Transcripts For CSPAN Senate Appropriations Subcommittee Hearing On FAA Oversight 20240714

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 Control System 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 years. We were in the beginning phases of the signing what was more routine and what can be delegated and what the Key Technology risk that had to be addressed. Again, i think we have been fully knowledgeable in dealing with the development of the ne, and i think that while and again the process of delegation is longstanding and has been a critical part of producing the Safety Record we have in the United States. It doesnt mean it is perfect, or that each decision has always been perfect, but i do think the fundamental process of how we the macshile about were sound. The other positive here, we have a number of views im going looking at what we did in the past with that. Changes weitted to need to make, if there needs to be a different talents, there are also committees that are also reviewing and looking at the future. Airplanes are not going to be less computer centric Going Forward. And seean improve what recommendations might come in terms of improving future certification process. I have many more questions, but i know that senator reid is i willght schedule, so pilots who flyt on a day lee basis should be involved in the certification process. Findingere involved in additional Flight Control issue when they were given access. Considered not just test pilots flight engineers and operational pilots are engaged in certification and they have always been involved. What you recently heard with respect to the recent findings on the issue was a review of the system safety assessment, and what we found out that there was a particular failure which was extremely remote. We acknowledge that, and based on what we learned from the two accidents we decided that we needed to verify the assumptions. That is where our pilots got involved to verify in that particular situation if it did occur it is recoverable. In that particular case several thats were able to recover they could not recover successfully. Because of that that change needs to occur. Andpilots are engaged involved in the process. Be formally engage Going Forward in a more robust way officially. Absolutely, sir. Today the wall street journal the situation and one of their points was that the faa to get something out immediately and then something more permanent. Not tolysis suggests provide the design and implement changes to comcast. Boeing and that planning to complete the changes by april. Is this accurate, the report, did the faa intent to have a pilot morning knowing that boeing needed to make a more significant effects . Fix . Advancerespect to difficulty whether operational or technical all of those are reviewed by our engineers to determine what we need to what we need to be doing in the interim and at the same time in the long term. This is a normal practice. Based on the data and if formation information we recognize in the lion air case pilot action played a significant role in because of that we saw that the most important thing to do until we have the appropriate systems in place to provide the pilots with the appropriate procedures to focus on and Going Forward while this is an interim measure. Normal practice. Thist the implication was pilot change would be sufficient to provide airworthiness, and there was no real mention of improvements and necessary changes to the mcas system, leading most people to conclude that there was no longterm issue with the mcas. That lack of transparency, i think, is not appropriate. If i may say, sir, we get involved in an accident investigation, we get involved for two reasons. Number one, to support the ntsb and investigators with the technical information. Number two, to make sure we understand what we need to do in order to protect the fleet based on the realtime information we get. Of theart of as part requirements in agreement with the ntsb, we do not disclose information on what may have gone wrong in that particular case, and that it is a very delicate balance for us. We wanted to resolve the issue without disclosing information that investigators did not want us to disclose. From a safety perspective, we felt strongly that what we did was adequate, and that was based airlinessions with our owneroperators based on the data we obtained from our operators and canadian operators. We thought that was sufficient. Knowing what we know today, and this, wehave to review will definitely make adjustments. Arey concern is there various issues that companies dont want their airplanes grounded because that would interfere with the profitability of their business. Faa, we expect you to entity that the stands up and says, this aircraft is completely safe to fly, and there are no further corrections necessary, or if they are, they are being undertaken, and that doesnt appear to be the case in the situation. Thank you. Thank you. Senator durbin. Thank you, madam chair. During the 45 day Government Shutdown, would President Trump initiated earlier this year, i made a point of meaning with air Traffic Controllers in st. Louis and chicago, and i learned over 3000 aviation Safety Professionals had been furloughed during the shutdown, and another 15,000 controllers and aviation professionals worked without pay. Many of them were working extraordinarily long shifts to make up the difference. It has been six months since the government opened and we are still feeling the impacts of that shutdown. The air Traffic Controllers union said the shutdown led to early retirement and caused students to drop out at the aviation academy. Experiencing worker shortage. The shutdown caused serious lower in the faa had to its hiring target from 900,ollers from 1400 to and it affected the amp limitation of Safety Systems, including the arrival, system, thelearning Safety System that alerts pilots that they are about to lead on the wrong runway. Six month after President Trumps shut down, can you give us an update on the size and scale of the impacts it had on air Traffic Control . How much grounded we lose when it comes to air Traffic Control hiring and safety upgrades . Senator for that question. With, in, i will start 12 say i appreciate your acknowledgment of what the faa did. It was pretty extraordinary. I had been at the agency for 30 years, and this was one of our finest hours. For five weeks, the system ran perfectly, safely, efficiently, again, go portion of our workforce was sitting at home and the rest was working without pay. Bless you, and bless the controllers, but this was totally unnecessary. The Government Shutdown inspired by one man, but where do we stand in terms the good news is we have made great progress. Like any large organization, if you shut it down for five weeks, there will