At a Senate Commerce Committee hearing prior to the Congressional recess, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) discussed the challenges facing the FAA.
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00:00Good morning. The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation will come to order.
00:08The clerk has directed in the previous vote to show Senator Hickenlooper as voting in person
00:13rather than by proxy. Good morning to each of our witnesses. It has been nearly one year
00:22since the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024 was signed into law. I was proud to co-lead that
00:29effort in the Senate, along with Ranking Member Cantwell. As we're seeing today, in the wake of
00:35a major aviation tragedy, repeated staffing challenges, and technological failures, the
00:432024 Act was unfortunately quite prescient. It mandated an audit of all legacy pre-2000 air
00:51traffic control systems to assess operational risk, functionality, security, and compatibility
00:59with current and future technologies. An additional requirement ensures the FAA notifies Congress
01:05of unfunded priorities not in the budget request that are integral to the operation of the national
01:12airspace. It also directed the FAA and airports to adopt new runway technology to cut down on the high
01:19number of near misses on airport runways. It's clear that there is a dire need to fix our troubled
01:26airspace. Last week, President Trump and Secretary Duffy proposed a major plan to replace vast segments
01:34of the national airspace system – radars, towers, telecommunications, and more. Secretary Duffy previously
01:43announced new policies to attract more air traffic controllers, improve their training, and incentivize
01:49good controllers to stay in the workforce longer. These upgrades are overdue, and I hope there
01:55will be bipartisan support for them. I am committed to helping Secretary Duffy get the resources he
02:00needs to address acute problems like replacing existing unreliable copper lines with faster fiber
02:10at facilities managing the Newark airspace and other areas as well. But the FAA's multi-year failure
02:18to keep pace with technology and staffing needs underscores a larger problem when a bureaucracy has
02:25to fund and manage multi-year projects on behalf of private sector stakeholders like airlines and general
02:32aviation, all while acting simultaneously as a safety regulator. The challenge of quickly and properly
02:41implementing new multi-billion dollar mission-critical tech systems is about to become even more daunting
02:48with the arrival of air taxis and commercial drones. If you think the FAA as currently constructed
02:56is ready for the challenge, then you haven't been paying close attention over the last two decades.
03:02Congress and the administration must think boldly about how we can set the FAA up for long-term success.
03:11Both our economy's productive capacity and the safety of the nation's airspace depend on it.
03:17Regarding the arrival of air taxis and commercial drones, the 2024 law took meaningful steps
03:23to accelerate the safe integration of these new entrants into the nation's skies. Most notably,
03:30the FAA bill required a rulemaking to enable drones to operate beyond visual line of sight,
03:37a huge priority for the growth of the drone industry. The Biden administration, unfortunately,
03:45missed the bill's deadline of September. The bill also directed the establishment of a new center
03:52for advanced aviation technologies, a provision that I authored, which was recently announced to be in the
03:58Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex and will be headed up by the Texas A&M system. The center will play an
04:05extremely important role for the advancement of new technologies, and I'm thankful for the work
04:10Secretary Duffy and the FAA has played in moving it forward. Ensuring that the 2024 law is implemented
04:17in line with the statutory timelines and consistent with congressional intent is of paramount importance to
04:24this committee. And I appreciate my colleagues' commitment to maintaining robust oversight of the process.
04:31Finally, I want to express my continued condolences to the families of American Airlines Flight 5342.
04:40Thank you for turning your tragedy into tireless advocacy.
04:44I remain dedicated to ensuring and doing everything possible to make sure that something like this
04:54never happens again. And it is precisely why members of the committee hear directly from the FAA about
05:00the steps it's taking to create a safer and more efficient airspace. I look forward to hearing about
05:07the progress the administration is making on these critical issues.