Posted on 02/01/2025 9:06:42 PM PST by george76
President Donald Trump on Thursday directed the Federal Aviation Administration to assess safety standards, including evaluating hiring practices, in the wake of the midair collision over Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on Wednesday night.
The presidential memorandum comes after Trump suggested the military helicopter that crashed into an American Airlines regional jet may have been due in part to the FAA’s diversity, equity and inclusion policies.
All 67 people aboard the two aircraft were killed.
“President Trump swiftly signed a memorandum directing an immediate assessment of the Federal Aviation Administration to ensure the federal government is maintaining the highest personnel and policy aviation-safety standards,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said.
“The memorandum directs the secretary of transportation and the FAA administration to immediately review all hiring decisions and changes to safety protocols made during the prior four years, and to take all necessary corrective action to achieve uncompromised aviation safety,” Leavitt added. “The review will include a comprehensive assessment and reversal in any deterioration in hiring standards and aviation-safety standards and protocols during the previous administration.”
Trump already signed a governmentwide executive order to do away with DEI-related personnel initiatives.
under President Barack Obama’s administration, the FAA scrapped a skills-based test and a certification program, and replaced it with a biographical questionnaire to attract more diverse applicants to become air traffic controllers. The FAA previously drew most candidates from the military and a group of 36 colleges that offer air traffic control programs.
“The Obama administration implemented a biographical questionnaire at the FAA to shift the hiring focus away from objective aptitude. During my first term, my administration raised standards to achieve the highest standards of safety and excellence,” the Trump memorandum says. “But the Biden administration egregiously rejected merit-based hiring, requiring all executive departments and agencies to implement dangerous ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ tactics, and specifically recruiting individuals with ‘severe intellectual’ disabilities in the FAA.”
The memorandum continues: “On my second day in office, I ordered an immediate return to merit-based recruitment, hiring, and promotion, elevating safety and ability as the paramount standard. [Wednesday’s] devastating accident tragically underscores the need to elevate safety and competence as the priority of the FAA.”
Critics have said the policy that originated under Obama and was revived by former President Joe Biden gives more points to applicants who have not been employed for the past three years than to an applicant who has been a pilot or a veteran with an air traffic control-related military background. During his first term, Trump discarded the policy in 2018, but Biden reinstated it.
“When you are flying on an airplane with your loved ones—which everyone of us in this room has—do you pray that your plane lands safely and gets you to your destination?” Leavitt asked reporters rhetorically on Friday. “Or do you pray that the pilot has a certain skin color? I think we all know the answer to that question. As President Trump said yesterday, it’s common sense.”
The spokeswoman said the Trump administration still believes it is safe to fly in the United States. Still, she said, the memorandum is intended to “deliver accountability.”
Democrats were angry after Trump suggested DEI played a role in the deadly air collision. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said Trump’s comment was “shameful” and promoted “misinformation and misdirection.”
During Leavitt’s Friday briefing, Fox News reporter Peter Doocy asked, “Was the air traffic controller in the [airport] tower on Wednesday night hired, or not fired, at some point, because of his or her race?”
Leavitt said only that the “investigation is ongoing.”
“When we have updates on the exact individuals who were involved in the collision, including the air traffic controller and the pilots of the helicopter and others, we will confirm those,” the spokeswoman said.
But she added, “The president has rightfully pointed out that there have been problems with the aviation industry over the past several years. This started under Barack Obama in 2014.”
In 2019, the Mountain States Legal Foundation, a nonprofit public interest law firm, filed a class-action lawsuit against the FAA on behalf of 2,500 aspiring air traffic controllers who claimed to be harmed by the policy change.
“If you are an American who has spent many years studying aviation, and you graduate from school and are an air traffic controller based on skill and merit; you fill out a biographical questionnaire asking you the color of your skin and asking you where you are from, and details that aren’t relevant at all to the job description, I think that deteriorates the morale of people in this industry,” Leavitt said.
“If you talk to people in this industry, they will tell you that. In fact, many of them filed a lawsuit against the FAA a couple of years ago under Joe Biden’s administration because they were denied positions because of this DEI hiring practice that was putting identity politics over merit and skills,” she added.
Obamao - the gift that keeps on giving.
What do you expect from Barry?
He is probably posting on grndr this very minute.
So an Agency under DOT homo Buttigig, with a DEI questionnaire that lead to a DEI controller, directing a DEI lesbo pilot, kills a whole airliner full of people... and they are facing “increased scrutiny”?
Got it. Sounds legit.
Assuming everything you said in your own creative way is true, we live in a strange world indeed.
