▶ 0:17:05Chair Moran: I'll say good afternoon. Subcommittee will come to order. Today's hearing will examine the federal aviation administration's response to the national transportation safety board's recommendations following the tragic midair collision here at ronald reagan, washington national airport on january 29, a year ago. We will examine the lessons learned and what challenges still remain to prevent future collisions in our airspace system, loss of 67 lives in the D.C.
▶ 0:17:35Chair Moran: Crash that originated, the flight originated from wichita, kansas. It was a devastating tragedy for our state and for our country. I appreciate the advocacy from the families of flight 5342, and rachel attending today. Families in kansas and communities across the country continue to grieve the loss of loved ones who boarded a routine flight and never came home.
▶ 0:18:02Chair Moran: The united states maintains the safest aviation system in the world, but that record relies on constant vigilance, accountability, and willingness to act before warning signs become tragedies. The ntsb investigation following the D.C.a. Crash raised serious concerns regarding helicopter routes, situational awareness, and the f.a.a.'s ability to identify and respond to risks in one of the nation's most complex and busiest aviation environments.
▶ 0:18:29Chair Moran: At the conclusion of the investigation, the board found that this accident was preventible. The purpose of today's hearing is not to relitigate the accident. Instead, we are here to examine weather the f.a.a. Has responded with sufficient urgency to the systematic safety concerns identified by the ntsb and whether additional reforms are still needed.
▶ 0:18:52Chair Moran: I hope that we will examine, and I plan to examine several key questions, including whether the f.a.a. Has fully adopted the recommendations, how they're identifying trends before they result in accidents, and steps being taken to modernize rote or craft collisions and expand technology, and whether similar risks exist elsewhere in the nation's airspace system.
▶ 0:19:15Chair Moran: We will also discuss broader aviation modernization efforts, including how technology such as adsb can improve real-time cockpit traffic awareness and how legislation such as the rotor act could improve tracking capabilities and help reduce the risk of future midair collisions. We cannot ignore the condition of air traffic control system itself.
▶ 0:19:42Chair Moran: Staffing fortage and consistent fatigue continue to be a concern, particularly in complex airspace like washington, D.C. region. Congress has made significant investments in aviation modernization, including a $12.5 billion for air traffic control and modernization and infrastructure improvements through last year's reconciliation bill. While this is a good step, funding alone is not enough.
▶ 0:20:06Chair Moran: Modernization must be implemented effectively, identify risks must be acted on in a timely manner, and there must be accountability before warning signs are seen. Loved ones of those who died on january 29, 2025, deserve to know every step is being taken to make certain a tragedy like this never happens again. That responsibility belongs to all of us, regulators, industry, congress, and the aviation community.
▶ 0:20:34Chair Moran: I very much appreciate administrator bedford appearing before the subcommittee today, and I look forward to his testimony on the f.a.a.'s progress in implementing ntsb recommendations and strengthening aviation safety nationwide. With that. Perfect. With that, I recognize ranking member duckworth.
▶ 0:20:54Sen. Duckworth: Thank you, chairman moran, and thank you for your continued partnership on aviation safety issues. It's truly a pleasure to work with you. I want to extend my condolences to the family members of the victims, some of whom are with us today. I also want to thank the national transportation safety board for their tireless work it took to complete a thorough investigation of the D.C.a. Midair collision.
▶ 0:21:16Sen. Duckworth: On january 29, 2025, 67 people, mothers, fathers, children, service members, lost their lives over the potomac river when a U.S. army blackhawk helicopter collided with american airlines flight 5342. We remember them today. It was a horrifying tragedy, but because it was entirely preventible, I say that again, it was entirely preventible, it was not just a tragedy, but a travesty.
▶ 0:21:44Sen. Duckworth: The ntsb final report on the incident left no room for interpretation. The f.a.a.'s failure to act on prior safety recommendations led to this catastrophe. What we have seen over the past year is deeply troubling. It continues culture of complacency at the f.a.a., and an institutional belief that f.a.a. It continue to do the bare minimum, work to address a few of the ntsb recommendations, and call it progress. I call it bull shit. Several winds highlighted by the f.a.a.
▶ 0:22:13Sen. Duckworth: On its timeline of actions since D.C.a. Were required by previous work groups for legislation. The f.a.a. Enlisted the continued rollout of the tower simulation system in the timeline, a project that was identified in 2023 and mandated in a 2024 f.a.a. Reauthorization act. Likewise, the surface awareness initiative, which controls situational arareness was launched in 2024, following close calls in 2023.
▶ 0:22:43Sen. Duckworth: This leads me to question, is the f.a.a. Actually combining existing commitments with actions in a way to obscure actual progress? Close calls continue and a system that allows this travesty to happen remains unchanged. Supervisory controllers are still working marathon shifts without the time on position limits ntsb has urged. Controller staffing levels remain thin.
▶ 0:23:09Sen. Duckworth: Aircrafts do lack the advance alerting system, that ntsb said would prevent precisely the kind of conflict that occurred that night over the potomac. And the communication failures between the f.a.a. And the department of defense, failures that directly contributed to the crash, continue. The f.a.a. Was handed a road map, it was given a road map on what is necessary, and they have once again failed to act with urgency to address the recommendations. We are here today to demand answers and accountability.
▶ 0:23:41Sen. Duckworth: Last week, I met with army secretary dan driscoll, and he committed to me to provide the families of the victims with the full finding from any army investigation into the collision without any administrative hurdles, such as requiring a foia request. Administrator bedford, we need your commitment to faithfully implement all ntsb recommendations with a sense of urgency, without trying to obscure what is actually not happening by voting in previous recommendations. We owe it to the victims.
▶ 0:24:10Sen. Duckworth: We owe it to every pilot, every controller, every military crew member, and every passenger who boards an aircraft expecting the f.a.a. To keep our airspace safe. F.a.a. Does not need more time. It needs resolve. It needs leadership. 67 souls are no longer here because the f.a.a. Failed to act when it had the chance. The agency cannot undo that travesty, but it can at long last do its part to prevent the next one. And that is what we are here to discuss. I yield back, Mr. chairman.
▶ 0:24:42Chair Moran: Senator duckworth, thank you very much. Thank you for your leadership and cooperation on this hearing and the work of the subcommittee. Administrator bedford, you are now recognized for your testimony.
▶ 0:24:52Hon. Bedford: Thank you, Mr. chairman. Good afternoon, and good afternoon ranking member duckworth and members of the subcommittee. Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss the response of the federal aviation administration. The ntsb's final report on the D.C.a. Accident. I too would like to begin by recognizing the families of those with us today who lost loved ones on the flight 5342 and the U.S. army blackhawk helicopter. The heartbreaking loss is a constant reminder the consequences of our aviation system when it falls short.
▶ 0:25:21Hon. Bedford: I promise to you it drives the urgency behind the action says the agency is taking. The ntsb final report confirmed that our airspace system was providing warning signals prior to the accident. The issue is not a lack of data. It was a failure to translate data into action. That's a gap we are urgently closing.
▶ 0:25:40Hon. Bedford: We are doing it through strategic and sweeping reorganization of the f.a.a., streamlining leadership roles, eliminating silos that hinder transparency and information sharing, and developing a clear flight plan to guide the agency-wide accountability initiatives.
