Rose still who tragically died on Ethiopian Airlines flight 302 and thank them for participating. March 10th marked the 1year anniversary of the crash of Ethiopian Airlines flight 302 which was preceded by the loss of land near flight 602. The aircraft involved in both accidents was the boeing 737 max. Our deepest sympathies go to the families of those loved ones who are among the 346 lost in these crashes. Since the Ethiopian Airlines crash the committee has heard from many whistleblowers at boeing and in the Aviation Industry. It is increasingly clear from the investigation that the faa has the number of serious problems, the investigation staff of dozens of witnesses, thousands of documents and emails who have been diligent in pursuit of these facts no matter where they lead. However, i must express my profound frustration with the agencys lack of response to most of my requests dating back to last april, documents that stem from whistleblower disclosures. On april 2nd, 2019, i sent then acting administrator daniel elwell, a letter requesting information about training and certification of the faa aviation safety following responses to my initial request i sent a followup letter from july 30 first 2019 to acting administrator requesting Additional Information of 65 specific items. These 65 specific ideas included such serious matters as allegations of whistleblower retaliation, senior faa managers. We have received complete responses for 10 of those, partial responses, we have not received any response to over half of these requests. Given the subject matter of today, 12 of the requests faa has not responded to. Attain directly to the 737 max certification. To todays subject matter. On august 1st, 2019, Committee Staff department of Transportation Council to identify which item of the requests each production was responsive to. Whether it represented a complete response, this has been reiterated several times when not consistently followed. The committee made every effort to aid the document reduction. Back in september of 2019 the Committee Staff sent a prioritized list of ten of the most significant requests. On december 18th, 2019, over the course of nine months, completed responses to two prioritize requests, partial responses to six and no response to two of the top ten items, and during a short period of time, the agency provided response but did not include a specific email we were pursuing. Additional narrowing to a specific date was required for specific emails. On july 30 first 2019. On june 17th, weve not received any documents since april 20 seventh this year. Lack of timely responses to our document request forced the Committee Staff to seek faa staff interviews, in 2019, the dot response handling the interview request has been very slow. And we 7 months our Investigations Team has been able to interview only four faa staff members, of the 21 we requested to interview. Then came a virus, recognizing the covid19 impact on april 6th, 2020, Committee Staff requested to move forward with brief written interrogatories of multiple faa employees to expedite gathering relevant information, with minimum impact involve parties. A lot of dot staff did not provide a definitive answer on the feasibility of written interrogatories until april 30th almost a month later. When they stated in person or virtual interviews were preferred. On may 5th as a result of dot rejecting the interrogatory approach the Committee Staff requested to interview the next employee. On may 11th dot staff stated they were working to make the next interview we available. It was may 5th, as of june 17th, 2020, Committee Staff has not heard back on when this interview would take place. Administrator dickson in our telephone conversation last thursday, i raised a number of these matters. You promised your team would work with the staff quickly to get back on track. I am extremely disappointed weve not made significant progress, staff followed up immediately, what we identified. No attempt was made to set up the meeting, staff reiterated the request and provided a comprehensive list of outstanding document and interview requests. The team asked to schedule a call on monday which was denied. The team offered to meet this thursday tomorrow. The entire purpose, the large purpose of the meeting, not wait until after its conclusion. It is my understanding the teams did speak last night after my staff insisted on the time of the call, no progress was made on resulting the outstanding issues. The nonresponsiveness shows at best unwillingness to cooperate in conventional oversight. You deliberately attempted to keep us in the dark. By that i mean our investigation staff, committee and me. It is hard not to characterize our relationship during this entire process as being adversarial on the part of the faa. Administrator dickson, i hold you responsible for this as head of the agency. During your confirmation hearing i ask this question as we ask all nominees, quote, if confirmed would you pledge to work collaboratively with this committee to provide thorough and timely responses . You answered yes as we require nominees to do. Lack of cooperation calls into question the pledge. We are not embarking on a fishing expedition. Request for documents and interviews, specific content and reasonable in scope. I can only assume the agency stonewalling of my investigation suggests discomfort for what might ultimately be revealed. I expect to receive an explanation for failure to comply with the committees request was part of the committees investigation involves the 737 max