be impacts. I will say in terms of controller targets and training, this years class is slightly lower, but in terms of overall targets, what we are trying to oureve, and we sent staffing plan to congress, you will see we are still on track in terms of getting to about 14,000 controllers. The composition is slightly different in terms of we have about 30 500 trainees as part of that. Delayain, there was some at the delay at the academy, but the classes have restarted. The are certainly not concerned of making sure we have the right level of controllers in the system. We did have some delays in the implementation of a number of the next generation projects. If you shutdown our organization, that will happen. The good news is we are working to try to schedule waterfalls of how we get different parts of the next generation systems out, coordinating schedules or controllers and technicians, so again, there has been some delay, but i am confident we are going to be able to address those issues over the next year, and get that work back on track. I think more than anything, the word safety and the faa are almost synonymous. That is your reason for being. Madehe point i hope i have and you have reinforced is that Government Shutdown compromised the safety of our aviation, at least compromised that at least threatened to compromise at least threatened to compromise our safety. This Government Shutdown finally came to when and. Finally came to an end. Thatyou are telling me changes have been delayed because of the Government Shutdown. The faa has lowered its hiring target for air Traffic Controllers from 1400 to 900. We receive that information from you. Is that the case . Yes. The class size went down, but in terms of what we need her feeling controllers and our overall target will not have an impact. Let me come back to you senator. I have to fundamentally disagree. In time and that five weeks was the Aviation System and the United States unsafe. We would not have allowed controllerstraffic were working long hours to work up the difference were working long hours to make up the difference, despite getting no pay. I can tell you specific stories of air Traffic Controllers i met with, and the sacrifice and pressure they were under because of that shut down. I would like to know that an air Traffic Control is working a normal shift without that kind of pressure without a paycheck, and doing their job and doing it professionally. I dont think we made it easier with that Government Shutdown. Let me ask you pointblank, do you . Do you think the Government Shutdown made their job easier . No, it did not make our controllers cost if you job easier for our safety folks. All i want to say, sir, because of the commitment and this is what i said in my statement, the men and women of the faa have an handlingommitment of the safety of the system. There reported to work and did their jobs as a government sorted out their issues. Our focus is not that. Are focused is making the system our focus is that the system runs safely for americans. Can you give me a report on the secondary clock tick barrier secondary cockpit barrier. Thank you for this hearing. Im going to get right to the 737 max. Every few months, we are learning more about the problem. First, it was the mcas system. It wasnt even included in the was the first, it mcas system allowing it to push the nose down much more aggressively. The system had no redundancy. We learned the faa never performed its own assessments of the system. And had delegated the oversight to the boeing company. We are still in a position to be helpful and we want to be helpful to get these planes moving again. The last count, i have 389 planes that have been grounded. What does that do for the safety of the system right now we are running planes that should be timed out or grounded . Rerunning planes longer are we running planes longer that should be replaced . Sir, i question basically our role as a federal oversight, making sure the skies are safe and the planes in the skies are safe and people are trained properly. The things of this sort is under believable that we got the things of this sort is unbelievable that we got to this position. It was driven by an industry who wanted to save an awful lot of money. If you can talk to that, sir, i with thestarted out 737 max, and went back to the private sector, and came back to the faa. If you can explain to me lb got to this position . Thank you for the question. You asked multiple questions. Lets put things into the proper perspective, and i will defer to you to see if i need to explain things more. I have 40 years in aviation. Transport,n large and i was a designee of the company. And i know what it is to be a designee. That theadge of honor greatest Safety Organization in the world tells you you are trusted to do work on my behalf in terms of data improvement. That is probably the highlight of an individuals career. When you talk about delegation, weegation is earned, and have been able to improve it and shifting from an individual designee to an organizational designation, and to the point that we are today, and it is supposed to be the most comprehensive, and in terms of oversight, system oversight, that is our focus. I spent 25 years at the faa being in charge of large transports in seattle. If i could go over this a little bit. This was a complex plane, ok . You did a lot of different things. The Software System wasnt mentioned in the pilots manual. Yet,t even mentioned, but the faa agree that pilots only needed an hour of ipad training to get up to speed. That is uncomprehensible to me to be in that position. Makeover,d a complete we changed the whole dynamics of that plane to perform differently. The Pilot Training, that is a great question for that decision is not made by one individual in the faa. It is done through a process that has a board, what we do is that under you . Yes. The biggest selling point for the max is that it will require minimal Pilot Training, and bowling promised south was millions of dollars in rebates if the max required Simulator Trainer simulator training. To youated it eliminated it. What i wanted to point out was when we have a new design, whether a derivative or a new model, the pilots, including line pilots, they get together group, and they see what changes are made to the flight deck and compared to the previous model, and then they go through the training and make a decision on what type of training is needed. It was the decision of that body that said the computerbased training was sufficient. I am not a pilot, but i can tell you from the perspective, you want to make sure you provide the pilot with sufficient information to be able to control the aircraft, but you dont want to overwhelm them with all kinds of information that may not be relevant. The mcas system was supposed