[background noises] a subcommittee on a visual consort is unescos at the chairman authorized to declare recess without objections ordered also ask you nose consent the subcommittee on aviation will come to order. We are authorized to declare recess any time during todays meeting. Members may ask questions without objection. As a reminder, members wishing to insert a document into the order email the documents. I now recognize myself for the purpose of an Opening Statement for five minutes. Thank you for being here, administrator whitaker. I want to congratulate you for your unanimous confirmation. As you know, achieving Something Like that in todays times is quite remarkable. We appreciate your expertise and look forward to working with you. I hope you understand that is strong support from congress, but also enormous recognition of the responsibility of the job you have now taken on. We have heard a lot of descriptions about americas Aviation Industry. Everything from it is the Gold Standard, its the leading edge of technology, and we have also seen in recent months that we have had incredible challenges in the Aviation Industry. I cant say enough that the Aviation Industry needs to be successful. And needs to be successful in terms of technology, regulatory stability, safety, and more importantly which folks often lose sight of, the Passenger Experience. Every american enjoys the enormous benefit of the collaborative work. Aviation has never been safer or more prosperous. The Aerospace Industry is hundreds of millions of people every year, creates millions of jobs and trillions of dollars in Economic Activity and forms a critical pillar. Maintaining the Gold Standard should be an Urgent National priority. The only guaranteed Gold Standard is that what got us there yesterday is not going to be what keeps us their tomorrow. In the past year, as ive noted we have seen several aircraft manufacturing defects, injun fires, a whole passenger airplane destroyed by fire, near misses at the airports, ramp worker deaths, tyrant Mental Health issues, general accidents, poor Airline Customer service especially for disabled passengers and other challenges. The subcommittee has received testimony about faa organization and struggles that the agency has had with groans, vehicles, commercial space transportation and Cyber Security in the National Airspace system and in updating the technology that is needed to ensure the efficiency of performance of their Traffic Control systems. Im sure in every one of those instances you can find a provision in the past faa bill to address those issues. I will say that again. For every one of those issues you can find provisions in the house passed faa bill that addresses them. I want to remind you we passed the bill month 10 months ago and well before the september 30 expiration. That did not happen by mistake. We worked methodically. I want to thank Ranking Member larsen and Ranking Member cohen. Sam graves and all of the Aviation Team for plowing through literally thousands upon thousands of stakeholder and public and member of congress requests. Ultimately yielded a strong, bipartisan bill. Despite the differences in the house could it was successful passing the bill by a vote of 351 69. Similar to your confirmation vote in these times it is absolutely extraordinary. The bill has received support from all corners of the sector, labor members of the faa workforce, commercial aviation groups representing passengers, airports, and on and on. The house produce legislation has transformative changes in the Passenger Experience and private aviation. It provides advanced mobility space the regulatory certainty they need to deploy some of the most advanced technologies theyve seen in aviation. They also expedited processes. The bill contains numerous provisions aimed at improving aviation safety. With all of these accidents, near misses, and problems it is nothing short of malpractice that the senate has not bothered to even mark up the faa reauthorization. The repeated failure has destroyed 650 million in investments this year alone. It delayed enactment of urgently needed safety measures. Theres never been a worse time to leave the faa unauthorized yet thats where the senate in action has left us. You are doing the best you can with the job you have, but it is clear to me that the sendiks an ability to do its job has realworld consequences that affect aviation and the safety of the traveling public. We are ready, willing, and able to support the reauthorization bill when the senate is ready. Hopefully you can do something to help us with that. Hopefully the conversation we have today underscores the urgency of getting a longterm bill signed into law. I now recognize Ranking Member cohen for five minutes. Thank you, mr. Chair. I just want to say i disagree with everything he said that we need to fund ukraine and israel at the same time. