McHenry Times

U.S. Rep. Randy Hultgren (R-IL) urged accountability and advocated strongly for fairness and safety at a congressional hearing last week to review the FAA’s hiring practices.

Responsibility and transparency in hiring air traffic controllers is not negotiable, Hultgren said. He recommended a three-pool system at the hearing to help prioritize attention to recruits. As a former member of the House Subcommittee on Aviation, he pressed hard to ensure that highly qualified veterans and Collegiate Training Initiative (CTI) graduates are treated fairly when applying for jobs with the FAA.

“This isn’t just about securing a fair job application process or the status quo,” Hultgren said. “This is about Americans feeling and being safe and secure when flying. This is about transparency and openness ... a sufficient number of air traffic controllers in our towers is paramount to secure air travel."

Hultgren, who expressed outrage at the FAA’s sudden cutbacks in 2014, terming the pattern an unnecessary social science experiment, reiterated that an inquiry revealed unethical forms of helping recruits achieve higher test scores and now demands answers following what he perceived as evasion on the agency’s part.

“A six-month investigation … revealed that FAA or aviation-related employees may have assisted in giving potential recruits special access to answers on a key admissions test to help them gain jobs with the FAA," Hultgren said. "Yet the FAA has refused to respond to … accounts of misconduct. They conducted a self-audit … and cleared themselves of any wrongdoing. That is no way to run an agency that is responsible for the well-being of thousands of lives every day.”

Hultgren introduced HR 1964, the Air Traffic Controllers Hiring Act of 2015, which acted to direct the administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration to revise hiring practices for air traffic controller positions.

 “I have worked tirelessly with NATCA to instead create a three-pool system of CTI graduates, veterans and off-the-street hires, which would alleviate this problem and maintain a speedy hiring process,” Hultgren said.