A wrong-headed FAA policy dreamed up by color-coded Obama, and reinforced by Obama stooge Joe Biden, denigrated air traffic controllers’ military background in favor of DEI-related racial/sexist “identity” garbage.
During his first term, President Trump rightly discarded the policy, but Biden reinstated it in his hate-filled never-ending jihad against Trump.
The catastrophic Reagan air crash killing 64 can be laid at the feet of Obama/Biden’s rank stupidity.
Well, when the official accident report comes out, let’s hope sufficient time has passed, and families are cool with Trump unloading on Obama/Biden/DEI as the cause of their losses. He can’t drag them through the mud enough to suit me.
The 2014 ‘biographical assessment’ is online.
There are ZERO questions about the color of your skin.
The questions ask about decision making, high school grades, and other things.
The FAA has been using a ‘biographical assessment’ at least since the 1970s.
By the way, everyone on the 3-person Black Hawk crew was WHITE.
A male voice was communicating with the tower. A male voice confirmed they saw the AA plane.
Experienced pilots believe the crew might have been looking at the wrong plane.
The FAA has been using a ‘biographical assessment’ at least since the 1970s.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwyeg61pnl5o
Fact-checking Trump's claims about diversity schemes and the Washington plane crash1 day ago [31 January 2025]
Jake Horton & Lucy Gilder
BBC Verify[excerpt]
The questionnaire was removed for air traffic controllers in 2018 under Trump.
In 2024, it was removed for wider FAA hiring, after Republicans in Congress introduced a provision to scrap the biographical questionnaire into a funding bill, which was signed by then-President Biden.
The diversity of the FAA workforce, on some measures, has gradually increased in recent years, according to the agency's Office of Civil Rights.
In 2016, under Obama, white men made up 59% of the workforce and people with targeted disabilities made up 0.7%.
In 2020, the final year of Trump's first term, 57% were white men and 1% of the workforce had targeted disabilities.
In 2023, those figures stood at 55% and 2%.
https://www.faa.gov/faq/faa-getting-rid-air-traffic-skills-biographical-assessment
Is the FAA getting rid of the Air Traffic Skills biographical assessment?Yes, in 2018 the Biographical Assessment was removed as a screening tool requiring all applicants to take the Air Traffic Skills Assessment (ATSA). All No Experience qualified candidates are required to take the ATSA as a pre-employment screening test.
Army Releases Statement from Family of Capt. Rebecca Lobach, Third Pilot Killed in Helicopter-Plane Collision Near Reagan Airport
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4294248/posts
I have never been of the opinion that someone in a cabinet position needs to know every single aspect of everything involving the Cabinet position they are being nominated to.
For example, I would not expect Pam Bondi to be intimately familiar with every single legal issue under the sun. But while I fully expect her to know how to leverage people under her for things she is unfamiliar with, I would fully expect her to have a strong grasp of the Legal System.
And while I would not expect SecDef Hegseth to understand damage control or navigation on a US Navy vessel, I have the highest confidence he knows how to find those who do, listen to their expertise, and make decisions.
But the level of expertise inherent in those questions asked of Phil Washington as the prospective FAA Director, that was damning. He appeared to have no knowledge of things vital to the aviation industry. It is as if he were being proposed as the Ambassador to Tonga.
Then, I read about Jared Bernstein, nominated as Biden's Chief Economic Adviser, a cabinet position, whose CV looked like this:
Jared Bernstein (born December 26, 1955) is an American government official who is the chair of the United States Council of Economic Advisers. He is a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. From 2009 to 2011, Bernstein was the chief economist and economic adviser to Vice President Joe Biden in the Obama administration. In 2008, Michael D. Shear described Bernstein as a progressive and "a strong advocate for workers".
In February 2023, President Joe Biden nominated Bernstein to serve as Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers.[6] He was confirmed to be chair on June 13, 2023. He was ceremonially sworn in by Vice President Kamala Harris on July 10, 2023.
He passed the Senate with a 50–49 vote.
Bernstein grew up in a musical family wanting to be a musician, starting a band with friends. Bernstein graduated with a bachelor's degree in music from the Manhattan School of Music where his first double bass teacher was Orin O'Brien. Throughout the '80s, Bernstein was a mainstay on the jazz scene in New York City.[citation needed] He is of Jewish descent.
He also earned a Master of Social Work from Hunter College as well as a Doctor of Social Work in social welfare from Columbia University's school of social work in 1994. At Columbia, his dissertation advisor was Irwin Garfinkel.