▶ 0:25:57Hon. Bedford: We've established an integrated safety management office, launched a comprehensive modernization of our aging air traffic control system, including replacing obsolete equipment, and redesigning outdated airspace operations. Of course, immediately following the accident, the f.a.a. Immediately restricted helicopter operations in the national capital region, eliminated high-risk, mixed traffic procedures, and closed helicopter routes that introduced unnecessary operation complexity.
▶ 0:26:27Hon. Bedford: We increased support and staffing for our D.C.a. Tower, reduced the arrival rates and total daily operations levels, and with the full support of the department of war, eliminated all nonessential military helicopter operations in the D.C.a. Airspace. Further, using advanced data analysis and a.I.-enabled tools, our new safety office continued to evaluate airports where helicopters routinely intercept arrival and departure paths in high-density airspace.
▶ 0:26:56Hon. Bedford: That analysis revealed a structural reliance on visual separation in environments where it's simply insufficient to fully mitigate airborne risk. As a result, this march, we issued a general notice suspending the use of visual separation procedures between helicopters and aircraft in all airports in class b, c, and terminal radar-controlled airspace.
▶ 0:27:20Hon. Bedford: Controllers are now required to use radar-based, positive separation standards with defined lateral and vertical distances between aircraft. This is not merely a procedural adjustment. It's a fundamental change in how we manage separation in complex airspace. Regarding controllers staffing, last year secretary duffy announced a controller hiring surge. In 2025, we placed more than 2,000 qualified candidates into our academy, a record, I would say.
▶ 0:27:49Hon. Bedford: This year we'll place another 2,200 qualified candidates into our academy, and yet another 2,300 next year. We've also expanded our training partnerships from three schools last year to over 11 this year. I expect we'll add more in 2026. At the same time, we are aligning staffing with operational demand. Because safety is not simply about head couldn't levels. It's about insuring that our facilities have the capacity to safely manage traffic.
▶ 0:28:18Hon. Bedford: We applied the same logic most recently with a thorough demand reduction analysis in measures at chicago o'hare airport. We are also changing how we manage the national system itself. Historically, the system has been managed tactically, responding to constraints on a day-to-day basis as they occur. But we can do better.
▶ 0:28:39Hon. Bedford: We must move to a strategic management of the national airspace system, balancing demand and capacity in a coordinated and forward-looking way. Last month, at the summit, I outlined our vision for a smart national airspace system.
▶ 0:28:55Hon. Bedford: Strategic management of airspace readings and trajectories, combined with a common automation platform, will reduce congestion and provide our controllers the tools they need to safely increase capacity by strategically balancing and deconflicting mass demands before flights ever leave the ground. With the $12.5 billion congress has already provided, we are transitioning from an analog to a fully digital national airspace system.
▶ 0:29:24Hon. Bedford: And we're doing it on an accelerated timeline in order to meet president trump and secretary duffy's vision for a brand-new air traffic control system. Let me be clear. Simply replacing obsolete equipment and restoring staffing alone will not produce a world-class aviation system. For that, we must continue the work to redesign airspace operations and urgently address our automation deficiencies and function as a unified whole.
▶ 0:29:51Hon. Bedford: We must urgently address the f.a.a.'s underlying data architecture limitations while limiting a platform, because without it, controllers will continue to operate fragmented, noninteroperable systems that increase their workload and reduce their effectiveness. Today the f.a.a. Manages more than 18 million flights annually.
▶ 0:30:15Hon. Bedford: At the same time we face growing demands from drones, advanced air mobility, supersonic operations, and a nearly daily cadence of space launchers. I urge congress to provide the investment funding necessary to maintain our momentum and complete the modernization of our nation's skies by 2028. Let me thank the chairman and the ntsb team for their work on the final report, especially for the families of flight 5342 for their tireless advocacy.
▶ 0:30:45Hon. Bedford: I assure you that secretary duffy and I are committed to working with congress to implement the report's recommendations and strengthen the national airspace system for the future. The american public deserves a system that is safe, efficient, reliable, and capable of supporting the demands of our growing innovation economy. With this committee's leadership and support, the men and women of the f.a.a. Are committed to delivering a brand-new air traffic control system at unprecedented speed. Thank you, and I look forward to your questions.
▶ 0:31:14Chair Moran: Administrator, thank you for your testimony. We have a vote going on. I'm going to palms the hearing, but I'm going to vote. I'll be back and senator budd will continue to chair the meeting, and we'll have questions back and forth, and senator duckworth, you can decide if you want to go first or second.
▶ 0:31:37Send Duckworth: Thank you, Mr. chairman. The D.C.a. Midair collision -- actually, I'm going to start off by saying that I'd like to submit this letter for citizens of responsibility and ethics in washington that outline distress over the administrator's handling of his financials. Are there any objections? No objections, it will be submitted for the record. The D.C.a. Midair collision was a crash in more than two decades.
▶ 0:32:06Send Duckworth: Ntsb investigation found that systematic failures at the f.a.a. Contributed to the crash. Administrator bedford, will you commit to the american people, especially to the families of the victims of the D.C.a. Collision, that the f.a.a. Concurs with the ntsb recommendations and will implement each one fully, faithfully and with urgency?
▶ 0:32:26Hon. Bedford: Well, yes, I do concur with the findings of the report, and we will continue to implement and evaluate all of the recommendations from the ntsb.
▶ 0:32:37Sen. Duckworth: Ok. Can you remind our subcommittee how many recommendations ntsb issued to f.a.a.?
▶ 0:32:43Hon. Bedford: 35.
▶ 0:32:44Sen. Duckworth: Just to confirm, f.a.a. Believes it possesses all necessary authority to fully complement all of the 35 ntsb recommendations, correct?
▶ 0:32:53Hon. Bedford: Well, yes, I believe we have the ability to implement them, yes.
▶ 0:32:57Sen. Duckworth: And the authority, correct?
▶ 0:33:01Hon. Bedford: I believe so.
▶ 0:33:03Sen. Duckworth: We agree you have the authority to implement the recommendations. I do view the f.a.a. Needs to resolve to do so. For me, that's the most troubling issue right now. I feel like there's a culture of complacency, and I don't view urgency from you to implement all 35 recommendations. You will confirm 314 days ago. When did you first meet with in this chair to discuss the D.C.a. Midair collision?
▶ 0:33:30Hon. Bedford: Actually I believe I met with the chair before I was even confirmed.
▶ 0:33:35Sen. Duckworth: After you were confirmed?
▶ 0:33:39Hon. Bedford: I don't recall.
▶ 0:33:40Sen. Duckworth: You sure?
▶ 0:33:42Hon. Bedford: I am sure, yes. We met for coffee.
▶ 0:33:45Sen. Duckworth: My understanding you first met with her in your capacity as administrator earlier this month. Well past the 300-day mark.
▶ 0:33:56Hon. Bedford: That's inaccurate. Sen. duckworth j. That's inaccurate? I will follow up on that, because my understanding is your first meeting with her was just earlier this month. You waited almost a year to meet with the lead investigator of the crash. On friday, the f.a.a. Released its controversial bold new air traffic control workforce plan. Administrator bedford, air traffic controllers are the backbone of our system.
▶ 0:34:24Hon. Bedford: They already work long, high-stress hours, and they make split-second decisions that keep millions of passengers safe every day. Yet this f.a.a.'s bold new air traffic control workforce plan, in this plan, you reduce the target for fully staffed control workforce by more than 2,000 positions. 2,000 controllers.