to be a system, and is a system that works in the background, and should be transparent. That was the logic. Anding what we know today, knowing what we know today, we shouldve included more description in the computerbased training to explain what mcas is and what we do. What we should be focusing on, and i am going to do that and that is what the team is doing, is an understanding of system safety. Investigations into this agency that is supposed to have the oversight of the training . , and i have to autopilot, im going to override the other autopilot. I am being basically trained in case of an emergency. I already know how to fly the plane. I need to know how to fly through an emergency. Pilots hadwo foreign no idea they could turn the system off . That is a very important claim you are making. In our business in the business of safety, you must be focused on these issues that you need to focus on, and help make things better. I do not want to pass judgment on the pilots that were on those flights, but i will say, the review of the flight data recorders and the preliminary information and what we know, the actions they took was inconsistent of what you would think. Thank you for being so kind, madam chairman, but we have relied on industry more than we should rely on the industry to do the job to make sure the American Public is safe. I would say for the 737 max to get back into the air, every boeing official should be fine that plane for one month to make sure we have the confidence of the flying that plane for one month to make sure we have the confidence it is safe. I am not getting back on that plane until it is flown for substantial time to substantial time. We absolutely agree. It is necessary for us to do everything we can to gain the confidence of the flying public. That my time you for talking to Airline Executives, is to make sure that when let is me assure you that my time with talking to Airline Executives is to make sure they are aware of the line [indiscernible] thank you senator. Senator bozeman. Thank you, madam chair for holding a series, which is so important. I would like to talk about a few things that are important to really all of this. It is nice to have you because we can talk about a variety of issues. But something important to our states, and that is the contract our program. I think it is one of the most successful government industry partnerships we have. A veryyou well know, has strong bipartisan supporting congress. Timesvalidated numerous it has validated numerous times by the Inspector General, the Program Continues to revive highquality, costeffective and critical air Traffic Control services to over 250 smaller airports throughout our nations transportation system, including five in arkansas. Given the importance of the towers to real america small airports, what taps what steps are the department and the faa are taking to work collaboratively with the industry to ensure the continued success of rural airports that dependent on our contract towers . Anwe agree that this is incredibly important and Efficient Program in terms of providing air Traffic Services to large parts of the country. Currently, we have 16 9 million we have 169 million proposed for contract towers. That will cover the existing contract towers in the program, as well as it appears to cover the new applicants that are coming our way. In terms of the steps we have taken recently, in june of this year, we reopened the application process for contract towers, and we currently have six new applicants, sir, that are going through the process of review. Based on the congressional direction, we are doing all the cost benefit analysis that is required for new entrants in the cost share towers. Those will be a compass by september of this year. I know there is an issue we are seeing in terms of staffing challenges. Part of it is because a lot of the controllers are now, we are recruiting them. It is creating some challenges for some of the vendors of our contract towers. Our air Traffic Organization is Holding Discussions to see if there are ways to address and help in this area. Very good. On april 9, 2018, the department of transportation signed an executive order. The framework signals the continued emphasis by the Trump Administration on the diving Infrastructure Project reviews by requiring approved coordination among all federal agencies within a single process. Understanding this is a relatively new framework, has the one federal decision had an impact on streamlining approvals thus far . Thank you for that question, senator. So again, i would actually airports our head of was a lot more experience in the environmental world, and might be able she seems like she knows the answer. [laughter] thank you, senator, for that question. I would like to recognize that the office of reports and the entire the faa has been working very hard to streamline of our metal processes for many years streamline environmental processes for many years. And increases the government wide emphasis on the streamlining it increases the government wide emphasis on the streamlining. We do a lot of planning upfront on a project, and working closely with the airport to make sure were implementing the environmental requirements and the executive order. That we in the executive duer, we have to follow our diligence, while ensuring your implementing our Infrastructure Projects. Very good. So, things are moving forward. You are having some success. This is so important. We struggle with the debt, the deficit. This is an area that would save a lot of money. Shortchange want to any of the environmental considerations, or anything else, the safety considerations, but we do want to make sure we work together. Aree anything that there any improvements that we can help with as far as helping you in that regard . Not at this time. One of the things that was approved in the recent reauthorization is section 163, which allows us to look at a project and make a determination that there is mineral, federal impact required, especially on nonaeronautical development on an airport. We have been successful with this program. There have been 25 different projects around the country where we had to do minimal review, and the airports are Going Forward and putting the projects in place without minimal environmental and federal oversight. Some of project the project examples are in lafayette, indiana. They were able to put in an industrial and Research Park with minimal oversight. Spokane, washington is another one we recently did. Thank you. Senator hogan. Thank you, madam chair. You and ide me had a conversation last week and i appreciate that very much. Onre working on some things the Northern Plains test site in north dakota. One of those we worked hard on was the beyond visual line of sight. I am wondering, do you have a