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you, mr. Whitaker for coming before us today. It is such an important time in aviation. We appreciate that. It is important that we have leadership. Most of the people in the industry for the last six, seven, eight months need a strong administrator. I think everyone is pleased with your selection. We have had recent problems which are not your fault, with boeing and the 737 max 9, the Japanese Airline collision, increased runway incursions have been around for a while. I know that is on top of your mind with the they are Getting Better with more air Traffic Controllers. We need to get a pipeline going for everybody to get an opportunity to participate. The prompt response to the january 5 boeing incident resulted in the granting of more than 170 aircraft. What you have to back, i think everybody agrees and appreciates. Boeing must be held accountable. Safety is first. That needs to be made clear. This demonstrates that complacency is a luxury we cannot afford when it comes to aviation safety. We need to be sure this does not happen again with doors falling off in the middle of the air. Is the faa and ntsb investigations, the subcommittee will stand ready to work with you and all parties to enact legislative changes necessary. Of course, the first thing we need to do is get the reauthorization bill passed. Weve done our job now it is your job to get the senate to do their job. I want to thank all of the faa employees that work today to ensure no stone is left unturned when it came to reviewing the inspections and implementing the instructions to be sure their aircraft could safely transport customer skin. Ntsb chair did a great job and shes having some of us over for a briefing later today. Based on what has been communicated to us thus far, the work has been outstanding. So march 8 is quickly approaching. We need our senate colleagues. The air Traffic Control has more people and is beefed up. So we havent to pass a bill that contains hundreds of provisions and ensures robust future. That bill passed overwhelmingly bipartisan. We hope the senate can be bipartisan as well. I look forward to your testimony. I appreciate the work of chairman graves. Thank you, making member larsen. We put together a bid good bill and we hope that we can have the confidence of the American Public. The french have already made overtures and what they are trying to do to make sure there are safe planes produced all over the world. Its an important industry to america. Good luck and thank you. Thank you, Ranking Member cohen. Now recognizing chairman graves. Thank you. For the hearing, thank you administrative whitaker for coming in. Its a pleasure to have you before the aviation committee. The United StatesAviation System has been a major focus of our work in this congress. Last year, it has been the theme here so far today. We overwhelmingly passed a comprehensive, bipartisan Aviation Administration reauthorization that will dramatically improve american aviation and the faa. As many improvements have been held up in the senate for more than six months. Unfortunately, it appears the senate is poised to resume its markup of the faa bill in a few days. Look forward to seeing if it finally happens and i look forward to sitting down with our Senate Committee counterparts to start reconciling the bills. Serious issues in the Aviation System, in my mind the consequences of having no long term faa bill or exacerbating them. Now more than ever, we cant afford business as usual or half measures. The American People deserve the aerospace system. While they are depending you to pick up the slack. Many of the provisions of the bill are noncontroversial. They can be implemented by the faa without additional congress. Your staff can start laying the groundwork for an expeditious with the provisions with congressional intent. Today is a great opportunity for members to highlight the aviation priorities that matter to them and ensure that their issues are understood and hopefully addressed. We also want to hear your impressions of the agency since you have taken over the agency since your confirmation, what your priorities are forward. Finally, we look forward to hearing and update on the flight 1282 accident and what you have learned so far. I do want to thank you and your staff for your very Effective Communication thus far relating to the incident. Open communication, i think, is a very important component in the community. Having confidence in the actions taken by the faa will progress. We all share the same goal, ensuring that the safety of the Aviation System and maintaining that Gold Standard that we all talk about. So thank you for coming before the committee. With that, i yelled back the balance of my time thank you. Just one more, thank you for joining us today. I appreciate it very much. This hearing comes at a critical time. We continue the reauthorization which expired last september. We have to continue to push for the passage of a comprehensive, longrange 2023 faa reauthorization which passed last july. We must examine the problems that the recent max 9. Safety has always been a top priority. The Aviation System in the u. S. Is responsible for safely transporting hundreds of millions of passengers each year without fear of harm or injury. Americans have the full confidence in our Aviation System. The confidence must be justified. The committee must ensure that they have the tools to conduct investigations with audits and enforcement actions. We remain vigilant to ensure Something Like this likelihood of this accident happening has decreased substantially. The max 9 accident was terrifying to everyone on board but thanks to the common actions of the flight crew but he landed safely. The response to this accident included ground in the affected fleet. A separate investigation into whether boeing delivered a noncompliant aircraft to its customer, looking at the production line and suppliers and a prohibition on increasing the production rate until that is resolved. It is not the first time weve seen aircraft Quality Control issues in recent