By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Senior Democrats on the Senate committee overseeing aviation said Tuesday they will oppose the nomination of Republic Airways CEO Bryan Bedford to head the Federal Aviation Administration.
Senator Maria Cantwell, the top Democrat on the Commerce Committee, and Senator Tammy Duckworth, who is the ranking member of the aviation subcommittee, said they will vote against Bedford’s nomination when the committee votes Wednesday. Both cited Bedford’s refusal to commit to uphold the 1,500-hour training rule for co-pilots.
Earlier this month, Bedford declined to commit to not changing the flight training rule. In 2022, Bedford criticized the FAA’s rejection of Republic’s petition for allowing only 750 hours of flight experience instead of 1,500 hours.
“I would never do anything to compromise safety as administrator,” Bedford said earlier this month.
A spokesperson for Bedford did not immediately comment.
Calls to modernize the nation’s air traffic control system intensified after a mid-air collision on January 29 between a U.S. Army helicopter and an American Airlines jet near Washington Reagan National Airport. All 67 people aboard the aircraft died.
The regulations to boost flight hours for co-pilots stemmed in part from the February 2009 crash of Colgan Air Flight 3407 in upstate New York that killed 50 people. It was the last major U.S. fatal passenger airline crash before the mid-air collision in January.
Bedford has sharply criticized the FAA as facing serious leadership, trust and culture issues and has vowed to maintain tough oversight of Boeing.
FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker, who was unanimously confirmed to a five-year term in October 2023, stepped down on Jan. 20 when Trump took office.
The Trump administration wants at least $20 billion to overhaul air traffic control.
One-quarter of all FAA facilities are 50 years old or older and aging systems have repeatedly sparked delays. A persistent shortage of controllers has delayed flights and many controllers are working mandatory overtime and six-day weeks.
(Reporting by David Shepardson, editing by Deepa Babington)
