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Nomination of Michael P. Huerta to Be Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration

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Nomination of Michael P. Huerta to Be Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration S. HRG. 112–700 NOMINATION OF MICHAEL P. HUERTA TO BE ADMINISTRATOR OF THE FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION HEARING BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION UNITED STATES SENATE ONE HUNDRED TWELFTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION JUNE 21, 2012 Printed for the use of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation ( U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 78–392 PDF WASHINGTON : 2013 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512–1800; DC area (202) 512–1800 Fax: (202) 512–2104 Mail: Stop IDCC, Washington, DC 20402–0001 VerDate Nov 24 2008 08:46 Jan 31, 2013 Jkt 075679 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 5011 Sfmt 5011 S:\GPO\DOCS\78392.TXT JACKIE SENATE COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION ONE HUNDRED TWELFTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER IV, West Virginia, Chairman DANIEL K. INOUYE, Hawaii KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON, Texas, Ranking JOHN F. KERRY, Massachusetts OLYMPIA J. SNOWE, Maine BARBARA BOXER, California JIM DEMINT, South Carolina BILL NELSON, Florida JOHN THUNE, South Dakota MARIA CANTWELL, Washington ROGER F. WICKER, Mississippi FRANK R. LAUTENBERG, New Jersey JOHNNY ISAKSON, Georgia MARK PRYOR, Arkansas ROY BLUNT, Missouri CLAIRE MCCASKILL, Missouri JOHN BOOZMAN, Arkansas AMY KLOBUCHAR, Minnesota PATRICK J. TOOMEY, Pennsylvania TOM UDALL, New Mexico MARCO RUBIO, Florida MARK WARNER, Virginia KELLY AYOTTE, New Hampshire MARK BEGICH, Alaska DEAN HELLER, Nevada ELLEN L. DONESKI, Staff Director JAMES REID, Deputy Staff Director JOHN WILLIAMS, General Counsel RICHARD M. RUSSELL, Republican Staff Director DAVID QUINALTY, Republican Deputy Staff Director REBECCA SEIDEL, Republican General Counsel and Chief Investigator (II) VerDate Nov 24 2008 08:46 Jan 31, 2013 Jkt 075679 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 S:\GPO\DOCS\78392.TXT JACKIE C O N T E N T S Page Hearing held on June 21, 2012 ............................................................................... 1 Statement of Senator Cantwell .............................................................................. 1 Statement of Senator Boxer .................................................................................... 2 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 3 Statement of Senator Hutchison ............................................................................ 4 Statement of Senator Rockefeller ........................................................................... 19 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 4 Statement of Senator Thune ................................................................................... 21 Statement of Senator Begich .................................................................................. 23 Statement of Senator Lautenberg .......................................................................... 25 Statement of Senator Blunt .................................................................................... 27 Statement of Senator Boozman .............................................................................. 29 Statement of Senator Klobuchar ............................................................................ 31 WITNESSES Michael P. Huerta, Nominated to be Administrator, Federal Aviation Admin- istration ................................................................................................................. 5 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 7 Biographical information ................................................................................. 8 APPENDIX Letter dated June 19, 2012 from Hans Ephraimson—Abt, Chairman, Air Crash Victims Families Group to Hon. John D. Rockefeller IV ....................... 35 Response to written questions submitted to Michael P. Huerta by: Hon. John F. Kerry .......................................................................................... 35 Hon. Barbara Boxer ......................................................................................... 36 Hon. Mark Pryor ............................................................................................... 38 Hon. Kay Bailey Hutchison ............................................................................. 39 Hon. Jim DeMint .............................................................................................. 49 Hon. John Thune .............................................................................................. 51 Hon. Pat Toomey .............................................................................................. 