[VIDEO] 

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell, Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, delivered the following opening remarks at today’s hearing on the nomination of Bryan Bedford to serve as the Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA):  

“Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And congratulations on your nomination, Mr. Bedford. Welcome to your family and their willingness to help in this larger effort.

“Before I begin, I want to recognize the members of families who are here from the Colgan Flight 3407, they have been a constant source of aviation safety focus. And I want to recognize Tim and Sheri Lilley, who lost their son in the January…DCA collision. Thank you for being here and your focus on safety.

“It's important that we have an FAA Administrator who strengthens our aviation standards to honor the families who have lost loved ones in these tragic accidents. The position is one with enormous responsibility. Every day the FAA manages around 45,000 flights, ensuring the safety of over 2.9 million commercial airline passengers.

“The agency's fundamental mission is safety, ensuring the United States maintains the world's safety aviation system. The tragic mid-air collision in January between the Army Black Hawk helicopter and American Airlines Flight 5342 took the lives of 67 people, and is a stark reminder what happens when the system fails. 

“These failures underscore why we must have an Administrator who is an unwavering champion for safety, who strengthens safety standards, rather than seeking a way around them. Your nomination does not come in a vacuum, so the Committee has obviously heard from other Trump administration officials, and we are concerned about light touch approaches in general.

“I can assure you that we need a hands-on approach, not a hands-off approach. We don't need someone changing the standards just because they think they can lower costs. As multiple high profile aviation incidents have shown us that prioritizing efficiency over safety leads to higher costs, instead of doing the right thing the first time.

“So simply put, we need an Administrator, that my colleague and I agree on, helps us get to the gold standard in the United States of America. Someone who's not looking for shortcuts, but is looking to restore this for the U.S.

“Congress passed the FAA Reauthorization bill with overwhelming bipartisan support to strengthen safety, modernize our air traffic control system, and build a qualified workforce.

“We required the FAA to mandate 25-hour cockpit voice recorders, overhaul helicopter air tour safety regulations, requiring foreign maintenance repair stations to meet the same safety standards that we have in the U.S., and the law authorized $17 billion for critical air traffic control technology equipment upgrades.

“Given…Secretary Duffy's plans to build off of that FAA law, I'm very interested in how you plan to implement that vision. While attention to upgrading our air traffic system is encouraging, recent outages at Newark made clear that the FAA needs an all-hands-on-deck approach.

“We are experiencing the serious loss of talent at the FAA. So, I certainly don't agree with the administration's cutting of FAA officials. Senior FAA leaders are leaving, and the FAA has lost about three percent of its workforce.

“I firmly believe in the next aviation mission, which is the thermoplastic composites that both commercial aviation [and space] will use, that will make production go from 40 planes a month to 100 planes a month. We need it for space, and we absolutely need it for national defense and security.

“So, I hope that the FAA can fill both these roles of safety and the future of aviation implementation. I look forward to hearing how you can fulfill these missions, and we want to know what you're going to do to strengthen the oversight of safety, both here in the U.S. and internationally at ICAO. The United States needs to advocate for the highest safety standards on an international basis, as well.

“You spent an entire career in the airline industry. So, we know you know the aviation business at Republic Airways.

“I do have concerns about the long opposition to the FAA’s 1500-hour rule, finalized in 2013. You said that the rule “does nothing to further the goal of increased flight safety.” Since the 1500-hour rule and the reforms that took place, fatalities have been reduced by 99 percent in the last 11 years [before the DCA collision]. So, I'm sure I will ask you for the record what you think about the 1500-hour rule and what we need to do to continue the exemplary investment in aviation safety.

“The DCA collision exposed multiple safety failures, including the Army Black Hawk helicopter not transmitting enhanced ADS-B Out technology, unsafe flight routes for mixed traffic [near] DCA, and a lack of FAA and Department of Defense coordination.

“That's why I introduced, with my colleagues, Senator Duckworth, Klobuchar, Warnock, Kaine, Warner, and Markey, legislation to ensure that the FAA has an effective integrated agency-wide safety management system to prioritize the reviews of airports and high-volume traffic. So, I look forward to asking you about how you plan to strengthen this particular area of FAA oversight.

“So, Congress has clearly prescribed a very proactive approach for the FAA oversight, not reactive. So, this is the path forward, a stronger, more effective FAA.

“I look forward to discussing these issues with you, and again, congratulations on your nomination.”

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