▶ 0:34:44Hon. Bedford: To be clear, this means the agency has somehow concluded that a brand-new system, what it really needs is fewer air traffic controllers working longer hours and performing the highest stress test. A f.a.a. Cooked this plan without consulting with the very group that represents air traffic controllers. In april, secretary duffy claimed, and I quote, am I going to replace a controller and have a.I. Manage the airspace? The answer to that is hell no, that's not going to happen. His words.
▶ 0:35:13Hon. Bedford: And then in may, you issued a press release that justified slashing controller staffing targets by more than 2,000 positions by citing new technologies," also optimization tools, including the mention of the use of a.I. In direct contradiction to what your secretary said he would not do. And look, increasing time on position is not efficiency. It's a safety hazard, especially when underlying software is unproven and controllers have not been trained to use it.
▶ 0:35:45Hon. Bedford: The ntsb has been clear. Recommendations a-26-8 directs them to limitations for supervisory air traffic control personnel. Redundancy is to what keeps them safe, and achieving it requires more controllers, not stretching fewer thinner and relying on a.I. Mr. bedford, will you commit to revisiting and revising the a.t.c.
▶ 0:36:10Hon. Bedford: Workforce plan to account for the findings and revise staffing targets to increase the number of air traffic controllers as opposed to cutting them by 2,000 positions?
▶ 0:36:18Hon. Bedford: Thank you for that question, chairman duckworth. The ntsb, sorry, the f.a.a. Workforce development plan for controllers specifically is a function of the 2024 reauthorization requirement to engage the transportation research board to do a study to try to resolve the decades-long argument between the f.a.a. And the controllers union on what is the appropriate staffing target.
▶ 0:36:47Hon. Bedford: That was done between 2024 and june of 2025. We received the study, and we have enacted all of the recommendations from the transportation research board. Both the controller union as well as the f.a.a. Participated deeply in the research board's evaluation of the models. While they might say they're not involved in the research project, they absolutely were involved in the project.
▶ 0:37:12Hon. Bedford: This occurred prior to my coming on board with the f.a.a., but we have, in fact, implemented all of the transportation research board's recommendations for retooling the model, and the result is 12,600. The reason I think this conversation that is a bit of a red herring is even though the next over three years, with surging staffing, we are not going to get to the level of controller staffing that we deem is appropriate. So we need to work together to make sure that we're getting the controllers on board, through training, and deployed to facilities.
▶ 0:37:41Hon. Bedford: And through that, that will require engagement between the f.a.a. To make sure we are most efficiently utilizing the resources that we have, and using technology to reduce the strain and the workload on our controllers so that they can safely manage traffic demands. >> thank you for that answer. Thank you for being here, administrator, and I'd like to thank the families for being here.
▶ 0:38:08Hon. Bedford: Administrator, you mentioned the idea of treating the national airspace system as a single complex organism and shifting toward a more optimized airspace. Would you talk a little bit about f.a.a.'s smart program and how f.a.a. Is considering the use of a.I. Systems, not to replace controllers, but to increase their situational awareness and reduce their workload and to make the airspace safer and more efficient?
▶ 0:38:34Hon. Bedford: Yes, you have some handouts that are on your desk. If you go to page 2, what you'll see is a depiction of what will be the june 4, 2026 schedule for the D.C.a. Airport. You see today that the hourly staffing linux for D.C. airport are 30 arrivals and departures.
▶ 0:38:57Hon. Bedford: If we look at the bar chart on the left, on the hour by hour basis, we would think that the amount of capacity and the amount of demand are in balance with the f.a.a.'s limitations for arrivals and departures in the capital region airport. We move to the right, what we see are several peeps, a dozen different peeps where the traffic management demands are well in excess of what the authorized limits are. This is a flaw.
▶ 0:39:25Hon. Bedford: If we wait until the day of departure in order to correct it, we lose the ability to take half of the solutions with us, meaning the ability to actually fill in the gaps when it pertains to the left. We can use a smart system that will analyze flights six months into the future, three months into the future, three days into the future, and we can analyze all the flight trajectories using advanced machine learning and a.I.
▶ 0:39:50Hon. Bedford: We can strategically deconflict those flight trajectories and balance demand with our ability to satisfy that capacity. We can do that all by reducing controller workload.
▶ 0:40:03Sen. Budd: Thank you. Great example. The ntsb report points to airborne collision avoidance system x, including variants designed to enhance safety while on approach in a specific variant. As crucial technology for preventing future midair collisions. Can you give us an update f.a.a.'s efforts to accelerate the completion of the technical standards?
▶ 0:40:28Hon. Bedford: Thank you for the question, senator. It was a development project over a decade ago. And one of my first experiences with the f.a.a. Was actually going into the office of next gen, because we had a straiter to requirement to sunset it by the end of the year and transform operations to our new a.m.o. Organization.
▶ 0:40:55Hon. Bedford: Working with the team that was there, why wasn't it working, they were certainly one of the issues which the career officials running that operation told me that they had missed the demand signal. They had not issued a demand signal to the market to implement it, so the market went to t-cast 2 from t-cast 1. Do I believe a-cast would have been a better tool? Absolutely.
▶ 0:41:22Hon. Bedford: The algorithms are more sophisticated, which allows us to have greater continuous to the traffic needs around the aircraft in question. But we're probably, even if we finalize the maps, which we're ready to do, and then rule making will be three to four years long, and then ultimately we're talking about a decade-long implementation. Yes, we can do that, and I don't object that we should try.
▶ 0:41:51Hon. Bedford: But we can actually take commercially available off the shelf, resource today, and we can bring it in through an electronic flight bag and through high-speed data connectivity, which we're rolling out into the commercial fleet. We can do that the next two years. So yes, we can do all of these things to answer senator duckworth's question, but what should our priority be in terms of creating better situational awareness in the cockpit? There are great solutions that we can adopt quickly.
▶ 0:42:21Sen. Budd: Thank you. Since january 2020, the f.a.a. Has required that most aircraft operating in the national airspace broadcast out to increase situational awareness and safety. Would you agree that in is the most effective when all aircraft are consistently broadcasting out?
▶ 0:42:42Hon. Bedford: I have said consistently the greater pilot situational awareness is always better than less. But again, I would hate to let the perfect be the enemy of the good. There are good solutions that we can comble interest rate quickly. Again, rule making around in and the equipment option of a integrated flight deck solution, easily a decade.
▶ 0:43:05Sen. Budd: Thank you. My time is expired. While we take a short recess for other members to arrive, the committee stands in recess subject to the call of the chairman. Thank you.
▶ 0:56:40Chair Moran: The committee will come to order. Administrator, I'm going take my opportunity to ask questions in the five minutes that I have, and then I'll turn to my colleagues. I understand senator cantwell is on her way as well. Following the f.a.a.'s march 18 decision to suspend the usual visual separation between helicopters and airliners near major airports after the D.C.a.
▶ 0:57:07Chair Moran: Midair collision, there was a reported close call on march 24, 2026, in southern california involving united airlines boeing 737 and a U.S. army blackhawk helicopter. Can the f.a.a. Explain whether the new restrictions on visual separation were in effect and properly enforced during that incident, and if so, how did that loss of a safe separation occur?