58 (III) VerDate Nov 24 2008 08:46 Jan 31, 2013 Jkt 075679 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 S:\GPO\DOCS\78392.TXT JACKIE VerDate Nov 24 2008 08:46 Jan 31, 2013 Jkt 075679 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 S:\GPO\DOCS\78392.TXT JACKIE NOMINATION OF MICHAEL P. HUERTA TO BE ADMINISTRATOR OF THE FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION THURSDAY, JUNE 21, 2012 U.S. SENATE, COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION, Washington, DC. The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:05 a.m. in room SR–253, Russell Senate Office Building, Hon. Maria Cantwell pre- siding. OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. MARIA CANTWELL, U.S. SENATOR FROM WASHINGTON Senator CANTWELL. The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation will come to order, and I’d like to thank our witness for being here, Mr. Huerta, who is the nominee to be the FAA Administrator and our colleague from the Committee Senator Boxer. I’m presiding at the request of the chairman of the full Committee, who is here, and I’m going to go ahead and make an opening statement. Mr. Huerta, I want to congratulate you again for your nomina- tion by the President to be the next FAA Administrator. I’m glad the President has put your name forward for two reasons: first, you earned the nomination and you’ve served capably as Deputy Ad- ministrator and as Acting Administrator for the past several months and when you came in front of this committee the first time, I recall there were many whispers about whether you had enough background in aviation. Well, you have demonstrated that that is a non-issue and you have brought a great skill set, a great mind set, to this job and we thank you for that. To me what’s most important is that once you were confronted with the challenges of running such a large and complex agency you demonstrated strong leadership and strong judgment in this job. Now, that is not to say that there aren’t problems to solve. There are several areas where we need improvement, and I do feel that overall the FAA has been making great progress under your watch. Second, it is important that the FAA have a confirmed adminis- trator as soon as possible. I know it’s a Presidential election year and I know the FAA Administrator term is for 5 years, but not having an Administrator sends the wrong message to the airline industry and to others about how important an Administrator is in this next phase of implementation of NextGen technology. (1) VerDate Nov 24 2008 08:46 Jan 31, 2013 Jkt 075679 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 S:\GPO\DOCS\78392.TXT JACKIE 2 Also, under the leadership of Chairman Rockefeller and Ranking Member Hutchison, they were instrumental in enacting an FAA authorization bill in February, and there are a number of rulemakings and other actions that are supposed to be completed within the next 6 to 9 months or even a year after this enactment. So I believe that without a confirmed Administrator that will make all of those issues more difficult and punted down the road. As a result, I expect the implementation of the FAA Moderniza- tion and Reform Act—if we don’t implement an Administrator—we will have challenges in getting that done on time. So, Mr. Huerta, if you are confirmed you are going to have a lot of challenges ahead. We had a chance to speak about some of those in my office. We spoke about aviation safety, and safety is the FAA’s top priority. It is also one of the top priorities of the Aviation Subcommittee. We spoke about the challenges of modernization of our air trans- portation system and I know you have had some firsthand experi- ences with that. We touched on the Greener Skies Initiative, a pilot program out of Seattle that demonstrates the NextGen capabilities in the near term. And we spoke of the improved sequencing process for FAA certification. So I understand the FAA has real resource constraints, but the FAA certification process should not be a bottleneck costing aero- space sales or exports or ultimately jobs. The FAA bill requires the agency to look at ways to improve the process and I know that this is under review. Finally, we spoke about the FAA in its efforts to help those of the active duty military interested in careers in aviation in mainte- nance repair and overhaul of the airframe system get the certifi- cations they need to help us and to help our industry. So I look forward to your testimony today, and again thank you for your willingness to serve. And now I’ll turn it to—— STATEMENT OF HON. BARBARA BOXER, U.S. SENATOR FROM CALIFORNIA Senator BOXER. Madam Chairman, may I ask a point—make a point of personal privilege, a request to my friends? I’m in the mid- dle of literally 24–7 negotiations on the highway bill and it’s going well, and I’m due to meet with Chairman Mica. Do you mind if I just gave one
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