history. In 2021 we wrote to the department with concerns about no less than nine reports of Quality Control issues at facilities. Since then, there have been reports of similar issues. The safety of any organization flows from the top and i urge leadership to takes time now to examine the culture that is currently instilled and improve. I look forward to the implementation of the certification reform bill which this committee passed including recommendations from the Safety Culture review. They depend on leadership to instill the right policies so they can effectively do their jobs. Dedicated women and men that work at plants and deserve answers and the flying public deserves answers. I look forward to the report and the findings of the investigation. Now moving on to reauthorization. We cant forget the responsibilities. It passed 35169. We are waiting senate action. The bill created a framework for safer, cleaner, more innovative and accessible u. S. Aviation system. On aviation safety there are numerous gaps to be addressed in this authorization which were enumerated in the recent d. O. T. Report. The house bill addresses these issues including the hiring of air Traffic Control, surveillance technology, administrator vinegar whitaker i look forward to hearing your report. We have to do more to ensure that all passengers travel safely and with dignity. A focus on assisting travelers with mobility issues and prevent damage to mobility aids. I want to hear how the faa is working with the d. O. T. For more. Faa reauthorization bill triples funding and the workforce development. I look forward to what the faa can do to rich root recruit and retain. We also need to provide a framework for innovators to work safely and the needs of local communities are addressed. The requirements for joint operations and ensuring the safe travel. I look forward to hearing what youre doing to integrate these technologies. The recent boeing 737 max 9 for plug accident is a reminder. That is in part why the bill needs to move forward so we can start to negotiate a longterm reauthorization to ensure they have the ability to do their important work. Thank you very much. There is a lighting system in front of me. Green, get started. Yellow, get ready to wrap it up, read, it is over. We ask that all statements be included in the record. Also todays hearing remains open until such time that would this is have provided answers to any questions that may have been submitted in writing. The unanimous consent for the record for additional comments have 15 days to be included in the hearing without objection. I yield back. Thank you. Again, administrator whitaker we appreciate you being here today. Your testimony has been included in part of the record. We ask you to limit your remarks to five minutes. With that, administrator whitaker you are recognized for five minutes. Thank you, chairman graves, chairman graves, Ranking Members larsen and cohen, and members of the committee. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to discuss the priorities of the faa. The number one priority is safety. The reason event involving the boeing 737 max 9 have shown us we cant be complacent in the Aviation System. Expose potential risks of the safety of our airspace in three areas. Safety events, air Traffic Control hiring and kids to do is Safety Improvement. This includes runway incursion and close calls around airports. In response, an independent Safety Review Team to look at these issues. They were reported to me in november. We have implemented many of those recommendations. To mitigate the risk of incursions we are pursuing a range of strategies including better data analytics, control outreach, improved airport signage. We are also excited to continue development and deployment to enhance runway safety. We will continue to enhance this issue until we reach our goal of zero significant safety events. The safety of the u. S. Aviation system is due in large part to the skill of dedicated air Traffic Controllers. To maintain our safety record, the agency must accelerate the pace of recruiting, training, and hiring to meet increasing Traffic Volume and also integrating safely. We are taking immediate steps to grow the workforce through several key initiatives. We are filling every seat at the academy in oklahoma city. We are expanding the use of training and facilities across the country including upgrading simulators at 95 towers. Last week we installed the first tower at Austin Airport in texas. We are working with Aeronautical Colleges to move graduates quickly to onthejob training. During my first three months as administrator i met with controllers in boston, philadelphia, dallas, and here in the tower. In those conversations control or fatigue came up repeatedly caused in large part by shifting schedules and challenging requirements. Increasing our control to help mitigate risks associated with control or fatigue. Additionally we have set up a panel of fatigue experts to review the latest science on sleep needs and how that can be applied to work requirements and scheduling. We expect to receive the report later this spring. The third priority is to continuously improve safety processes and procedures. For example, the air Traffic SafetyOversight Department now reports directly to me. This gives me unfiltered, candid feedback on the state and quality of the organization. We are exploring how the agency can improve Data Accessibility and collaborate with stakeholders to collect and analyze