▶ 0:57:34Hon. Bedford: I can't say specifically to that case. I can tell you that we spent about a week putting it together and training the folks out in the field, how we expected them to manage from higher operations to the new positive separation standards that we have. Again, getting the continuity and the consistency and the implementation is every bit as important as getting the data, just how we need to change.
▶ 0:58:02Hon. Bedford: That's going to be a process of continued vigilance when we see application errors, if you will, in terms of remedial training for the controllers involved.
▶ 0:58:12Chair Moran: Is there a reason -- what's the reason you can't tell me? Because you don't know or there's some other reason that you can't tell me what the status of that implementation was?
▶ 0:58:22Hon. Bedford: Well, no, I'm just saying, in that particular instance with the blackhawk, I haven't received a conclusion on whether we believe that was a pilot error or a controller error.
▶ 0:58:36Chair Moran: I'm going to turn to other senators, senator sheehy next, but I want to ask a broad question. Our request of you, the subcommittee's request of you was to testify in regard to the list of ntsb recommendations made to the f.a.a. And what was the status of complying with them.
▶ 0:59:03Chair Moran: I heard senator duckworth say this at least in passing, much of your testimony deals with other things, I think, than the ntsb recommendations. And so just broadly, in the last of ntsb -- I assume that there's a list of ntsb --
▶ 0:59:22Hon. Bedford: I have it, page 1 of your handout has a list of all 35 recommendations of what the progress is.
▶ 0:59:28Chair Moran: What would be the answer to the question, which ones have you complied with? Which ones are you attempting to comply with? Can I see that by looking at the chart?
▶ 0:59:37Hon. Bedford: You sure can. Pull up that page, this page. It's in a blue folder.
▶ 0:59:50Chair Moran: Perfect. I have that page in front of me, sir.
▶ 0:59:54Hon. Bedford: Perfect. Of the 35 recommendations, 19 are categorized as in progress. Now, I want to be clear. If you look at the annotation, technically nothing is considered complete until the ntsb comes in and does an evaluation and a concurness. While the f.a.a. May think it's complete, the ntsb doesn't have it the definition of complete. This is for full visibility. But, for example, helicopter routes, we've done that.
▶ 1:00:24Hon. Bedford: Develop risk assessment tools for supervisors, done. Implement the pot market tray con, done. The list goes on and on and on and on. Some of the things you'll see are completed by the understand of the year. Some are by the end of next year. Because these involve much bigger safety review panels that need to be, you know, there's just a process, and those things take time so those evaluations are in progress, and will continue.
▶ 1:00:50Hon. Bedford: You'll see a set of things that we call have external dependencies. There are a number of recommendations on technology. Many of them, I think we need to make a decision, and we're sort of sitting here waiting to see how alert we get reconciled, because I don't think we want to spend time going down one pathway and find out something's going to be different. But whichever way the legislation works itself out, we're prepared to move forward.
▶ 1:01:21Hon. Bedford: And then there's several things that still, frankly, are going to require time, implement anti-blocking technology. You'll see we have that listed as today. We can't do anti-blocking technology on copper wire. We need to move to an all-new voice switch, digital voice switch technology, digital radios.
▶ 1:01:41Chair Moran: Which is currently part of the $12.5 billion plan or not?
▶ 1:01:45Hon. Bedford: That's correct, it is. So we believe we've got the software procured, and we believe we've got the infrastructure ready to go. But it's going to be a three yao deployment.
▶ 1:01:54Chair Moran: Are there recommendations by ntsb that you disagree with or don't intend to comply with?
▶ 1:02:00Hon. Bedford: I don't think it's so much, again, a disagreement or don't intend. I do think the move to change the process that we issued in the general notice to eliminate visual separation is a procedural option for controllers and the approach and departure corridors supersedes the need. I would call it an alternative need of compliance to charting and things of that nature.
▶ 1:02:24Chair Moran: You're accomplishing the same goal in your mind. Your intentions are to accomplish the same goals in a different manner?
▶ 1:02:31Hon. Bedford: Honestly, I think we've gone well beyond the intent of what the safety recommendation was.
▶ 1:02:37Chair Moran: Senator shea heat? Oh, sorry, sir. I didn't look to my left. Senator kim?
▶ 1:02:48Sen. Kim: Thank you for coming out here. I wanted to have an opportunity, I wanted to get a sense, I know you were saying some of these have external dependencies. But just getting, I'm trying to get a suspects of implementation time tables, you know, what we can expect in terms of the full course of this. If we're able to be able to move forward on a legislative front, on the rule making front, what's our expectation where these changes will have have been fully enacted? Do you have a rough estimate? Retalking about years or longer?
▶ 1:03:20Hon. Bedford: It depends. Earlier we were talking about perfection being the enemy of the good. If we want to get to a-cast x, that's probably a decade-long implementation. It's not in the system today. Mops aren't ready. Can get ready if that's the direction stat early to that the congress decides to go.
▶ 1:03:42Hon. Bedford: Meanwhile, we have the ability to bring adsb into the cockpit through electronic flight bags, like a receiver that would be less than $5,000 an aircraft. So I think we can get a lot of good, situational awareness capabilities deployed quickly. But if we're looking for things like a-cast x, I think that's a much longer timeline.
▶ 1:04:06Sen. Kim: In terms of how we're trying to operate, we want to have implementation right away. I mean, I understand the longer term, you came out to the f.a.a. Tech center in new jersey, where a lot of this can and has been happening, but I guess I'm trying to get a sense from you, super someone who's deep in this, I don't see how there needs to be a tradeoff necessarily between being able to have some fixes in the short term, while also being able to
▶ 1:04:37Sen. Kim: Have that longer term vision. Am I missing something here?
▶ 1:04:40Hon. Bedford: Well, rule making is time-consuming. There's no, even with statutory regulation, we're still going to have to go through rule making. And that process is anywhere between three and four years in duration. Rule making will then have to go into building out the infrastructure to actually apply it. And then obviously a new build spec. And again, that's not going to take time.
▶ 1:05:09Hon. Bedford: Not going to sugarcoat it for you, just takes time.
▶ 1:05:13Sen. Kim: As we're thinking through what comes next on the front, I mentioned the f.a.a. Tech center in my state. F.a.a. Recently selected qcon to receive a seven-year contract to provide engineering, support services. I wanted to ask, how will this additional tech support help the f.a.a. Achieve or exceed the ntsb D.C.a. Crash findings recommendation?
▶ 1:05:38Sen. Kim: In particular for the integration of a-cast x, technology, and new and existing aircraft? I'm trying to think through, how are we doing this and trying to think through this from a technical standpoint in a way to smooth out how the transition might be able to occur?
▶ 1:05:55Hon. Bedford: Yeah, again, early in my tenure, aside from going to the tech center, I sat with our next gen office specific 8 to talk about a-cast x, how we would build it into the next generation aircraft.
▶ 1:06:15Hon. Bedford: The official who runs that office essentially said that, in his opinion, we failed to deliver a demand signal to the market, so the market moved away from it. As t cast 2 was adopted, there became very little interest in the aviation community and the manufacturing community to replace that investment with yet another technology so quickly. Don't get me wrong. I think we're ready for it. I think it's time to move forward with it.
▶ 1:06:44Hon. Bedford: I just don't want to oversell the ease with which we would start to see adoption.