milestones, or specifics we would need in order to , beyond visual line of sight lights without those planes . We have worked on those issues and the need to know what is required to finish those up . Thank you, senator. First of all, i want to thank you for the opportunity to talk to about that. As i said on the phone the other day, we have a very, very Strong Partnership with north dakotas test site, and they are supporting us in so many different ways. In numerous projects many different ways in numerous projects. Theirre engaged in integration pilot program. They are engaged in supporting us for operation for beyond visual line aside, and they are a program. G on as i committed to you, with respect to beyond visual line of sight, specifically the company we deal with, i committed to you that we will have changes made by end by the end of this week. I was informed this morning that we have made progress, and we will be communicating that to the test site. They will be able to eliminate observers that were a costly aspect of that. That is one issue i was told this morning. To the issue of , thered coordination will be several centers and there was a meeting taking place to talk about that with their test site officials. Following al be discussion with general thomas. I will be happy to provide you a list of all of our projects, but frankly, these are the two most important ones that were brought to our attention. And we have already taken action on these. That is good. The key is understanding what they are in the timeline. And our people who work through it with you and i would like to take the opportunity to thank you all for the relationship we have with the faa. You want to make sure we understand what the requirements are, and we have timelines we can set to achieve them. If i may say one important thing, and honoring your partnership is keeping commitments. I truly understand that. Of our appreciation mission, which is safety, and balance safety and aviation appropriately. We welcome that. Thank you. Traveling to for see our u. S. Operations. We appreciate that. I guess the questions i would to when you in regard you expect to complete the current rulemaking process on normal identification . Thank you for that question, senator. I appreciated the trip out to north dakota. It was mary helpful for the test site it was very helpful for the test site. This rule is a top priority for the faa roll making the faa rulemaking. It is a complex rule and requires several pieces we have been working on. Your working very hard to publish that rule this year. We are working very hard to publish that rule this year. Up until october of last year, the faa did not have the operators inr all the airspace, and we are train the grateful to congress for restoring the faas authority over all u. S. Operators and the recreational operators. Before that time, we were struggling with putting together a rule that really addressed when needed to occur in the airspace with from identification to take advantage of that from a security perspective, safety perspective, and enabling integration. Once we had that authority, we were able to move forward to building out the rule but there are two other facets that have to come together to enable remote and one is standards. There are several groups the faa is supporting and putting together industry standards that will be necessary to execute the rule. And then on top of that is the infrastructure piece. Id requiremente is out there, how will that information be transmitted and communicated to Law Enforcement and other Security Partners . That infrastructure has to be built out and we had representative on the street in september to start working on that. When the rule comes out, we have the standards we need in the infrastructure in place to execute those altogether. Intop of that, we are also, june, our Drone Advisory Committee sought, or was seeking input on a 90 day timeframe to statehe members that are and local government, another Aviation Industry players, coming together to talk about how can we incentivize early equip it of Remote Identification we can take advantage of that as quickly as possible. Thank you. I have additional questions. You have another round . We are. Senator murray. Thank you. I appreciate your work on this. Before i asked my questions, my top priority is the safety of the flying community. And i know the faa is working to resolve the many aviation safety challenges we are currently facing, including the recidivate and oversight efforts that are ongoing with the blowing 737 max planes. I understand the work of the multi Agency Technical Advisory Board as well Advisory Board is well underway, and i look for to their findings, as well as those of the faa. I would just ask all of you to continue to work as transparently as possible to keep members of congress in the loop as new information becomes available and developments occur, so we can prevent future tragedies. I know this issue has been talked about, so i wont ask any questions about it, but i want to follow it extremely closely. The question i did want to ask today is the issue of Sexual Assault on airplanes. This is an issue i have been working on for a long time because i heard from constituents who were sexually assaulted during flights, and they experienced a complete lack of information as to how to respond, or who to work or to what would happen next . 18 and the reauthorization act required dot to work with relevant federal agencies and other stakeholders, including Sexual Assault survivors themselves and representatives from the flight attendants, airports and air carriers to establish a task force that would address Sexual Misconduct on airplanes. I am glad the task force has started its work. And i hope it will work with all of those stakeholders to recommend swift effective actions, but i wanted to ask you today, how is the faa working with d. O. T. In the office of the secretary on this task force . Thank you. This is a very important issue. Solely, no one should be exposed to the risk of Sexual Assault taking a flight. Again, as you noted, the congress has set up provisions where the office of the secretary is leading this effort. The faa is cooperating with that task force, and again, we are waiting for the outcome of that task force to decide how we can best adopt those recommendations, both in terms prescriptions, and i know the attorney general is working across federal agencies to decide how best to eclipse these metrics, so we stand by, based on the recommendations that have come out, how to best adopt those. Issuesow the faa guidance to air carriers related to cabin safety. Outside of the task force and waiting for the task force to complete its work, are you undertaking any efforts of the faa to deal with this issue . Senator, i know we have collected some