00:00The Ranking Member, I now recognize the Chairman of the Overall Committee of the Appropriations Committee, Mr. Cole from Oklahoma.
00:06Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and I probably shouldn't say this before I get into my questions in front of somebody as shrewd as my friend, the Ranking Member,
00:16but when I think ahead about negotiations that will come if we're going to avoid a CR and get to a successful conclusion,
00:24I always look where are the things in common that the two sides can set aside differences on and come around.
00:31I think this is one of those things.
00:34We're all very interested in what it takes to fly safely.
00:38It's important commercially.
00:39It's much more important, obviously, in terms of lives.
00:42So, you know, I would just advise you and our former colleague to be ready to take advantage of that opportunity down the road.
00:51I mean, I think that this is one where we will work together and try and make a significant investment to move us materially toward the goals that you've outlined.
01:01Your budget proposal increases facilities and equipment account in order to upgrade the system for air traffic facilities.
01:09Does your request include improvements at the academy to ensure that the students are actually training on the equipment that you intend for them to be using in the years ahead?
01:20Yes, sir, it does.
01:22In fact, as we talked about recently, our effort to supercharge the hiring through the academy with controllers,
01:33what we've been able to do, and again, giving credit to the secretary for accelerating and encouraging us to work hard,
01:42we didn't think we were going to hit the 2,000 controllers this year.
01:47So we've shortened the time frame by which we hire those controllers, academy attendees, through the system by five months.
01:56In fact, I would just, as a quick story, we went through, as we look for the best and brightest,
02:02we had an individual recently that in 44 days from start to finish got into the academy, got an academy date.
02:09So that system is really working.
02:11Now, that's not going to be the case for everyone, but that is encouraging there.
02:14So the budget request we have does, in fact, accommodate and consider what we want to do with respect to getting up to 2,500 people
02:24through the Oklahoma City Academy this year, in addition to the enhanced CTI trainings that we're doing with universities around the U.S.
02:32Well, I think that's terrific, and just toward that goal of reaching 2,500, when you and I had our visit,
02:40we also talked about the failure rate because we lose about a third of those students over the course of this.
02:45And, you know, in some ways you expect it's a pretty rigorous, very demanding profession.
02:50What might look attractive at the beginning as you get into it may not be your cup of tea
02:55as you really understand how difficult and challenging this job is.
03:00But, having said that, I'm curious about, number one, as you stair-step up anything additional you need.
03:09And, again, I'm like you.
03:10I commend the secretary for increasing that pay and making this a more attractive option for the kind of people we want coming there.
03:18But what are you thinking about doing in addition to help those students that are there so that we have a higher success rate and don't lose them?
03:26Thank you for the question.
03:27So, as part of this initiative, I would highlight two efforts that we put in there.
03:33First and foremost is, as we think about the training itself and the first roughly five weeks of training, there's a basic course.
03:41So, it's what we'll call Air Traffic 101, that we do not need certified professional controllers to teach.
03:47And so, therefore, we have the ability to bring in professional instructors to help that.
03:52So, we're augmenting the instructor workforce there at the academy, first and foremost.
03:56And we think that will be helpful for the evaluation period as people get closer to graduation there.
04:03In addition to that, one of the things that the secretary had heard in his visit back in February, I believe it was,
04:10to Oklahoma was, in fact, some of the students were looking for a little extra time on the weekend for training.
04:16And so, we are now offering tutoring on the weekend with the use of high-definition simulators,
04:22which actually is going to improve probably up to 30 percent of the graduation rate.
04:27Because, at the end of the day, we, to get the throughput, to get the controllers to the boards that we need,
04:32we want to make sure that that failure rate of 35 percent roughly these days,
04:38because it is an incredibly demanding profession, that we get that down to, say, the 25 percent, maybe even lower than that.
04:45So, those two initiatives alone, we're trying to make sure that we get a better throughput and a better graduation rate.
04:51That's great.
04:51Well, my time's almost up, and I certainly respect the chairman on that.
04:54Just one, it's not a question, but I'm sure you're thinking, given the fact that you're going to increase,
05:02as you implied you are, the number of instructors, because we're going to move it up.
05:06You've got to have more people on the ground.
05:07You're comfortable.
05:08You can do that, and that's basically a yes or no.
05:10Yes, sir.
05:11Okay.
05:11Thank you very much.
05:12Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
05:14I thank the gentleman from Oklahoma.
05:16And not to belabor the point, necessarily, on air traffic control,
05:19but it's one thing to get a certified air traffic controller,
05:21but it's a whole other thing to certify them or to prepare them for whatever assignment.
