'What Data?': Patty Murray Spars With Air Force General Over Rule Banning Pregnant Pilots

Forbes Breaking News

During a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on Thursday, Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) asked Air Force Gen. David Allvin about the Air Force's policy on pregnant pilots.

Transcript

00:00Thank you Mr. Chairman and yes they do. Now before I get to my questions I do

00:10just want to say that I really appreciate the sacrifice of our

00:14service members and military families and I know everyone on this Dias feels

00:18the way especially in the Air Force as you know Washington is home to the

00:22Fairchild Air Force Base so we thank everyone. Mr. Secretary, as I'm sure you

00:27are aware as a former KC-135 navigator yourself, our Air Force currently does

00:33not have the refueling capacity it needs to sustain operations in important

00:38strategic theaters. Fairchild Air Force Base and in my home state of Washington is

00:42home to one of the Air Force's largest air refueling wings and its proximity to

00:48the Arctic and the Indo-Pacific makes it a very key strategic launching point. Now

00:53the existing KC-46A contract only has a few years remaining. When does the Air

00:59Force plan to award the tanker the next tanker production contract? Senator, so I'll

01:07take for the record and exactly the date of when we are when we're planning on

01:11awarding but we are we it is definitely a focus of ours we agree we have to

01:14maintain and continue to build out the tanker fleet to maintain that capability

01:19as just demonstrated over the weekend it's it's a critical part critical part of

01:24our architecture. And and you can't even give me an approximate within the year

01:28within a month's within days within. I would have to yield to the acquisition

01:33folks is fair when that decision is going to be made we understand that we're on

01:35the cusp of the end of the contract existing contract 183 for the for the

01:40for the current KC-46 that evaluations on underground I would say within months

01:45we'll be able to understand when that date would be exactly okay all right and

01:49what remains to be done to address the remaining category one deficiencies in the

01:54KC-46A contract? Yes Senator they they're working very hard they're drawing

01:59those down to to a few obviously we still have a couple with the remote

02:03visualization system the 2.0 version of that that should be completed that's

02:09really the long pole in the tent for all of them that should be done by the

02:12fourth quarter of 27 we also have a crimped sort of drain valve issue that's

02:16being worked we also have one where they call the stuck boom where it can

02:20only refuel there's one aircraft that can't refuel and that's the A-10 but

02:24largely those are they keep it from being full capability but they're refueling

02:30just about everything including several of the capabilities that happened last

02:33weekend so it's still a capable aircraft we need to keep working. Okay and if you

02:37could just stay in touch with my office as you get closer on those details let me

02:41switch topics because over the past few years policies to help recruit staff for

02:46child development centers on military bases have led to lower wait times

02:50especially in the Air Force in fact in 2024 the Air Force wait list dropped below

02:553,000 children done by a very we worked really hard to get it there and that was

03:00the lowest since the Air Force began tracking it back in 2018 but after Trump's

03:05hiring freeze on civilian employees at DOD several Air Force bases have been

03:10forced to reduce their child care services and the child care wait list has

03:14now ballooned to over 4,000 kids that is really unacceptable to me that would leave

03:19our military families and parents who are putting their lives on the line for our

03:23country really scrambling to find child care and in many places CDC's are the

03:29only real option for child care so mr. secretary what is the Air Force doing to

03:33make up for the CDC staff shortest shortages we are we are very aware of the

03:40issue senator and it is a it is a priority for us to fix and and we are

03:46looking at that talk about it just yesterday with the team I think there is a

03:50plan to to start addressing the shortfall and staffing general then you have

03:55any more details on it thank you mr. secretary I the center what I would add

03:59to that is your point is exact right when it worked very hard and we got the the

04:04critical caregivers at the level during this initial deferred resignation

04:10program we enabled we kept all the providers they were not authorized to go but

04:18some of the back staff the support staff was authorized to go and so that because

04:22of that we were we had to close a couple classrooms here and there and reduce

04:26that I believe that is going to be faster to rehire than it would be to get the

04:30care provider so I think that's where if you can stay in touch with my office on

04:34how you're progressing on that what you're doing I would appreciate it and

04:37finally I I want to ask because over the past few months we've seen the Trump

04:41administration start to systematically dismantle DOD's ability to

04:46welcome all who wish to serve and I am particularly concerned about attacks on

04:50women's service members from health care to firing senior senior leadership and in

04:56April the Air Force suddenly reversed its policy allowing women air crew members to

05:02fly during early stages of pregnancy that policy aligned with FAA pregnancy

05:08guidelines was widely applauded when it was made in 2022 and then the Trump

05:13administration eliminated without any explanation that reversal really forces

05:18women to choose between advancing their careers and starting their families and

05:22it drastically reduces women's opportunities to develop expertise in

05:27really highly technical roles for our Air Force can I want to ask what data

05:32supported the Trump's administration decision to prohibit women from flying in

05:38non-combat non-combat environments during early stages well thank you

05:41senator and that was an Air Force policy change so that would that would be on us

05:45in the Air Force and the difference is that even though you talked about the

05:48alignment with FAA the the the change was to high G high performance aircraft

05:53that that was the change in 2022 to enable them to pursue waivers to fly for

05:59those for those high G and high performance aircraft and the idea was to

06:03increase readiness because increasing readiness having more

06:05opportunities for everyone to fly in those high performance aircraft what we

06:09did we looked at the data from 2019 to 2022 and saw how many waivers were being

06:15pursued how many waivers were being granted between that time and then

06:19between 2022 and 2025 so two three-year periods and saw no real difference in the

06:25amount of time being requested or given for those in high performance

06:29aircraft so because of that there was no real increase in waivers from those two

06:34periods and the risk was still there it was an unknown risk that we just

06:38reverted to really we're closer to what the other services have been well that's

06:43not the same as the FAA guidelines and I did were there any specific cases or

06:47incidences that raised this medical concerns that it was just the lack of

06:52increased readiness without the ability to fully understand the risk and that was

06:57not FAA that was for the high G high performing aircraft for which the FAA does not

07:02really have those guidelines specific to you I just have to say that what's a

07:06woman supposed to do do a pregnancy test before she takes a flight I mean no

07:10senator and we can give you the full paper this is not just totally restrictive

07:14it's it's more aligned with the other services as well well I have looked at the

07:18policy and I am concerned I haven't seen the data you have some give it to me if

07:22there's specific examples give it to me but I do not think that we should

07:26discriminate against women service members and I would really ask you to

07:30consider reversing this Senator we'll provide you all the data behind it thank

07:35you

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