Lawmakers Call for Investigation Into Recent FAA System Outage

Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Chief Steve Dickson pilots a Boeing 737 MAX aircraft on return from an evaluation flight at Boeing Field in Seattle on Sept. 30, 2020. (Mike Siegel/File Photo/Pool via Reuters)

Lawmakers from both parties are calling for an investigation into the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA’s) recent computer system failure that caused the first nationwide ground stop of U.S. flights since the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Officials from President Joe Biden and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to Republicans in the House and Senate have asserted that there must be an investigation to find out what occurred to prevent it from happening again.

Buttigieg has faced criticism because the FAA is an agency under the Department of Transportation (DOT).

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg speaks at the port of Long Beach, Calif., on Jan. 11, 2022. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

Questions about the safety of air travel were prompted after the FAA’s Notice to Air Missions system (NOTAM) stoppage, which caused thousands of flight delays and cancellations.

“This gives us a really important data point at a really important moment to understand what we’re going to need moving forward,” Buttigieg told reporters about the outage.

Congress oversees the FAA through various committees, including the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure and the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, which have the authority to hold hearings, review and approve budgets, and pass legislation related to aviation.

Promise to Investigate

Several lawmakers, including Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), made statements about investigating the FAA’s computer failure.

Cantwell, who chairs the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, which has oversight into the aviation industry, promised that her committee would look into the failure.

“The No. 1 priority is safety. As the committee prepares for FAA reauthorization legislation, we will be looking into what caused this outage and how redundancy plays a role in preventing future outages,” she said shortly after the ground stop caused almost 10,000 flights to be affected.

“The public needs a resilient air transportation system.”

Fellow Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee member Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) took aim at Buttigieg over the failure, saying the FAA’s problems were evidence of huge weaknesses in the system.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) speaks at a press conference at the U.S. Capitol to discuss immigration at the southern border in Washington on June 22, 2022. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

The Texas Republican demanded that the FAA be fully audited and that reforms be implemented before lawmakers reauthorize the agency this year.

The most recent five-year reauthorization, passed in 2018, was a rare bipartisan measure passed early in the Trump administration.

“The flying public deserves safety in the sky,“ Cruz’s office stated in response to The Epoch Times’ inquiry about the issue. ”The FAA’s inability to keep an important safety system up and running is completely unacceptable and just the latest example of dysfunction within the Department of Transportation.

“The administration needs to explain to Congress what happened, and Congress should enact reforms in this year’s FAA reauthorization legislation. This incident also highlights why the public needs a competent, proven leader with substantive aviation experience leading the FAA.”

Republicans are particularly frustrated with the agency, which currently doesn’t have a Senate-confirmed administrator. The FAA announced in March 2022 that Billy Nolen was named to serve as acting administrator.

“Billy Nolen has extensive expertise in aviation and a deep understanding of the vital role the FAA plays in ensuring the safety of the traveling public,” Buttigieg said at the time, according to the FAA.

Former Administrator’s Resignation

Former FAA Administrator Steve Dickson resigned from the post at the end of March 2022, citing a desire to spend more time with his family post-pandemic.

Dickson, a former Air Force and Delta Air Lines pilot who had worked his way up to the airline’s senior vice president of flight operations, was appointed by former President Donald Trump and confirmed by the Senate to serve as FFA administrator for five years.

Since Dickson’s exit, the agency has been directed by Nolen. The position was meant to be temporary—as Biden nominated Phillip Washington, CEO of Denver International Airport, to lead the FAA in July 2022.

The nominee hadn’t received a confirmation hearing as of late December 2022, as The New York Times reported.

United Airlines planes taxiing at San Francisco International Airport on Feb. 23, 2011. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

Washington’s close affiliation with Biden doesn’t appear to have garnered enough goodwill among even Democrat lawmakers to see him through to confirmation. He co-chaired Biden’s campaign’s infrastructure policy committee and led the transition team for the DOT.

The majority of Democrats on the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation were reportedly silent when asked by reporters from The New York Times if they supported Washington’s confirmation.