▶ 1:06:52Sen. Kim: Last question here, certainly we've been very focused in on D.C.a. And just learning the lessons after the horrific tragedy, and absolutely that needs to remain our priority. I would like to get a sense from you, just how does that in your mind affect how you're approaching other highly congested areas? You know my state very much in the new york metro area, a lot of different airports, a lot of vertical lift.
▶ 1:07:22Sen. Kim: There's a lot of talk about where that goes next. How are you grappling with these types of recommendations when we're looking at things more broadly, especially other congested areas?
▶ 1:07:33Hon. Bedford: You may recall during the 43-day government lapse, over the progression of that lapse, naturally controllers weren't paid. As they continued to go without pay, we saw a much higher call-out sick, or sick call rate, and therefore, that triggers. And in that time, we saw safety recommendations come up from our a.d.s.
▶ 1:08:00Hon. Bedford: Team to essentially tell us they're seeing worrisome signs of potential, let's call it safety concerns in terms of how we're managing fewer controllers. So we implemented secretary duffy and I moved forward with a plan to do a traffic capacity reduction. You may recall when we rolled that out at 4%, and ultimately would have done to 10% were it not for the termination of the funding lapse.
▶ 1:08:29Hon. Bedford: That said, it did still raise concerns with me. It took a lot of effort for our team to actually get data from our third-party data manager. We need to do better in terms of delivering timely information to the safety professionals. What we did is we obviously created a new safety office that's focusing solely on this. It's no longer siloed between the different business units. We gave them desk and tools.
▶ 1:08:58Hon. Bedford: Those tools have been used to inform that there are, in fact, other hot spots in the country that we needed to take these mitigations with and have done that through our general notice, prohibiting the use of visual separation procedures between helicopters and aircraft in all airports within class b, c, and terminal radar space.
▶ 1:09:17Sen. Kim: Thank you. I yield back.
▶ 1:09:20Chair Moran: Senator sheehy?
▶ 1:09:23Sen. Sheehy: Thanks for being here today. Despite terrible accidents like we had last year, we still have the safest airspace in the world. We still have the safest aviation operations and the most complex, so I think it's important to remember that. But in your estimation, and this is not an official outcome, but in your estimation, was the D.C.
▶ 1:09:45Sen. Sheehy: Crash the result of failed standards that were not properly drafted or the lack of adhere answer to standards that exist and had simply human error and not following the standards is what led to this disaster?
▶ 1:09:59Hon. Bedford: I think the ntsb recommendations, I'm sorry, the probable cause findings of the accident investigation I concur with. We had a bad plan in the capital region. It was a bad design. There were absolutely data telling us it was a bad design, and we should have done something with it. So again, we concur. Having said that, as you look at additional findings in there, yes, to your question, there were poor decision making.
▶ 1:10:27Hon. Bedford: We combine that desk, we didn't have to, but we combine that had desk in order to allow a controller to do less valuable tasks, paperwork tasks. There's no reason that needed to happen at that point in time. That's a decision making error. And then obviously there were controller errors in terms of visual separation, context lose to the blackhawk helicopter, but not sharing those with the p.s.a. Captain.
▶ 1:10:53Sen. Sheehy: The ntsb has been a huge issue there. As a pilot who's flown a lot of fixed wing, that can be the difference between life and death, quite literally. What is the core purpose of the adsb ecosystem?
▶ 1:11:09Hon. Bedford: Well, as you may be familiar, normal radar sweeps happen every six seconds, and over the course of six seconds, traveling down on your base leg, you're moving at a quarter of a mile per second basically. So there's a big jump in movement between what the controller can see without adsb.
▶ 1:11:32Hon. Bedford: What we do is we fuse data between adsb, which is coming in every second with the radar data to give us much better of what's actually in the airspace. Even with that, that's telling us where the traffic was, not where the traffic is. So I think it's critical to building better situational awareness.
▶ 1:11:53Hon. Bedford: But as you know, committing those, that without the adsm option, it robs the pilots of I think necessary --
▶ 1:12:05Sen. Sheehy: Was that intended to be a fee collecting, tax collecting device?
▶ 1:12:11Hon. Bedford: No, sir, it was intended to be a safety and situational awareness tool.
▶ 1:12:15Sen. Sheehy: There's a magical sensor in your seat belt bucknell your car, when you plug in your seat belt, you get charged every mile you drive on the road. Would more people or less people put their seat belt on?
▶ 1:12:29Hon. Bedford: I would think human nature would say less.
▶ 1:12:34Sen. Sheehy: Yes, behavior follows incentive. They collect taxes to track where people go for come sill purposes, and I'm not going to argue the efficacy of state tax policy or landing fees for a local airport. That's on them. But when they are using a safety tool designed for safety, and then it's being perverted into a fee collecting, tax collecting revenue source, that creates a perverse incentive.
▶ 1:12:59Sen. Sheehy: That creates an incentive for pilots, companies, or any other that owns and operates a aircraft to say I don't want to be emitting my signal. I'm going to find mechanical excuses, regulatory excuses, or I'm straight up not going to carry on. And I think that bears examination by the f.a.a.
▶ 1:13:15Sen. Sheehy: And by our legislative bond to say perhaps we need to make it illegal for a safety tool that is specifically designed to prevent two aircraft from running into each other, and as we unfortunately were reminded a year and a half ago, how real it is, especially in congested area, that we have a safety tool being used as a revenue collection tool.
▶ 1:13:38Hon. Bedford: I've spoken at the conference talking about this issue that we frown on the concept of using this information for revenue collection at airports. In terms of how aggressively we dissuade them, we will.
▶ 1:13:55Sen. Sheehy: Thanks for coming in. Appreciate it.
▶ 1:13:58Chair Moran: Senator cantwell, thank you for joining us.
▶ 1:14:01Sen. Cantwell: Thank you to chairman moran and to senator duckworth for holding this important hearing and for your due diligence on all these issues. It needs to have a lot of attention, and I appreciate the administrator bedford being here today. I think my colleague, senator duckworth, has already asked about compliance with all the recommendations of the ntsb findings after the crash in D.C.a.
▶ 1:14:31Sen. Cantwell: But could I get, for the record from you, each of her recommendations, each of the recommendations by the ntsb and whether you plan to implement them. I think there's 52. Them? I think there are 52 so yes, we plan to implement it or no, or it will take 10 years. Not right now, if I could get that from the record that would be great.
▶ 1:15:02Hon. Bedford: You have a sheet I gave to you which gives you the 33 specific locations and where they are and their implementation.
▶ 1:15:12Sen. Cantwell: Thank you for that. Also the conversations that people have had about the safety that ntsb brought up after the accident, which is the full implementation use of time-based low-management systems at tracom.
▶ 1:15:33Sen. Cantwell: This tool allows air traffic controllers to sequence the aircraft more efficiently but I'm concerned after a whistleblower informed my office that the f.a.a. Leadership instructed controllers at the facilities to use t.b.f. Always even when they judge it to be unsafe due to bad weather.
▶ 1:16:00Sen. Cantwell: In this case when they exercise the professional judgment that "these are unsafe conditions to use this tool" they were removed from their duties and faced retaliation for raising traffic concerns. So what does it say about our air traffic organization and safety culture when workers are being retaliated for use being retaliated for using legitimate safety concerns? Just so everybody gets and understands this a little clearer.