was following the Ethiopian Airlines crash the faa grounded the 737 max airplanes. A year later the plane is still not clear to return to passenger service. The faa, boeing, and International Regulation involved in the Research Process should take whatever time is needed to get recertification right. As the recertification continues, the number of reviews including this committees investigation have raised concerns how the max was designed and certified, how pilots were treated and the nature of the nature between faa and boeing, the faa needs to hold accountable everyone at the agency or boeing who broke the rules or fell short of meeting expectations. Last october this committee was the first on capitol hill to convene an oversight hearing with boeing leadership. Today we hear from administrative dickson on what happened during the original certification process, steps the agency has taken before returning to safe flight and how the agency helps prevent future tragedies. The max recertification is a critical component of rebuilding public and International Trust in the faa, the unquestioned Gold Standard with regard to aviation safety. Congress has an Important Role to play for confidence on the agency. And the department of transportation. They introduced legislation, to improve aviation safety. It creates the new requirement for manufacture safety. And creates new emphasis, and protection for whistleblowers. This monday, Ranking Member staff requested mister stu mo to testify. In state of the lateness of this request we were able to accommodate such a request by adding a second panel. I look forward to a detailed discussion of the faa aircraft certification process. So these products these tragedies do not happen. I expect an explanation of the agencys unwillingness to respond to the committees request, i recognize my friend and colleague in drinking a member senator cantwell for Opening Statement. I want to say as Ranking Member, the information requests to get the faa to comply with the majority of the requesting. I want to take a moment to recognize the families that lost loved ones in the Ethiopian Airlines headliner tragedy, i cant imagine the loss of life and pain, appreciate your vigilance, who often attend our hearings and comment on Safety Measures before the committee. It cant be easy to continue that role but thank you for doing it. All the voices in these efforts to make our skies safer are important. I look forward to hearing the testimony of Michael Stumo, we have to get this right for his daughter and the 346 victims of those crashes. Todays discussion is about leadership, restoring americas leadership in aviation safety. Safety his job one. Job one in critical sector that employs 2. 5 million people, 150,000 in the state of washington, safety is job one, it involves so many lives. The leadership path begins with the faa and administrator dixon, we appreciate your efforts to build capacity to improve safety in response to these two accidents have been undertaken. Numerous reports issued since the accident and the faa response to a number of those investigations, seems a rigid acceptance of the status quo than the needed changes we want to see at the faa. No matter what the structure of the faa it must be clear, it is an independent agency with oversight and certification. We need to have the best workforce which i believe we do in the northwest but we must have experts and investigators qualified and technically trained at the faa to oversee in a sufficient manner, the compliance process. A lot of discussion about wall street and the approach to aviation, value engineering. I want to tell you something about the northwest. The pride of the northwest is about innovation and solid engineering and solid engineering advancements, not about doing things on the quick but doing things deliberately, getting safety right. I want to see a certification process, who are calling out safety issues. Backing up those engineers on the ground for calling out safety concerns at the earliest phases of the process, not at the end and certainly not after certification. The system dates back to 1958, can be traced to 1927 when private doctors conduct pilot Health Checks in the are not expressed of the purpose of commerce. It was the faas action taking authority in the delegation, approval that started in 2005 under the ob a system, the engineers acting on behalf of of the faa, these lines of oversight and communication were fragmented. I believe and i think the chairman believes as well, we need a system of certification, hardworking engineers and engineering safety driving the certification process, not the other way around. We cant have certification that has been grounded because of unsafe features, technical review by the International Safety authority, technical review chatter identified a number of problems with the faa oversight specifically is a need for a more holistic review and the fact that engineering expertise needed to have open Communication Systems and the technology, Technical Expertise level that needed to be there. I hope we will hear about what the faa needs to be reformed in this program, what reforms of those suggested by chairman wicker and myself do you support . I want to thank chairman wicker and his team and my team for working so collaboratively with us in their hard work in introducing this legislation that the chairman just mentioned. I believe it does fundamentally change the way the faa oversees the certification of large commercial aircraft. Specifically, how we will revamp the oda and make sure the