basic data to try to help provide information. But again, there has been at least one meeting already at the task force, so again, i know it is working at a pace. We are waiting to see what we can do. As we take the normal flights happen in the system, we work very closely with the Law Enforcement community as issues are reported. We try to do as much as we can to ensure that Law Enforcement we are waiting the recommendations of the task force. This is a critical issue and waiting mean someone will have an issue between now and when the task force comes back, so i encourage you to keep this at the top of mind. Let me pivot quickly. There are seven contract towers in my home state of washington, and these towers, like all of the other 250 contract towers support a wide array of critical aviation operations, like Cargo Airline service. They do medevac, military, firefighting, aircraft manufacturing, just a wide range of things. Given the workforce challenges confronting the Aviation Industry, including the hiring of air Traffic Controllers into the faa, i understand that many of these contract controllers are being drawn from the contract towers at rates high enough to cause challenges to the contractors in the program. This has created a really growing concern in the airports they serve and lead to some questions about whether contract contractors will be fully staffed. What steps are you taking to make sure they have full Staffing Levels . Thank you, senator. As i share through an earlier question, we are supporters of the contract tower program. This issue of staffing has come up. It is of concern to us. We want to make sure to try to that there is right staffing available for vendors that manage towers. Our air Traffic Organizations is having discussions to explore what options we might have in terms of workforce. Workforce generally is a very important issue for us. We have taken a number of steps and the faa to try to tackle this broader issue of aviation workforce Going Forward of the aviation workforce Going Forward. Youre probably seen reports that over the next few years, we will need 27,000 pilots. Will need new skill sets we will need new skill sets. We held a summit last summer with industry academia, unions going to start tackling this issue. The faa has formed a task force inside the agency. And we are really working to try to figure out, how do we expand bridging theof next generation of men and women bridging the next generation of men and women in aviation careers, and how do we target the right kind of proficiency of skills, and how do we partner with education and industry to try to make aviation careers attractive. We are working very hard at this. Are you going to bring back recommendations to us . Other funding things we need to be focused on . That as part of what we are working through in terms of how best to do some of these activities. I will have, Going Forward, suspect we will have recommendations. At this point, we are doing a lot of assessment of how best to deal with some of these issues in terms of pipeline proficiencies and partnerships. But again, this is a very top priority because the heart of aviation being successful in america has relied on the workforce, whether it is working for the faa or the industry. This is critical for the vitality as well as the safety of the system. I appreciate that i look for to your recommendations, hopefully sooner rather than later. Thank you. Thank you. Follow up with a line of questioning that began in the first round. I would ask that you bring your microphone a little closer to you so that we may hear you more clearly. Times posture fee story asserted that the new thattimes story asserted officials said the max did not meet Agency Guidelines for protecting Flight Controls. Consideredhe faa whether any requested changes would interfere with boeings timeline. That itanagers wrote would be impractical at this late point in the program for the company to resolve the issue. I have two questions for you. First, is that accurate . Managersd, should faa and engineers be concerned about boeings production timeline when making decisions that are related to safety . So, first of all, that is not correct. Program,certification there is a debate, dialogue, exchange with respect to compliance with specific regulations. As you know, some regulations are very prescriptive. Frankly, those are the easy ones to find compliance to because it is either this or not. There are others that are really subjective. And in some cases, those regulations often are deviated and discussed those regulations are often discussed and i wanted to year timeframe. Issuesseen certifying occur, so that is why we put in place processes. That is why we put in a process where we get in a process or group of people get together and discuss information. In the case you are referring to, there was a prior discussion as part of the process that the documentation of that particular action was taken. Several folks were not happy with that. Elevated, again was and into a prototype process be could process we put in place. Based on all the data, managers made the decision, and the and it was notde necessarily made to the liking of one or two individuals. Frankly, that is what managers get paid for. To look at the data and make the decisions. And those are very tough issues we need to deal with. In my view, the process was followed. I would definitely look forward to all of these different reviews that are being conducted. For them to take a look at it see ifto to see to they could have done anything differently. So, is your testimony that tossure from a manufacturer meet its deadline for production has no impact at all on the e regards that you mak to safety . Absolutely. Safety is number one and that is what we focus on. Reidsme senator question about the article and the wall street journal this morning. Crash,he Ethiopian Air faas internal analysis found that the underlying risk of the high and exceeded internal faa safety standards. Now, in the past, when faa has found that an aircraft poses an unacceptably high safety risk, it has mandated equipment changes, inspections, or training, but in this case, what faa appears to have done is simply to issue a reminder to pilots on how to respond to an mcas malfunction. And faa gave boeing many months to fix the underlying issue. Ist troubles me about this if the agenciess own analysis found mcas to be an unacceptable take why did the faa not immediate action to address those risks . Sure thatant to make we have clarification. The discussion we had was concerning the event after the lion air, not with the european airline. Once we got the information, we grounded the fleet. But with the lion air , with notification to the pilots and flight crews, directive,through a and it is not just a reminder. They have to comply