▶ 1:16:29Sen. Cantwell: This is when you say you can have so many flights per hour but then someone stacks all the flights 10 minutes before the hour or 10 minutes after the hour. That is not a good idea.
▶ 1:16:44Sen. Cantwell: Over 60 minutes you might be able to have pretty good flow but if you're now saying to people, we'll all let you applause because you like the system, around the time takeoffs and landings you like as an airline, that becomes problematic so you're not stretching all those flights over 60 minutes.
▶ 1:17:07Sen. Cantwell: You're bundling them at 10 before and 10 after the hour so should the management be ininstructing personnel that tbfm must be available at all times or only used when the conditions are being met?
▶ 1:17:23Hon. Bedford: Thank you for that question. I couldn't agree with you more that the way we manage traffic today is chaotic and we can do better. Smart system, strategic systems of tolls would solve this system and we're on the implementation of smart before the end of the year. You have a graphic on page 2 of your handout that speaks to precisely what you've just described.
▶ 1:17:53Hon. Bedford: I can look at it on an hourly basis and everything looks like it's going to be easy to manage but when I look at it in the 15-minute, I can see peak periods where arrest have are stacking those flights. We need to manage that at the f.a.a. We did the same thing at chicago o'hare.
▶ 1:18:18Sen. Cantwell: Great, new technology can always help but when I want from you is a commitment to correct this and not discipline employees who bring this up as a safety concern.
▶ 1:18:35Sen. Cantwell: I'm just looking for your commitment that you will have greater oversight over the air traffic organizations to make sure that there are not risks that the american public are taking right now given this situation without the next implementation of technology.
▶ 1:18:52Hon. Bedford: I'm very accessible to the front line workforce. I haven't heard about this particular whistleblower but I'd like to hear about it if they're not getting response from the management.
▶ 1:19:08Sen. Cantwell: What about the question?
▶ 1:19:12Hon. Bedford: We have issues and I am absolutely for changing them in a positive way.
▶ 1:19:18Sen. Cantwell: So you are forunbundling flights bunched up at the top or bottom of the hour.
▶ 1:19:30Hon. Bedford: Absolutely.
▶ 1:19:32Sen. Cantwell: Thank you guys for coming again. Obviously we have a will in the senate. The military section of the alert act would give the military sole discretions about adsb in and out and equipment use even though it's said the f.a.a. Can require the operators have and use certain equipment to fly safely in designated airing space.
▶ 1:19:58Sen. Cantwell: Do you have concerns that this could undermeanwhile the f.a.a.'s authority to regulate and ensure safety?
▶ 1:20:07Chair Moran: We've provided technical systems to both chambers so I strongly encourage you to look into that about how the f.a.a. Feels about both pieces of legislation but we need to have better coordinate nation. With if we're going to operate with two levels we need to have much better coordination in the air space.
▶ 1:20:33Sen. Cantwell: You're not suggesting we rearrange the routes right now?
▶ 1:20:40Hon. Bedford: No, we know longer allow visual separation as a separation tool between next flights within the airport environment.
▶ 1:20:54Sen. Cantwell: When cab the route insist are you going to try to separate this?
▶ 1:21:02Hon. Bedford: I'm telling you the separation has moved from routes to positive radar based controller separation, no more visual separation.
▶ 1:21:12Sen.: Cantwell which what's the separation? How much?
▶ 1:21:16Hon. Bedford: 500 feet and one and a half miles.
▶ 1:21:20Sen. Cantwell: Yeah, not sure that -- I'll look more into that. I'm not sure that gets the job done -- if you have different equipment and it's not standardized. I'll lean to my pilot colleague here and maybe chime in.
▶ 1:21:39Sen. Cantwell: I don't know if that gets the job done if you have different equipment and one of the things the ntsb said was the fact that there may be an issue with the helicopter altitude equipment being affected by the rotors and the amount of air flow that they were making and coming from an aviation state I can tell that you all of these details on technology and how they function and whether they give thank you right information is critically important.
▶ 1:22:08Sen. Cantwell: I still have concerns but I certainly want us to get a solution and I don't want to wait on the commercial space for -- I want us to mandate this and move forward in the commercial space 69 the implementation of atsb in and out.
▶ 1:22:33Hon. Bedford: We've provided all the technical assistance to both bills. I'd prefer more situational awareness than less. I think there are solutions that can be implemented quickly --
▶ 1:22:48Sen. Cantwell: For g.a. Maybe.
▶ 1:22:51Hon. Bedford: Commercial as well. Using electronic flight bags.
▶ 1:22:56Sen. Cantwell: So you think we should go with a laptop?
▶ 1:23:02Hon. Bedford: No, an electronic flight bag. They're different. I'm saying that let's not make the perfect the enemy of the good.
▶ 1:23:13Sen. Cantwell: I definitely think the f.a.a. Should wake up every day asking how am I going to make the public safety safe? I think the oversight has played a big role in the last five years. What I would like, Mr. chairman is if you and the ranking member here could get those recommendations into writing about what we'll see from the f.a.a.
▶ 1:23:41Sen. Cantwell: And a timeline about that implementation. For us today, knowing what commercial you're recommending and what day, what time.
▶ 1:23:49Hon. Bedford: We've given that to you?
▶ 1:23:53Sen. Cantwell: What is the day and time for commercial right?
▶ 1:24:00Hon. Bedford: Adsbs in? I can't give you a deadline on that.
▶ 1:24:08Sen. Cantwell: I'm saying we want a deadline. I think the issue is -- when we mandated this a long time ago. It just never really got implemented and then people said well, it costs too much, the airlines can't do it.
▶ 1:24:24Sen. Cantwell: And my reaction after this crash is the lives of the individuals are worth this and if we don't fix it, it is on us so we should be setting a deadline and tell the military they have to live up to these recommendations. I think something where we're saying you don't know yet, we have to go back to the table. My colleagues are arriving and I'm well past my five minutes.
▶ 1:24:52Sen. Cantwell: But I do have other questions for the record specifically about drones and m.o.u.'s and if the -- how the f.a.a. Air space and clear standards, particularly with the world cup coming up in a few weeks. We got a recent report saying a high energy drone system might be placed and what steps are you taking?
▶ 1:25:22Sen. Cantwell: Thank you, Mr. chairman.
▶ 1:25:25Chair Moran: Thank you. Let me follow up with Sen. cantwell's point. I don't know what an air bag, whatever your tomorrownology is is tell me what you just recommended to senator cantwell that you're readied to do?
▶ 1:25:40Hon. Bedford: What I'm saying is whatever we do, whether it comes through a statutory change or not will require, rule making and that rule-making process is somewhere between two and four years. I think we can get to a much quicker of a solution where I think we can get hicham appliances from the industry on a voluntary basis.
▶ 1:26:06Chair Moran: And what is that solution
▶ 1:26:11Hon. Bedford: This would bring both adsb alerting and orel warnings to the cockpit through the flight bag usage.
▶ 1:26:20Sen. Cantwell: The differences here is our committee long ago said we brandted this implemented in all commercial aircraft and I think our house colleagues have discussed the fact that they would like a solution for general aviation where you might have a laptop that might be able to deploy more intelligence on the conflicts and some alert warpings.
