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Ted Cruz Breaks Down The 'Dire' Challenges Facing FAA Amidst Continued Accidents
Forbes Breaking News
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5/27/2025
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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00:00
Good morning. The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation will come to order.
00:08
The clerk has directed in the previous vote to show Senator Hickenlooper as voting in person
00:13
rather than by proxy. Good morning to each of our witnesses. It has been nearly one year
00:22
since the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024 was signed into law. I was proud to co-lead that
00:29
effort in the Senate, along with Ranking Member Cantwell. As we're seeing today, in the wake of
00:35
a major aviation tragedy, repeated staffing challenges, and technological failures, the
00:43
2024 Act was unfortunately quite prescient. It mandated an audit of all legacy pre-2000 air
00:51
traffic control systems to assess operational risk, functionality, security, and compatibility
00:59
with current and future technologies. An additional requirement ensures the FAA notifies Congress
01:05
of unfunded priorities not in the budget request that are integral to the operation of the national
01:12
airspace. It also directed the FAA and airports to adopt new runway technology to cut down on the high
01:19
number of near misses on airport runways. It's clear that there is a dire need to fix our troubled
01:26
airspace. Last week, President Trump and Secretary Duffy proposed a major plan to replace vast segments
01:34
of the national airspace system – radars, towers, telecommunications, and more. Secretary Duffy previously
01:43
announced new policies to attract more air traffic controllers, improve their training, and incentivize
01:49
good controllers to stay in the workforce longer. These upgrades are overdue, and I hope there
01:55
will be bipartisan support for them. I am committed to helping Secretary Duffy get the resources he
02:00
needs to address acute problems like replacing existing unreliable copper lines with faster fiber
02:10
at facilities managing the Newark airspace and other areas as well. But the FAA's multi-year failure
02:18
to keep pace with technology and staffing needs underscores a larger problem when a bureaucracy has
02:25
to fund and manage multi-year projects on behalf of private sector stakeholders like airlines and general
02:32
aviation, all while acting simultaneously as a safety regulator. The challenge of quickly and properly
02:41
implementing new multi-billion dollar mission-critical tech systems is about to become even more daunting
02:48
with the arrival of air taxis and commercial drones. If you think the FAA as currently constructed
02:56
is ready for the challenge, then you haven't been paying close attention over the last two decades.
03:02
Congress and the administration must think boldly about how we can set the FAA up for long-term success.
03:11
Both our economy's productive capacity and the safety of the nation's airspace depend on it.
03:17
Regarding the arrival of air taxis and commercial drones, the 2024 law took meaningful steps
03:23
to accelerate the safe integration of these new entrants into the nation's skies. Most notably,
03:30
the FAA bill required a rulemaking to enable drones to operate beyond visual line of sight,
03:37
a huge priority for the growth of the drone industry. The Biden administration, unfortunately,
03:45
missed the bill's deadline of September. The bill also directed the establishment of a new center
03:52
for advanced aviation technologies, a provision that I authored, which was recently announced to be in the
03:58
Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex and will be headed up by the Texas A&M system. The center will play an
04:05
extremely important role for the advancement of new technologies, and I'm thankful for the work
04:10
Secretary Duffy and the FAA has played in moving it forward. Ensuring that the 2024 law is implemented
04:17
in line with the statutory timelines and consistent with congressional intent is of paramount importance to
04:24
this committee. And I appreciate my colleagues' commitment to maintaining robust oversight of the process.
04:31
Finally, I want to express my continued condolences to the families of American Airlines Flight 5342.
04:40
Thank you for turning your tragedy into tireless advocacy.
04:44
I remain dedicated to ensuring and doing everything possible to make sure that something like this
04:54
never happens again. And it is precisely why members of the committee hear directly from the FAA about
05:00
the steps it's taking to create a safer and more efficient airspace. I look forward to hearing about
05:07
the progress the administration is making on these critical issues.
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