with it. In cases of a procedure or a change or a focus on a particular process, a copy of the directive put in the flight book for the pilots. They know this is something they need to be mindful of. It is not just a notification. Upon there for them to act should they encounter that issue. That was an interim action. Mean new that an eventual solution we knew that an eventual solution will be a modification to the system. We would have sufficient time to do the modification and get the final fix. It as a closing action. Closing action basically eliminates all of the interim action, and moves that particular piece of paper from the flight manual, and mcas modifications are incorporated. Those processes are what we use and we did the same in this particular case. I will yield to senator reid, but one issue here was senator but one issue here was mentioned that mcas was not mentioned in the original manual, which seems very strange. Senator reid . Thank you very much. You are aware that the department of transportation ig is conducting a review of certain air carriers, management, and maintenance programs, and we understand they are developing a systemic concern that faa is transitioning from a strategy that emphasize enforcement to one that is more relaxed in terms of compliance. They also indicated that questions arose about the agencys ability to effectively document maintenance issues, and identify issues in terms of the new approach. As i indicated in my opening statement, they content faa guidance even allows inspectors to close out compliance actions without ensuring corrective action has been implemented and is effective. Given all of these comments, can you explain how the faa is mitigating safety risks and holding air carriers accountable for maintaining the fleet with this relaxed approach . Thank you, senator, for the question. I would like to set a larger Historical Context and that my colleague talk specifically about the maintenance issues with the ig report. Arrivedhere we have today in the Compliance Program is all about how do we identify a risk and deal with safety proactively . And again, it is not a matter of relaxed enforcement. If you cannot meet the standards, if you cannot comply with our safe operations, we will take appropriate action. This was a process that has been developed over two decades. I have been at the faa for so long. I remember back in the 1980s where we were facing significant challenges with the growth of air traffic, and the accidents we were facing, we were going to face an accident every other week. This clearly wasnt going to be acceptable for the Aviation Industry, so we had to find a different approach. This has what developed this has what has developed the whole process. Congress was a critical part of that of setting up a voluntary reporting system. This is how we have developed the safety team. The process of being able to access information that before was not disclosed to us and to be able to take action for compliance. That doesnt mean we do enforcement when there is agreed is in criminal behavior. So again, i think when you look at the results of the last two decades and see where we were in accident rates in the 1990s versus where we are today, as we said earlier, we had one fatality over 10 years, 90 million flights, 90 billion passengers, that is quite extraordinary. We started in the 1990s and gradually developed. It has been successful. With that said, doesnt mean there doesnt need to be improvements. Asappreciate the igs input far as maintenance. Let me turn to my colleague. I just want to give you a number. 23,000. Number is complianthen the program went into effect until recently, these are the number of compliance actions that have been identified and corrected in either system. That it ise you virtually impossible for any that number by finding throughout the system because no matter what we do, we go out and look at areas that we have traditionally went through. If you look at the iceberg analogy, what we did in the past, we only saw the tip of the iceberg. That was regulatory audits. What we are doing with the Compliance Program, we are actually getting below the waterline. And we are getting into areas that we have not necessarily been able to get into, or do not have the knowledge to be able to understand. And a lot of those issues come through operational, understanding and the details of operation. So, i believe a Compliance Program has been very effective, effective, and will continue to be effective. In the other point i want to point out, and the other point i want to point out is i am very thankful for the recommendation that came from the ig. And fat, glu is conducting a review of Compliance Programs. Anan area that you mention, whih is followthrough of documentation is an area of focus. In fact, we are revisiting our training in that area. In a certain sector of aviation, we have to do some work and get better. Wouldhink the committee be wellinformed if you could get back to us when the report is official, indicating what corrective action you have taken in response, and any issues you have because again, when it comes to safety, and i dont have to remind this panel, you dont you cannot do enough, and i want to thank ms. Langford for your help. Rewarded by more work. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, madam chair. I apologize for coming in early and then having to leave. We had a markup in the congress committee, and i was unable to hear all of your statements, so i apologize for that. I want to begin with a thank you to the faa. We had an issue with our emergency system at yeager airport. I see some nodding heads. We had a hillside collapse in 2015 which wiped out our emergency runway overrun area, an actactually had to do of congress so we were able to secure the grants to replace it. We just had the final ribboncutting of it, which will allow for a lot of safety issues. If you have flown until yeager airport, it is on the top of Three Mountains actually. Having that safety stop there overrun area is critically important for us to have when bigger airplanes are coming in. I want to thank you for all of the work you did with our offices to make sure that happened in with our local county commissioner for the airport. I do want to ask a question and since i missed a lot of the testimony, i apologize if this has been covered. On march 27 and the congress committee, asked about Pilot Training and a directive that was issue between the lion air and the Ethiopian Air airline crashes. I am surmising that recent reports notes more stringent simulator testing has helped to identify separate software issues. And maybe this isnt the best form to ask this question, but in hindsight but hindsight is really great. If you look at what you did after the lion air crash, and then what you have done