▶ 1:26:44Sen. Cantwell: So when asking the administrator when would we implement -- whatever his recommendation is. I don't know which one he's going to recommend for commercial, which I think we should know the answer. I think we get full adsb in and out for all commercial aircraft and we've known this for a lodge tuning. The adsb administrator told us we should do it.
▶ 1:27:13Sen. Cantwell: Chairman cruz is not here but we should work on getting a solution. We owe the families an answer where we know how long something is going to take and what technology we're going to try to stadize on and an answer by the f.a.a. And I hope that out of this hearing today, Mr. chairman, that we can get the crispness of that recommendation because we don't want to have this variation.
▶ 1:27:39Sen. Cantwell: I'm not even sure that the technology that he's suggesting is a good idea in commercial aircraft. It might be ok for g.a., it might be but I'm pretty sure that if it was such a great solution for commercial aviation we probably would have already done it and somebody would have said here's an off the shelf solution averment I can just carry my laptop and I will know the distance from other
▶ 1:28:09Sen. Cantwell: Aircraft. The information age is definitely creating overtaxing in the cockpit. Thank you, Mr. chairman.
▶ 1:28:19Chair Moran: You're causing us to have a conversation and discussion that we need to have. I'm not concluding anything but my point I think is that what's troublesome to me is the three to five years of implementation because of rule making. The question then becomes what do you do in the meantime if you can't find a way around rule making?
▶ 1:28:43Chair Moran: What can you accomplish voluntarily that makes us safer and that is what I think you're suggesting.
▶ 1:28:50Hon. Bedford: That's correct.
▶ 1:28:51Chair Moran: It doesn't change my view about adsb in and out, it causes me to figure out how do we get the best circumstances we can when we get it.
▶ 1:29:04Chair Moran: We get the circumstance in place now as we pursue everything -- and over time technology is going to change and so let's do the best we can do today and keep ourselves down the path of rule making till we get what we need but I hope you can find a way around rule making.
▶ 1:29:25Hon. Bedford: There are changes happening in the cockpit. We're seeing aircraft contacted with low orbit satellites, which gives them high visibility into the cockpit, bringing solutions and awareness into the cockpit through an electronic flight bag. That is much better than waiting for a solution that would be hard fitted into the flight deck itself.
▶ 1:29:51Chair Moran: I'm saying this in the act sense of Sen. senator cantwell. I think your solution is different from the laptop.
▶ 1:30:02Hon. Bedford: That's correct. That's an unfortunate simplification.
▶ 1:30:06Chair Moran: Let me turn to senator durke worth again.
▶ 1:30:17Sen. Duckworth: Thank you. I want to talk about design and review in the end report the ntsb concluded that the helicopter route was placed too close to a commercial runway approach path and lacked goodineing boppedries. It determined the f.a.a. Had not regularly reviewed or recommend regularly reviewed or reco recommended these routes despite available data and recommendations to do so.
▶ 1:30:45Sen. Duckworth: So administrator bedford, given the number of helicopters we have flying in nevada above and around our airport, I'm interested in hearing you explain why periodic route management reviews are so critical and how the absence of clearly bounded helicopter routes near D.C.a. Increased the danger of that collision even when everyone thought they were operating within the rules.
▶ 1:31:16Hon. Bedford: It is a problem. We have over 22,000 routes that of that need to be evaluated. They're supposed to be reviewed over a three-year period, not annually and that review is tardy and ongoing right now. Why do we have 22,000 routes --
▶ 1:31:39Sen. Duckworth: How are you prioritizing them them, triaging them? Some may only have a few helicopter routes. Here in washington and las vegas where I live, we have a lot. How do you determine that? That they're revisited more often because it is a large number and you're not going to have the staff to do all that.
▶ 1:32:03Hon. Bedford: The solution that we have implemented and I think goes beyond what the ntsb requirement is eliminate requirement is eliminating visual procedures in the airport environment for all aircraft. And any airport within the terminal radar, wherever we can provide controller-positive separation. That's what we're going to do. We're no longer going to rely on visual separation between pilots.
▶ 1:32:31Hon. Bedford: That's how we take workload off -- the controller says I don't want to have to look after you. You guys look after each other.
▶ 1:32:41Sen. Duckworth: But this rule making to your point may take rules.
▶ 1:32:47Hon. Bedford: This is a procedure usually change that one, we implemented on an emergency basis. So that got implemented at the end of march and we are codifying that into the operational procedures.
▶ 1:33:04Sen. Duckworth: Let's talk about our air traffic controllers and satisfy staffing. You're trying to eliminate a burden. The ntsb's investigation of the D.C. collision found that staffing at the D.C. controller at the time the collision was about 16% below the target staffing rate. So even if you take something off, if you're below the target staffing rate, we still have problems.
▶ 1:33:33Sen. Duckworth: The report found there was a lack of mandatory rest periods and controller workloads are compasser pated baited. The stress on them. Unfortunately the report of understanding excessive workloads are too among amongst our air traffic controllers. I know it begs the question about what can we take off of them but we always have to have safety in mind. Many of my colleagues has made this clear today.
▶ 1:34:04Sen. Duckworth: In the senate we believe our rotor act takes a much better path to safety than the house act. Do you believe the act performs and the legislation passed by the house are going to significantly increase air traffic controller staffing to alleviate need workloads? They're at the juncture of where it's all happening.
▶ 1:34:34Sen. Duckworth: All the stress is right there in that tower.
▶ 1:34:38Hon. Bedford: Two principal things. First, we're surging air traffic control hiring. Last year we had a record number of candidates, over 2,000.
▶ 1:34:50Sen. Duckworth: And how many stayed? How many graduate and then stay? We know there's a we know there's a big watchout in school?
▶ 1:35:01Hon. Bedford: That number is less than 500. Less than a quarter of the folks make it all the way through. We have another 2200 this year. Another 2300 in the plan for next year. We've maxed out our academy. We've put as many students as we can. We've moved to collegiate training programs. We had three last year.
▶ 1:35:26Hon. Bedford: We have 11 now and another three within the next six months so we're building more pipelines to deliver more certified controllers into our facilities. Having said that, we can do a better job of managing traffic strategically versus tactically. I invite you to come over to our labs to see what the future is.
▶ 1:35:56Hon. Bedford: One is happening this year which will once again reduce controller workload and the peaking within 15 minute. We will balance that.
▶ 1:36:10Sen. Duckworth: We have airports across this country. What's the roll outgoing to be, the training and support during that integral period.
▶ 1:36:21Hon. Bedford: The smart system we're talking about requires none of that. This happens before the flights ever get launched. We balance the workload before the flights leave the ground.
▶ 1:36:34Hon. Bedford: Sen. rosen, thank you very much. Both of us are going to conclude. I'll turn to senator duckworth.
▶ 1:36:43Sen. Duckworth: Thank you. Senator, you said you concurred with the findings of the ntsb. Do you also confirm all of the ntsb recommendations?
▶ 1:36:58Hon. Bedford: Our alternative motives essentially requires compliance. Charting, if we've eliminatedded the need for chart, we probably wouldn't chart but that evaluation is going to be done and whatever the team comes up with that's what we'll go with.
▶ 1:37:19Sen. Duckworth: And how many of the recommendations has the of have been fully implemented and closed with the information tsb.
▶ 1:37:30Hon. Bedford: Only ntsb can close them out.
