FAAs diversity hiring practices were under scrutiny long before the air disaster in Washington
The crash aftermath is surrounded by ongoing policy criticism, despite the fact that there’s no evidence DEI hiring had any involvement in the accident.
Before Wednesday’s deadly collision between a helicopter and a passenger plane approaching Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Washington, D.C., critics warned the Obama and Biden Administrations that they had put safety at risk by prioritizing equity, diversity and inclusion within the Federal Aviation Administration.
Trump was criticized for suggesting that FAA hiring practices focusing on DEI “could’ve” contributed to the crash. The cause of the crash is still under investigation.
It’s one thing when internet pundits spread conspiracy theories. The president of the United States of America is not the first to make idle speculations, even while victims are being found and families are being notified. “It turns your stomach,” stated Charles E. Schumer (Democrat, New York Senate Minority leader).
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Critics have warned that FAA’s emphasis on DEI has diverted resources and time from the safety of air travel. They said it hampered the FAA as it dealt with air traffic controller shortages and antiquated equipment for monitoring, along with an increase in near-misses at crowded airport runways. Unidentified sources told The Associated Press that on Thursday, the air traffic control officer who was responsible for monitoring the airspace during the fatal crash performed the duties of two people.
Last year, 11 Republican Attorneys General wrote to FAA Administrator Michael Whitaker to ask about the hiring practices and priorities of the administration.
Unfortunately, the Biden FAA under your administration appears to place a higher priority on virtue-signaling “diversity” efforts than aviation expertise. This calls into question whether the agency is committed to safety,” wrote the authors.
The FAA’s diversity goals, which were intensified during the Obama Administration, were dropped by Mr. Trump in his first term but resumed again under Vice President Biden.
During the Obama-Biden administrations, FAA gave priority to hiring minorities and people with disabilities, especially for positions in the air traffic control.
Now scrubbed, the Biden-era FAA site stated, “The FAA mission is to secure the skies of an increasingly diverse nation.” It is only logical that the workforce that is responsible for this mission should reflect the country.
The FAA has pledged that it will “diversify” its workforce in 2022 by rethinking hiring practices. Administration officials have also set long-term targets to increase diversity, accessibility, and LGBTQ issues.
The agency was required to “host a nationwide symposium with internal and outside stakeholders in order to socialize efforts regarding the use of gender neutral language at FAA” as part of a 2022 performance goal.
The FAA declared the year 2023 as “Year of Inclusion”. A three-day conference was held to train FAA employees on how to recognize and overcome “unconscious bias” and understand its impact.
Under the Obama administration, the FAA began to focus on diversity. In 2013, the FAA began using a “biographical evaluation” to hire more members of minority racial and ethnic groups in air traffic control centres. The assessment asked about the applicants’ participation in school sport and their age when they first started earning money.
This assessment eliminated more qualified and experienced applicants. Many of them were Air Traffic Collegiate Training (ATC) graduates or had additional experience such as a Pilot’s License.
Over 3,000 applicants who were rejected filed a suit alleging discrimination. In 2018, the FAA stopped using biographical assessments after Congress passed a law that prohibited their use.
Even as late as last summer, the FAA continued to recruit people with disabilities. This included those with “hearing loss, vision impairment, missing extremities and partial or complete paralysis.” It also appeared that the recruitment had continued into the first term of Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden.
There is no evidence that DEI hiring was a factor in the crash on Wednesday. This followed Mr. Trump’s memorandum of Jan. 22, “terminating an Biden Administration Federal Aviation Administration hiring policy which prioritized diversity equity and inclusion (DEI), over safety and efficiency.”
After the accident, Mr. Trump began to attack Pete Buttigieg who was the Transportation Department head under Mr. Biden.
“He has run FAA into the ground by his diversity,” said Mr. Trump.
Mr. Buttigieg replied that no commercial passenger aircraft crashed under his watch. The crash on Wednesday ended a safety streak of 15 years for the U.S. aviation industry.
Buttigieg stated, “We put safety before all else, reduced close calls, increased Air Traffic Control and had zero commercial airline crashes fatalities in millions of flights under our watch.” It’s time for the President to demonstrate real leadership and explain how he plans to prevent it from happening again.
When Mr. Trump signed the memo requesting an immediate assessment of aviation security, he reaffirmed his promise to get rid of DEI at the FAA.
“We want to hire the best people.” “We don’t care about their race,” Mr. Trump said to reporters in the Oval Office. We want to hire the best people for these positions, and especially those who are most qualified. You’re dealing with extremely complex issues. “If they don’t possess a powerful brain and a strong power of the mind, they won’t be very good in what they do. And bad things will occur.”
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