This candidate for THIS cabinet position appears to know NOTHING about Economics. He has very little to no formal training in economics. He has a degree in social work.
And in retrospect, looking at the state of economic affairs with this man holding the key position to advise the Biden Administration, one can only come to two possible conclusions: Irwin Garfinkel was wholly inept and unqualified for the job, or he was intentionally put in place to destroy the American Economy.
I DON'T WANT TO HEAR A NOISE FROM THE DEMOCRAT STINKING, LEFTIST PIE-HOLES ABOUT "UNQUALIFIED CANDIDATES".
Adding some context to Obamao.
https://finance.yahoo.com/video/faa-official-resigns-fbn-probe-161235788.html
Obama’s administration was the carrier of the DEI disease it spread fast and killed many.
“When you are flying on an airplane with your loved ones—which everyone of us in this room has—do you pray that your plane lands safely and gets you to your destination?” Leavitt asked reporters rhetorically on Friday. “Or do you pray that the pilot has a certain skin color?”
BURN!
Isn’t it amazing how practicality and common-sense is returning these days? And only THIRTEEN DAYS IN for this Administration! MAGA!
I feel more HOPEFUL for America than I have since President Reagan was at the helm - and I was only 18 years old, then!
Intentional
Hopefully
I remember reading the ATC requirements several years ago. You had to pass physical exams, psych evaluations, security clearance, etc. ATC training costs the FAA a fortune, so they want to make sure you will stick with 2-3 years in training and then stick with the job. The 'Biographical Questionnaire' (BQ) is part of that assessment. The questions do not ask about race or gender.
Remember, in 1981, the Air Traffic Controllers went on strike. They complained of stress. They wanted their work hours reduced to 32 hours/week; they wanted a $10,000 raise and more benefits. When they went on strike, flights were cancelled, and Reagan fired the 11,359 ATCs who refused to return to work. Some of the ATC strikers filed an age discrimination lawsuit when they were not rehired years later, and in 2022, they received a $47.5 million settlement. So, originally, all those striking ATCs were hired under the old process. And look how that worked out. They ended up going on strike, refusing to return to work, and then filing a lawsuit later.
However, the strike gave the researchers a ton of data on trainee success rates before and after the strike. And that's where the BQ (Biographic Questionnaire) comes in. FAA has done a ton of research on correlations between 'biographic factors' and success rates in the ATC training program. (Many companies give these kinds of assessments when you apply for a job.)
Some FAA reports online show the history behind the BQ since the 1960s. They also show the BQ correlates with a high success rate for all groups - especially white males. So, the notion that the BQ discriminates against white males is false.
Some results of the research are surprising. For example, a college degree does not predict a trainee's success in the ATC program, and neither does graduation from a CTI (FAA Collegiate Training Initiative), the type of program the 1,000 plaintiffs in the lawsuit graduated from.
Here are some of the reports:
(1984) REPORT: Studies of Post-Strike Air Traffic Control Specialist Trainees: I. Age, Biographic Factors, and Selection Test Performance Related to Academy Training Success
https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/tr/pdf/ADA147892.pdf
This 1984 report is all about the ATC Strike of 1981, how FAA recruited new ATCs as replacements, and the biographic factors correlated with success rates before and after the strike.(2012) REPORT: Development, Validation, and Fairness of a Biographical Data Questionnaire for the Air Traffic Control Specialist Occupation
https://www.faa.gov/sites/faa.gov/files/data_research/research/med_humanfacs/oamtechreports/201219.pdf
This 2012 report talks more about the BQ. It shows that answers to questions on the BQ correlate with a high success rate across ethnic groups and genders. Note that white males had the highest success rate on the BQ. So, the assessment was not set up for 'white men' to fail, as the media claim.(2014) REPORT: Using Biodata to Select Air Traffic Controllers
https://www.faa.gov/sites/faa.gov/files/data_research/research/med_humanfacs/oamtechreports/201408.pdf
This study concluded that the AT-SAT and age were better predictors of success, but it also found that neither high school GPA nor graduation from a CTI predicted success.
For the record, I think the BQ is a good research tool, but it should not be used to reject an applicant.
Check
For the record, I think the BQ is a good research tool, but it should not be used to reject an applicant.
Unfortunately, it apparently was used as the first criteria to reject applicants, before other factors were considered.
I do not know the specific questions asked so I do not know how well it may have functioned as a research tool.
Perhaps it resembled the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI).
The BQ was shorter, only 62 questions. Out of curiosity, I tried it myself the other night and failed. Just like I failed a similar test for a dispatcher job once. By the way, sorry for that long post earlier.
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