Tammy Duckworth Discusses How FAA Reauthorization Will Include Oversight Over Aircraft Manufacturers

4 months ago

Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) joined Brittany Lewis on "Forbes Newsroom" to discuss the FAA reauthorization bill.

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Transcript

00:00 Both Democrats and Republicans, as we know, do travel by air.

00:04 This doesn't seem to be a partisan issue.

00:06 The bill passed with bipartisan support.

00:08 So can you talk about where you agreed and disagreed with your Republican colleagues?

00:13 Well, you know, I think a lot of the disagreements and agreements were not necessarily party

00:19 line votes other than to back caucus members.

00:25 And we were able to get to an agreement on the quite a few things that we had disagreements

00:29 on.

00:30 Sometimes it was much more regional.

00:33 And you know, so that it was much more looking at what was important for those who come from

00:41 states with more smaller airports versus those who come from states with larger airports.

00:48 So really, I, you know, the issue wasn't so much partisan, I think, which is why we were

00:54 able to come to such a good bill in a bipartisan way.

00:57 And oftentimes, you know, there were times when I was not in agreement with my Republican

01:03 colleagues in the Senate, but I had Republican colleagues in the House who supported my bill.

01:08 So it's everything on pilot training to the number of additional flights to fly out of

01:13 DCA to pilot raising the pilot age to, you know, how we fund airport improvements.

01:23 For the most part, they weren't partisan.

01:25 They were much more regional and state base and constituent base.

01:32 There have been concerns over the past few months about airplane safety, because of a

01:37 few highly publicized moments.

01:39 One that comes to mind is the door blowing off mid flight during an Alaskan Airlines

01:43 flight.

01:44 How?

01:45 How does this bill address safety concerns?

01:48 Well, we have language in there.

01:51 Number one, by funding the FAA so that they could actually have the people doing the work

01:56 needs to be done.

01:57 One of the things that happened over the years was that the FAA entered into an ODA program,

02:03 which is a program that allows the aircraft manufacturers to basically self certify as

02:07 opposed to having an FAA official there to certify an aircraft design.

02:14 They were allowed to self certify and it was a program that Boeing abused, resulting in

02:19 the tragedies of the two Boeing Max 8 flights that killed hundreds of people.

02:25 By funding the FAA so that they could actually have enough people to do the work and not

02:30 rely on industry to self certify, we're going to be able to ensure greater safety.

02:35 By funding the NTSB at a higher level, we're going to allow them to do their jobs.

02:41 We also have language in the bill that requires more oversight from the FAA over aircraft

02:47 manufacturers and that's going to help that process as well.

02:50 So it's really about making the FAA healthy again after years of, you know, one, not even

02:55 having an administrator.

02:56 Now that we have one, we went three years without an administrator.

02:59 We finally have one.

03:01 It's about making sure they have the workforce to do the job that needs to be done, whether

03:05 it's in the air traffic control towers or whether it is those FAA safety inspectors

03:10 who are inspecting airports and inspecting aircraft manufacturers.

03:15 And then also making sure that we provide the funding so that we can upgrade all of

03:19 our airports to have the necessary equipment like ground radars that will prevent aircraft

03:24 collisions on the taxiway.

03:26 Senator, what's next for the FAA reauthorization bill?

03:31 We're going to have this vote.

03:32 So it's going to come to the floor for the vote hopefully this week or next, and we'll

03:36 pass it into law.

03:38 And then we can really roll up our sleeves and start to execute a lot of the programs

03:42 that are provided for within the legislation.

03:45 Senator Tammy Duckworth, thank you so much for joining me.

03:48 Thank you for having me on.

Tammy Duckworth Discusses How FAA Reauthorization Will Include Oversight Over Aircraft Manufacturers

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