subsequent after the subsequent crash of the ethiopian, would more simulator training, or more simulator exercises after lion some ofn able shown these things to light . I am throwing that question not because i have always wondered two is different than one, and if you have been more aggressive and gone all out after the first crash, would we have had maybe some better information . Thank you for that question, senator. Back to your to go simulatorout the flight for testing is that we found out these other anomalies or shortcomings in the design. That is not correct. Let me tell you why. What happened was to make the safety assessment, and because of the accident and the thorough work we are doing today, including three other authorities. We got europeans, canadians, and brazilians supporting us in this review. From thethe data preliminary accident reports, we recognize that some of the actions that both flight crews took was inconsistent with what we assumed would be the appropriate action. It is a function of airman ship and military training. What happened recently what you read about was that we identified a very remote failure said,and at that time, we knowing what we know, there is a reason to go back and see if this occurs, can flight crews recover . That is how we decided to do go back that is how we decided to go back to the simulator to see how pilots react. Recognized that, we that the decision for our test pilots, the level of proficiency that is required for this to recover from this event, is exceptional. And because of that, we could not leave the decision to leave it as is and dont make the changes. That is why we made the design changes and that is why the Software Changes are being incorporated, so the simulator was not the one that identify the issue. Systems safetyl that we had to recognize for the simulator. So it goes into the simulator as a scenario . That is correct. Rerun it through the simulator we run it through the simulator. Case, youineering have flexibility to actually change certain systems. We have a lot of latitude and we exercise that latitude to be able to do this. Decision tothat the verify the assumption was based on the information we gathered from the two accidents. Thank you. Thank you. Senator bozeman. Homan. Thank you, madam chairman. I have several questions i want to follow up on with followup on regarding several airports. Faa was scheduled to upgrade to make an upgrade and that did not happen, but the city of bismarck most move forward with commercial Development Close to the airport. And so, they need help in terms of relocating the existing radar location that will allow for commercial development around the airport. I know you are not purchasing more, but will you work with us and the city of bismarck airport to accommodate that commercial growth and expansion . As you said we have some challenges because it is no longer going to be produced. We thought about replacing it with the asr 11. The needs have changed and if the airport is interested in moving it, we have a number of agreements across the country. Have an dont operational need, we really cant pay for it but if the airport is interested, we are more than willing to work with the airport. It will create a bit of a challenge with a temporary radar but i have talked to our air traffic folks and they are willing to explore options of how if there is a willingness to work out a move, to temporary solution for the radar while we move the asr eight. At the university of north dakota, they have a large Flight Training school and is one of the 25 busiest airports in the and you nd students flew over 100,000 hours at the airport last year alone. They have a master plan that they are working on and i want to know if the faa will continue to work with the airport to continue and ensure that the airports master plan is finalized and that the expansion product project they are undertaking will continue to not only conduct the existing ghts but i can take this one absolutely. Thank you for the question. We are working very closely with the airport and i am familiar with this project. I met with the airport director and representatives from the university of north dakota and we went through the whole project from beginning to end. We are working very closely with them on their master plan and we hope to have their airport layout plan signed and approved in august. That is good. That is pretty quick. Yeah. All right. They have been doing their homework. Tomorrow is good. So we hope. We are getting close, and then we will be working with them closely to develop an and we willl review be working with them on a potential funding plan once we get through the environmental. I am glad i directed that question to you. How about the air Traffic Control tower . I believe we are going to start the design on the air Traffic Control tower in august and then once the design is complete, we will be looking for further funding for the actual construction after that point. Thank you very much. Thank you. We are going to do one finalround of questions. I know senator cap to have one she would like to ask us right now. I had one additional question along the lines of what the other senator has been talking about. We have two schools that have aviation schools. Cti,ss they are called collegiate Training Initiative schools. Hire, say you could giving higher prioritization to graduates of schools for air Traffic Controllers. What is the faa doing because we always hear about the pilots saying how difficult that is. What are you doing for these schools that stand up these college Training Initiatives, or what kind of general help can we do to address this challenge through our aviation schools that are just beginning . Thank you for the question. Controllers are vital to the workforce and we actually have had staff talking with congress on the act legislation and we certainly want to cooperate with you because it could be helpful. I think you missed earlier, i made some remarks to flaming to frame a larger issue. The aviation workforce broadly across controllers and pilots and technicians, we are very concerned. Talking more about the pilots. We are very concerned about the future workforce. We are taking a number of steps to work to try and broaden the pipeline and get young people into the workforce as well as improve efficiency and training and cooperate with institutions. We are working very diligently ,o try to lay out frameworks our regional administrators have been doing a lot of outreach recently and i think we increased almost fourfold the number of activities locally to try and encourage future every asian future aviation professionals. We would be glad to talk with you and your staff as a followup. Thank you. Thank you. Quickly toto switch issues that affect the state of maine. At the Budget Hearing