faa stays in the driver seat of certification. Under our bill, the faa will once again be responsible for directly appointing and approving those tasked with carrying out the certification on behalf of the administrator. In addition the faa will assign safety advisors to closely monitor the performance of these designees and we also create a new whistleblower protection to fortify the channels of communication and reporting safety. Critically our bill will end any semblance, giving additional authority, and a specific provision. It requires implementation of the ntsb recommendation, Safety Management systems for aircraft manufacturers. It includes issues of multiple flight alerts, for Pilot Training. I think senator duckworth for working with this legislation. The faa must keep pace with the skills and the technical capacity to handle an increasingly complex aircraft technology. Automation help safety, and command and alert, with seconds to respond. With tween Human Technology and operational environment is becoming more critical to safety in aviation. And the center of excellence in Human Factors, the faa office, to make sure those inspectors, to keep the expertise necessary to do the oversight. We need science and technical, with technology changing, building skills is important and i want to thank senator more and for introducing the Civil Aviation authority and building capacity act which will increase global pilot standards to improve Pilot Training, the United States needs to be loud and clear that we want to see strong airman ship. That is to say a pilot needs to fly the plane without the automation and i hope we and you will help lead that effort on an international basis. We need a strong aviation workforce for the future. That is why i partner with senator blunt with the National Grand fellowship aerospace fellowship for the future act. We cannot have that race for competition drive us away from a solid safety certification regime. The solution to that is to hire and retain the best Safety Experts we can find. I look forward to finding a way to improve the process. I thank chairman wicker for his leadership on the bill we just introduced and thank him for his focus on this issue. We need to hold manufacturers for Safety Standards through the process. I look forward to continuing to work with them on that. We need to have certain design features that are compliant with the airworthiness standards. No one wants to see a process where at the end of the process it is not clear the data indicates. And i have many questions about this. Thank you for addressing these issues. Thank you for being here and i look forward to hearing those witnesses. Thank you, mister chairman. Many of the statements made, in my Opening Statement. The investigating staff began this effort. July 30 first last year, we have received no response to the items. After we narrowed down the request significantly. We will have followup questions. Thank you, members of the committee. Thank you for inviting me. You have an Opening Statement. I neglected that step, please proceed. Thank you for inviting me to speak with you about the faa oversight of oversight certification and provides with an update on the 737 max. First i want to assure the families of those who lost their lives in the Ethiopian Airlines and lion air accidents that you and your loved ones are foremost in our thoughts. I think of you every day and it is good to see michael and the other family members with us this morning. The Lessons Learned from these accidents will lead to increased safety worldwide. Our. Is not only in words but the implementation of tangible and lasting improvements that will result from the observations of recommendations received for many review bodies including this committee. Before i turn to folks at the hearing, i want to address the challenges the Aviation Industry has faced in the Ongoing Public Health emergency. Aviation employs worked diligently these past months despite risks to themselves to safely transport passengers and muchneeded supplies. Now that traveler demand is beginning to return the faa fully support and strongly encourages the industrys adoption of precautions to protect employee and passenger health. The centers for Disease Control and prevention as well as international Public Health agencies advise face coverings are especially important to situations where social distancing is not feasible. Secretary chow in the department of transportation have been clear that air passengers should wear face coverings to protect themselves and those around them. We expect the traveling public to follow airline Public Health policies. As we move through phases of reopening we will apply our aviation expertise to lead efforts with other federal agencies, industry and International Partners to address Public Health risks in the air transportation system. With respect aircraft certification and our evaluation of the 737 max will return to service the faa continues to follow a thorough process guided by a datadriven methodical review of boeings proposed modifications. In the us and returned to Service Decision will rest solely on the faas analysis of boeings work in these areas and continue to provide assistance and work closely with International Counterparts as they make their own evaluations. As the aircraft resumes passenger flights it will be because safety issues who have been addressed in pilots around the world receive the training they need to operate the aircraft. Before that happens the faa must conduct a certification flight test and complete a Pilo