During Wednesday’s House Appropriations Committee, Rep. Stephanie Bice (R-OK) questioned Acting FAA Administrator Chris Rocheleau about DOD military air traffic communications.
00:00And finally, the distinguished vice chair of this subcommittee, Ms. Bice.
00:05Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you, Administrator, for being with us this morning.
00:08I want to follow up on a comment that you made in response to Mr. Joyce's question.
00:16That was after the DCA accident that you took a good look at all of the incoming traffic, paused helicopter traffic in.
00:24But subsequent to the accident, there was another incursion or close call, I should say, I'm sorry, not an incursion, a close call that happened with two aircraft leaving DCA.
00:34Interestingly enough, I was on the tarmac and saw that happen.
00:37So my question to you is, do you believe that you are able to effectively communicate with DOD on traffic, military traffic coming in and out of the DCA airspace?
00:50I do believe we have a very good communication link.
00:54with our Department of Defense partners.
00:56I would also say they're not flying right now because we are revisiting the letter of authorization that we have going.
01:02Unless it's a mission-critical operation.
01:05Who defines mission-critical?
01:07So that would be a law enforcement.
01:09We have protocols that were set up through this letter of agreement that a national security mission, a law enforcement intervention,
01:16something along those lines, a helicopter, a medevac type thing.
01:19Those would be coordinated with the controllers, and there are certain codes they use to talk back and forth.
01:23But in terms of what we'll call priority transport or some of the other more routine activities that the Army was conducting,
01:31we've shut those down until such time as we're comfortable with kind of what we'll call new rules of the road.
01:36And you do believe that the airspace in DCA is safe?
01:39Absolutely.
01:39Earlier we talked about the Mike Madroni Aeronautical Center.
01:44When I was elected in 2020, that was actually in my congressional district.
01:49It is now not after redistricting, but I'm very conscientious of what happens at that facility.
01:56One of the things that surprised me is the length of time it takes to actually get an air traffic controller into a tower.
02:02They apply, they have to have an initial screening, then they have to do testing, then there's a medical evaluation.
02:09This process takes some time.
02:10And the one thing that surprised me the most is how long the medical eval can take.
02:14Can you talk a little bit about what you're doing to address that specifically?
02:17Yes, thank you.
02:18It did take too long, and that's one of the reasons why the secretary has tasked us with supercharging this hiring process,
02:25cutting five months out of the process in general.
02:27Specific to medicals, though, one of the ways we truncated that process by looking at security and medicals in tandem
02:36to make sure we process them efficiently, effectively, and not waiting in line.
02:41So we were doing it concurrently.
02:42That made a big difference in reducing that timeline.
02:46I also, knowing the medical certification piece of this, whether it's for the controllers or the pilots that we talk about,
02:52I meet with the aerospace surgeon on a regular basis to track.
02:55I know that we've just recently provided some additional information for people to essentially educate themselves
03:01to bring the proper paperwork.
03:03But I would say that it's over 90% of the people that come in, they get that medical certificate when they walk out.
03:10And that's a real tribute to, again, the secretary and the team that's put an emphasis on this.
03:15Let's talk about air traffic controllers for a moment.
03:18Certainly, you've talked about the increase in hiring, which we all agree is necessary.
03:23There are people that are, you know, maybe, you know, want to leave the profession because they've been in it for many, many years,
03:29and it's a high-stress position, a lot of expectation.
03:32It's a zero-failure mission.
03:33Can you talk a little bit about the overtime that has been put, potentially placed, on air traffic controllers,
03:43particularly at larger airports due to maybe shortages, and how that's impacting their ability to, you know,
03:50maybe longevity in that role?
03:52So, I work very closely with the controller union president.
03:57We have a number of engagements to basically keep a finger on the pulse for the health and the welfare of the controllers themselves.
04:05There are indeed facilities that require overtime simply because of staffing and making sure that we do that.
04:11At the same time, we have a number of safety reporting systems in place that if someone is feeling that stress
04:16or someone needs that time off, we allow that person to take that time.
04:19So, we're very focused on kind of the safety, the health, and the welfare of the controllers themselves.
04:24As it relates to kind of additional staffing, that's part of what we're going through here with hiring new controllers,
04:30and in those facilities that are most critically staffed, prioritizing them for controllers that can come in and kind of hit the ground running.
04:38Thank you for that.
04:39My time is almost up, but I just want to offer you the opportunity, when you have time to come to Oklahoma City,
04:46visit the Mike Minerni at our article center, I'm sure that the full committee chairman, Mr. Cole, and I,
04:52along with Congressman Lucas, would love the opportunity to just visit with you and see what we can do to continue to strengthen the facility.
04:59It's a large facility.
05:01It has a lot of, I think, infrastructure needs that we need to invest in,
05:04and so certainly we are here to help you make sure that the facility meets the needs of the next century.
05:12So, with that, Mr. Chairman, I yield.
05:14I thank the gentlelady.
05:16As I recognize the final member of our panel here this morning, the chair knows.