with senator chow in march, i described an accident that occurred at an airport in northern maine where a commuter airplane hit the ground, bounced numerous times, injured three individuals, terrified everyone on the plane and the plane itself sustained substantial damage and the secretary committed with us to working to improve the safety at the airport. I know that you have been instrumental in helping the airport to secure some funds for removal equipment snow removal equipment but we could youm provide us with an update on what else the faa is exploring to improve the safety of this Regional Airport . Thank you senator for that important question. To note and follow up on your request, the faa has in fact made satellitebased procedures available at the airport. Currently continuing our investigation of this particular accident and working with our traffic partners and the actual operators and the ntsb and other parts of the faa to determine what were all the causal factors in this accident. As you know it is not just one particular incident that causes the accident. In the meantime we are preparing and working with the airport, to prepare them for this upcoming winter season. As you mentioned, we worked with them to procure additional snow removal equipment as well as working with them on aircraft rescue and firefighting. Once the final investigation is completed, we will continue to work with them to ensure that they have a safe and efficient operation. And thankou very much you for your assistance in that matter. Bethis question shouldnt directed to you, feel free to pass it on to one of your colleagues. I am hearing a lot of complaints from constituents in South Portland about increased noise from aircraft landings near their home at night, often 600 to 1000 feet above their homes. Uses the harbor visual approach over the bay during the daytime, they cannot rely on visual ground references at nighttime and instead they have to fly directly over the city of South Portland. The portland jetport has submitted to the faa a request for a new required navigational p approach tor rn provide another option for incoming flights that would approximate the harbor visual route at nighttime. The faa claims that very few of the aircraft coming into portland have the proper anipment to be able to use rnp, however according to the director, if you take into consideration the fact that only commercial aircraft are causing the noise complaints at night, more than 21 of the aircraft would be able to use this new approach. I am seeking from you a commitment to take a hard look workingand to consider with the portland jetport to get the rnp approach approved as quickly as possible. Help us come up with the right answer to deal with this problem for the residents of South Portland. I am glad to make that commitment. I was provided the same information. Say that i understand that our traffic folks have gone back to the noise roundtable. But again, we recognize aircraft noise can be a considerable problem with local communities. Technology insertion into the fleets, Better Community roundtables, trying to take advantage of some Nexgen Technologies to reduce noise, so i am glad to commit to work with the roundtable to see what might be possible. Jetport tells me that when you look at the fact that it is the commercial aircraft that are creating the noise, that the number who could use this new approach is actually 21 . That could make a significant difference but you have a lot of expertise in this area and i very much appreciate your commitment to work with the community and with the jetport. That ont to point out the way to portland, even south of providence, rhode island, there is the National Airport and whatever you could do, we would appreciate it. Thank you for your help. Thank you. You to feel that i neglected you, so i will be certain to submit several questions on the record to you on drones and the integration of airspace and also the issue of counter drones and is not enthusiastic about that approach or so it appears. We will do that and i know that senator reid will also have some additional questions for the record. I want to thank each of you for being here today. I want to follow up on a comment that senator durbin made earlier about the Government Shutdown and i want to applaud the work that the faa during the shutdown, that was an extremely faaicult time and the really rose to the challenge, and so i want to thank you for that. The faa did not cause the shutdown. The shutdown never should have occurred. Shutdowns never produce good results. They are never worthwhile. I for one appreciate how hard your agency worked to get us through that very difficult p eriod. I know it did set back one of the contracts for the nexgen by around seven months. Those of the unseen consequences of Government Shutdown, that it prevents agencies from Going Forward with needed projects and the irony is, we end up spending more in many cases then if government had remained open than if government had remained open. I wanted to add my comment on that. I appreciate each of you being here today and candidly answering our questions. We will know more after the investigations are finished. I know that you are committed to finding out exactly what happened with the max and making sure that we have procedures and staff and resources in place to try to prevent such an accident from ever happening again and claiming not only 346 lives but also causing tremendous heartache for the families and friends of those who were killed. This hearing record will remain friday, august 9 and the hearing is now adjourned. Thank you. Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer will hold a News Conference on capitol hill shortly. This comes as the senate finishes up work before the summer recess. Senator schumer is expected to be asked about the budget deal vote and immigration issues. That is live at 1 30 p. M. Eastern on cspan. President trump is holding a Campaign Rally in cincinnati. We will have that live at 7 00 eastern on cspan. You can follow our coverage online at cspan. Org or with the free cspan radio app. Saturday morning at 10 30 eastern on cspan, we will show you the first of two democratic president ial primary debates in detroit and then sunday morning at 10 30 eastern, the second round of president ial primary debates. Saturday and sunday at 10 30 a. M. Eastern on cspan, cspan. Org or listen with the free cspan radio app. Reagan is an intellectual. He is an intellectual. He is comfortable with ideas. Yen understands the power of ideas. , ah that kind of foundation political leader can do all kinds of marvelous things. Author and historian lee edwards will be our guest sunday from noon to 2 00 p. M. Eastern. He is the author of just right, a collection of biographies. Join our live conversation wit