With more than a year and a half since there was a Senate-confirmed head of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), it looks like the streak is about to end. Today, the uniquely bipartisan U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation unanimously agreed that Michael Whitaker is the right person for the job. The rare consensus means that full Senate approval is likely.
Words of praise for Whitaker came from both sides of the aisle. Even though Whitaker served under the Democratic Obama Administration as Deputy FAA Administrator under Administrator Michael Huerta, Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas, lauded Whitaker’s “extensive aviation experience.”
At a confirmation hearing earlier this month, Whitaker, who holds private pilot and BasicMed certificates, voiced his opinion that bringing quality candidates into the FAA and the aviation industry, overall, will be a top priority. He said, “I would view my role as administrator, as chief recruitment officer, certainly for FAA, but also for the industry.”
But a high-profile string of “close calls” in the preceding months—despite an exemplary safety record, overall—have placed aviation safety front-and-center in the public’s attention. “If confirmed,” Whitaker said, “my priority will be the safety of the flying public. They have put their trust in the FAA to keep aviation the safest way to travel. And the world has looked to us for decades as the gold standard.”
I just love the word “bipartisan.” It means that both sides of the aisle agree on bad policy.
It’s just like compromise. Nobody wins.
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If Whitaker really wants to do something for the betterment of the FAA by bringing in talented personnel, he should begin with removing the OPM requirement for candidates holding a FAA 2nd class medical for those ASIs, code 1825, who retired/left the FAA who either want to come back or have been asked to come back to a CMO. The CMO ASIs do not fly airplanes nor will they in their role at the FAA. BUT: the OPM will not let the FAA rehire them. Blatantly obtuse policy on the part of the OPM.