▶ 1:37:36Sen. Duckworth: How many has ntsb closeded? You have a word that says completed and next to them is an asterisk. Ntsb hadn't confirmed to these except the two.
▶ 1:37:57Sen. Duckworth: You say uconn occur with the findings but you're not actually concurring with any of these and you're not committing to concur with any of the republicanses and I'm asking how many can you close and you're saying that only ntsb can close. That's true but the only way they can close is that you implement fixes to this so you've not done any of that. You're trying to talk circles around us and it's not going to work.
▶ 1:38:27Sen. Duckworth: In 2025 the f.a.a. Estimated they required 13,640 controllers to be fully staffed. On friday you issued a staffing plan that eliminated 2,070 positions. There are still over 2,000 positions you're saying you don't need to fill.
▶ 1:38:58Hon. Bedford: That's an inaccurate characterization and you know that. The 2024 act required us to go to the transportation research board and conduct a study on controller staffing. We did that and implemented that staffing and that is the result that it gave us. That number is what the union told you.
▶ 1:39:20Sen. Duckworth: No, that is what the f.a.a. Concluded. I'm happy to discuss that. In january of 2025, more tan 20% of the country's air traffic controller facility were acting below the f.a.a. Standards. In D.C. today, the number of workers collapses from 16 controllers to two during a certain time.
▶ 1:39:50Sen. Duckworth: They rotate in and out to take breaks. There may be a relatively low volume of flights during that shift but we rely on two controllers at the mid shift is not robust. I have no confidence that you've focused on the most important aspect of the air traffic control system, it's people.
▶ 1:40:13Sen. Duckworth: I know that enough well rested, well qualified air traffic controllers are what we need to keep the national air traffic system safe. There is a saying about it and you know this. Aviation regulations are written in blood. When accidents-ha, we launch investigations to help ensure whatever went wrong never happens again.
▶ 1:40:37Sen. Duckworth: As a ranking member of this subcommittee and as an aviator myself, I can tell you it should not have taken a deadly accident to underscore the changes needed. Administrator bedford, the f.a.a. Must act. There's no other option and I will continue to hold f.a.a.
▶ 1:41:02Sen. Duckworth: Accountable until it ensures it upholds its critical mission, the safety of our air space. You need to implement these and in a way that ntsb will concur. You had one official meeting with the ntsb chair. Yes, you had coffee with her but one meeting and that was over 300 days after you were sworn in. That is not enough.
▶ 1:41:31Sen. Duckworth: The aviators deserve to have these implemented. Our aviators deserve to have these implemented. Thank you, Mr. chairman, I yield back.
▶ 1:41:45Chair Moran: Thank you. Tell me what the status is in the air traffic control towers at D.C.a. As far as staffing?
▶ 1:41:53Hon. Bedford: With the four controllers that are still in training there, we're fully staffed at the D.C.a. Tower.
▶ 1:42:01Chair Moran: And what standard does that comply with? F.a.a. Standards?
▶ 1:42:06Hon. Bedford: That is cork to the 2026 workforce plan, yes.
▶ 1:42:13Chair Moran: Is that a sufficient staffing at D.C.a.?
▶ 1:42:17Hon. Bedford: Yes, sir, I believe it is. I believe our air space is very safe.
▶ 1:42:23Chair Moran: At D.C.a.?
▶ 1:42:25Hon. Bedford: Across the country.
▶ 1:42:28Chair Moran: One of the queries we've had, somebody was describing to us at reagan about the number of complaints and they described -- I wish I could remember the exact it will. The story has stuck with me. But there was a series of things to get those complaints up the chain of command and they almost never made it to anybody who made any decision to do anything about it. Which I assume is the discouraging thing to the people who are making complaints.
▶ 1:42:58Chair Moran: Is there this process by which someone who sees something that is not right at D.C.a. Has a capability of getting that to the attention of somebody -- immediate attention of somebody who can do somebody about it? It seemed like you had to report it to the next person in the chain of command, the next person in the chain of command and nothing generally happened.
▶ 1:43:26Hon. Bedford: That's obviously disappointing. I know we have a culture channel. I understood that before I took the job last july. Everybody has bryan everybody has br bryanbedford.faa.org. Now everybody in the world has it. Write me, email me. Call me. I got a letter from the folks at san francisco tower -- complaining -- complaining -- raising a safety concern which we addressed.
▶ 1:43:57Hon. Bedford: I encourage it. Bring it all the way to the top. I would love to see it get resolved before having to come to me. That's the culture we're striving for.
▶ 1:44:08Chair Moran: That chain of command exists and what I'm surprising doesn't surprise you?
▶ 1:44:13Hon. Bedford: Sadly it doesn't that somebody might be discouraged, has to report a retaliation. That's not the culture that I support.
▶ 1:44:25Chair Moran: At the department of defense, the things that need to be done to make sure the air space at reagan D.C.a. Is safe. Has the department of defense complied with what needs to be done and are they doing what needs to be done today to make sure that safe is space?
▶ 1:44:44Hon. Bedford: The operating agreement currently is being renegotiated. It's taking too long, I think. I don't know if that's the fact that the military is distracted right now. They have honored the existing many. O.u. That's in place. I've been I think they've been good partners in the capital region. We've had some problems with coordination over the last year.
▶ 1:45:07Hon. Bedford: I think the administration has gotten everyone on right sides and that coordination is much better today than it was maybe three years ago.
▶ 1:45:17Chair Moran: There's nothing you can ask of me or this committee of the department of defense to make sure something changes is different?
▶ 1:45:24Hon. Bedford: No, I do believe we have a much better process of coordination now, especially as we go into fifa.
▶ 1:45:33Chair Moran: And a new agreement is intended to make things safer than they are today?
▶ 1:45:38Hon. Bedford: It's an assurance that both sides are playing by a defined set of rules.
▶ 1:45:44Chair Moran: Ok. You mentioned, I think, about accomplishing something on an emergency basis. We talked about the length of time it takes to do rule making in the federal government. Is there an opportunity to do something on an emergency basis that shortcuts that process?
▶ 1:46:01Hon. Bedford: I have asked the same question and I haven't got an positive answer on that. The air space safety issue, the data that we were getting on mixed-use helicopter fixed-wing traffic in some of these higher density airports was very compelling. When they talk about that at dsb in, that data is not clear in the facts of how we're flying the system today.
▶ 1:46:32Hon. Bedford: It's not showing concerns.
▶ 1:46:34Chair Moran: I think there remains a lot of interest in what happened on january 29, 2025. There are certainly family members who are making sure that interest remains at the highest level. This committee has significant interest in seeing a safer circumstance at t.c.a.
▶ 1:46:53Chair Moran: And airports across the country and we look forward to working with you but we need you to do everything possible to make sure that the ntsb recommendations are complied with this a manner that accomplishes the goal of the ntsb recommendation.
▶ 1:47:12Hon. Bedford: Well, you have my excitement for that. Again, canada duckworth, compliance, I don't think that's an argument. I will tell ewing our general notice to prohibit visual separation where it large across the national air space is more effective than charting but let the ntsb decide on where they whether they dupree with that or not.
▶ 1:47:38Chair Moran: I have to to vote again so thank you. Senators have until end of business on may 26 to get business on may 26 to g ask questions. You, then, administrator are requested to respond to nose by the close of business on june 9. With that, our hearing is concluded.