remove the red tape and streamlined the Testing Process for testing the next generation of supersonic aircraft. Thats a challenge for the faa and one that we welcome your it how do we introduce these new modernizing the National Airspace and maintaining safety and access for all users. Congress provided us a Reliable Foundation to do this the faa reauthorization and approach rations act and we are working diligently lee diligently. The safe integration of ua f r a key priority. We are adjusting processes and practices to accommodate more of these actions without compromising safety. We are taking steps to fulfill this mission up for ua as we lance, and nearly 300 traffic facilities offering 500 airports and more than 100 contract hours. Lance allows u. S. Operators to gain authorization and a matter of seconds, compared to weeks previously. This is a good first step. We took another step for commercial space integration by opening a challenger room inside the Traffic ControlSystem Command Center were joint operations were assessed that have an impact on the nations airspace. This greater operational visibility coupled with the willd out integrator allow us to safely reduce the amount of air sprays airspace. In addition to the space integration activities we are operationalizing technologies including terminal flight data manager. January 2020 will provide information that is more accurate than we are and is more cause accurate. Roughly 80 of the u. S. Airline fleet and more than 60,000 generally general aircraft have been equipped. We expect to Start Testing this summer. This will allow us to build a virtual approached at airports so flights cant wait at the gate with their engines off until they have a direct route to the runway. By moving Electronic Data Exchange it will save time for the controllers by eliminating annual processes. One of the highest priorities at the faa is to bring new, welltrained women and men into the aircraft system. Started a committee, to enhance the efficiency of trading and targeting skills we and need in the future partnering with industry to achieve the outcomes. Let me reiterate that the men and women of the faa are committed to ensuring the u. S. Is the Gold Standard in aviation safety. We are not perfect. Whether a technician maintaining Power Systems in new hampshire, safety inspector helping to educate the next generation of pilots or controller Controlling Traffic in chicago they are not complacent about their mission. They work every day to help the safety of the American Public. Achieveafely innovation. Thank you. Chairman collins, members of the subcommittee. I appreciate the opportunity to talk about safety. American airlines and lion air 610 accidents were tragic events. Recoveringom and from these accidents is our primary focus for aviation safety for the integration along with maintaining the operational safety of the National Airspace system. Ofh respect to the returning max to service, there is not a prescribed timeline. Modificationftware and we are developing necessary training requirements as we support various investigations and an audit underway. We are working to joint authorities, technical review to conduct comprehensive review for the 737 maxis Flight Control system certification. Agency initiated multi technical Advisory Board review of boeing Software Update and system safety assessment. Let me emphasize that despite this strong spotlight we are under, with all the scrutiny will make us stronger. Approachdriven systems to standard certification and oversight is the backbone of the proven quantifiable safety effort that we have come to expect in commercial aviation. Years, u. S. 10 moreers have transported than 7 billion passengers with one does halladay. But once the tally is too many. Many. Ality is too culturea healthy safety requires commitment to continued improvement. Plan we aretrategic learning our Safety Culture to be responsive to the new challenges we face, including challenges, unmanned systems, uis. We work on a number of initiatives to support uis integration. We are using existing rules to canle regulations from we at focus on everexpanding universe of uis operations that capability. Thatld like to emphasize in our quest for continued safety improvements we welcome theres review of our systems. We remain committed to making commercial aviation even safer. Thank you. Thank you. Chairman collins, Ranking Member read and members of the subcommittee. Thank you for the opportunities to speak with you today. The office of airports works with more than 5000 airports and 3000, 300ntry airports that are part of the national plan. Airlines, jimith gave you aviation pilots, neighboring communities, local governments and many other stakeholders. Always priority is safety of the traveling public. ,hile optimizing capacity efficiency and security of our nations there towards. Our nations airports. We stress financial accountability. We are grateful to the United States congress and particularly this committee for the trust that you place in us. Exceed available resources but the fund that you provide are crucial to keeping our nations airports as save as the airways that connect with connect them. The airports that we help to then represents importance of infrastructure to our nations economic well being. We work closely with airports operators in the planning and development programs. Table e issued a total of 3. 46 billion in airport funding including a portion of the fiscal year 28 team supplemental fund. And fiscal 19 we have processed grantsan 2. 4 billion in including additional funds from the supplemental program. We also continue to improve safety through inspections, through site visits and the runway incursion mitigation program. Through construction, procedures, and signage and marketing changes we were able to reduce runway incursions by 93 . We could not compass this work without our highly skilled special force. They, too, depend on resources that allows them to perform their daily function. Such as helping to develop runway extensions in those area. We figure out how to optimize safety and capacity at airports. They help to determine how to justify a runway extension with community,etween Environmental Concerns and system capacity and safety needs. Our compliance experts in shirt that aviation related revenues purposesfor related which is critical to the functionality of the system. Our people were closely with other parts of the fara, as well as faa. We are dedicated to working with you at our stakeholders that we serve to help solve problems and to ensure that we have the safest and most efficient airport system. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today about how the faa is addressing security risk. Safe and secure integration of airspacenational system cannot be achieved ofhout addressing the risk operations. Just as the government has built a Strong Foundation of aviation security, we are focused on creating a comprehensive and security regime that includes the ability to prevent, deter and prevent when necessary respond to unauthorized operations. The profession efforts continuous Public Outreach and education. The faa and or Security Partners are committed with no malicious intent. Providing resources and investigative support to Law Enforcement agencies which also enable enforcement. We are publishing a Remote Identification rule to prevent detection of potential safety and security risks here the ability to remotely identify inflight is crucial for our taking appropriate action for u. S. Operators. Detecting the presence of unauthorized u. S. Is radical to uhf integration. Turning to respond the faa is coordinating with the departments of defense, energy, justice and Homeland Security to ensure counter you way of ua f. For domestic airports several challenges in the airport environment require more evaluation and development of counter ufp technologies. The rio authorization we are planning to test mitigation systems that airports. We share concerns about the potential impact of a throne interrupting operations and are more knitting with our partners to finalize a National Program to address a persistent destruction at a airport. The government is ready to respond to an event similar to the u. S. Disruption. Working together to prevent, deter and spot risks the faa, willritical infrastructure enable the United States to continue leading the way in innovation. Thank you. Thank you. You, int to start with your testimony you stay that the safetyaa prioritizes above all else, which is what we would want and expect. When one reads the New York Times story and the wall street journal story that came out question what to is happened to that commitment. Shortages, have caused the agency to be to differential to the aircraft manufacturer, and whether it is really wise in the case of only to have allowed the company to work. Y 96 of its own more disturbing, the New York Times story recounts case after case where safety concerns seem to be placed second to concerns about boeing being able to meet its own timeline. On why the faant would give apparently more consideration to an aircraft manufacturers production timeline then to the safety concerns that were raised . Thank you. With foundational faa and our core principle and safety. I think you see that as we are working through all the challenges of coming to a place where we feel comfortable in grounding the max, we constantly say there is no timeline, the issue is safety. In terms of the newspaper ,eports, i think that again they offer a perspective. They are professionals that work on this date in and day out have an incredible commitment trying to get it right. Cane are times and we elaborate on this, having worked on the safety part of the faa, e has a lot more knowledge at the beginning of the certification project the boeing max took five ye