During 2014 Hearing, Dem. Sen. Patty Murray Voiced Concerns About Lowering Standards for FAA Hirings

MURRAY: “But in my last few minutes here, I really want to talk about the CTI schools and the fact that just a few months ago the FAA some made some very dramatic changes to the way they’re hiring our air traffic controllers, and among those changes the FAA now no longer relies on a pool of graduates from its collegiate training initiatives, our CTI schools. The FAA has added a new test to screen candidates they call the biographical questionnaire. What I’m hearing from our CTI schools in my state, Washington State, that they’re very worried about their graduates, and I’m hearing from the graduates as well. One CTI graduate from Washington State graduated with high honors, passed an FAA test for initial qualification, has almost five years of service in the air force, and a commercial pilot certificate with an instrumental rating. That young man took this biographical questionnaire and failed it for reasons that are very unclear, and he’s not the only one in this situation. So I want you to explain to us how the FAA has improved this process, if this kind of applicant that I just described and many others are failing this initial screening.”
FOXX: “Well, the goal of this current hiring process was to open up the 1,300 or so positions the FAA was hiring for this year. There will be another 1,700 spots available next year. So the person that you were speaking of will have another opportunity next year. The — what we have found, however, is that the group of folks that typically applied to the FAA for air traffic controller positions tends to be rather limited, and so in this instance, the FAA took an opportunity to do a more broad opening of the aperture, if you will, to try to get a larger universe of applicants into the program. From a practical perspective, those who have been through the CTI program will have a leg up in the training process once they get through the first few rounds of the interview process. But this is an issue that I know is continuing to be dynamic and we’ll continue to engage with you on — “
MURRAY: “Well, I don’t know how you go back to a young man with that kind of experience and say, ‘Get another chance next year.’ This is somebody who has put a lot of investment in this. We’re seeing results from this first biographical questionnaire, that 28,000 took the test, on 2,200 passed. You just described how many people we need to hire. Nobody understands what this biographical questionnaire is evaluating, or why they’re not making it through. I mean, normally, if you take a test, somebody else says, ‘Well, here’s the results. Here’s why you failed this test.’ We’re not getting any of that. NACA, our air traffic controllers situation is telling us, as well, that they are very concerned about this new process. And I would assume these rates of a failure on this biographical questionnaire have to be concerning to you as well.”
FOXX: “They are concerning. I will say to you, senator, that we will — I will have Michael Huerta from the FAA out directly to you about this — this test. But my understanding was that a broader way of stakeholders within the FAA were part of developing the to test, so it’d be surprising to me if some of the elements within the FAA are raising questions now. But I’ll take a look at it.
Raising questions now, but I’ll I’ll take a look.”
MURRAY: “Okay, I want to find out why people — why this rate of success. This is horrendous. And by the way, the young man that I just talked about turns 31, so he’s not gonna be eligible to go again, as you describe. So, you know, we’ve got a lot of veterans who are not making it through this biographical questionnaire, and I think this is an area we have got to reevaluate quickly. I want to understand what the partnership with the CTIs are today. I want to understand what this biographical questionnaire is. I want to know why people are failing, not just that they’re failing, and what this is adding to the quality of the people that we’re considering for this program. We have a lot of air traffic controllers we need out there. The age of these folks is — they’re aging out of the system. We need to get these people hired. The CTIs are an important part of this, and this, to me, is really troubling, so I’m gonna follow up with you on this. It’s extremely important. Thank you very much, Mr. Secretary.”