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Many of the aforesaid Democrats slamming the Trump medication for respective ongoing proscription issues were soundless arsenic the Biden administration oversaw an understaffed, outdated Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that resulted successful unsafe question conditions crossed the country.
Democrats similar House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., person accused the Trump medication of "breaking the national government" and having "decimated the FAA." Jeffries blamed the Trump medication for a spate of cancellations astatine Newark Airport this week.
However, a month-over-month examination of aerial accidents nether the Biden medication and the archetypal fewer months of the Trump administration shows a importantly little fig of accidents successful March and April. Throughout erstwhile President Joe Biden’s 4 years successful office, determination were an mean of 115 aerial accidents successful April. Under Trump, determination were conscionable 67 aerial accidents successful the period of April.
A study issued by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) successful March shows that the Trump medication inherited an outdated strategy from Biden with "severe shortcomings."
Several important issues astatine the FAA day backmost to the Biden administration. (Getty)
After Trump’s instrumentality to the White House, GAO advised the medication that it had made 9 recommendations to the FAA nether the Biden medication that stay open, and that "urgent attention" is needed to remedy the information issues near by Biden.
GAO said that nether the Biden medication the FAA "did not prioritize oregon found near-term plans to modernize unsustainable and captious systems."
Other authorities reports revealed that the Biden FAA was further hindered by terrible staffing issues.
A June 2023 study by the Office of the Inspector General of the Transportation Department revealed that the FAA "made constricted efforts to guarantee capable controller staffing astatine captious aerial postulation power facilities."
AMERICANS DESERVE TO HAVE A 'STATE-OF-THE-ART' AIR TRAVEL SYSTEM: SEAN DUFFY
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy during an enforcement bid signing successful the Oval Office of the White House connected Feb. 14, 2025. (Getty Images)
The study said that "as a result, FAA continues to look staffing challenges and lacks a program to code them, which successful crook poses a hazard to the continuity of aerial postulation operations."
The bureau said it had determined that 20 of 26 (77%) captious facilities were staffed beneath the FAA’s 85% threshold. Even large facilities similar the New York Terminal Radar Approach Control and the Miami Tower were staffed good beneath the threshold astatine conscionable 54% and 66%, respectively.
Another study by the bureau released aboriginal that twelvemonth said the FAA’s "lengthy hiring process and COVID-19 restrictions" slowed the agency’s onboarding and grooming activities, resulting successful fewer caller hires having completed their grooming and obtained certification.
The issues had real-world consequences. Politico reported that during January and February 2023, "commercial jets experienced adjacent calls with different craft astatine a faster gait than they had during each of the erstwhile 5 years combined."
On Jan. 11, 2023, the FAA had to contented a nationwide crushed halt owed to a strategy outage of the aging aerial postulation power system. The intermission was described arsenic the archetypal of its benignant since 9/11.
The GAO’s 2025 study said the 2023 nationalist airspace prompted an operational hazard assessment, which recovered that of the 138 aerial postulation power systems, "51 (37%) were deemed unsustainable by FAA and 54 (39%) were perchance unsustainable."
Passengers locomotion past a formation presumption committee astatine Orlando International Airport, Jan. 11, 2023, aft the FAA grounded each U.S. flights earlier successful the day. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
In 2024, the GAO found that astir 40% of FAA power systems were inactive severely antiquated, requiring "urgent updates."
"This is not a caller problem," Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told Fox News Digital successful a statement. "We’ve known this occupation has existed. There person been aggregate GAO reports implicit the past 4 years saying you person existent problems with Air Traffic Control and you should bash thing with it earlier it really fails. The past Administration spent $1.2 trillion. The largest infrastructure bundle known to man. Joe Biden signed this astatine this White House, and however overmuch was spent to rebuild Air Traffic Control? $5 billion. And of the $5 cardinal that was given, lone $1 cardinal was really spent."
"The Biden Administration had made nary investments successful the strategy that we present spot having issues successful Newark. On apical of that, they were focused connected things similar renaming racists roads and changing cockpit to formation deck. This Administration has travel successful and started looking astatine the Air Traffic Control strategy aft the DCA crash. Very rapidly I saw 1 portion of the pastry wherever determination were issues and past scratched further and determination is different portion of the pie. As we looked astatine it, we spot that the full strategy needs to beryllium redone and we request to physique a brand-new aerial postulation power system."
President Joe Biden speaks from the South Court Auditorium of the White House, April 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
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In a Tuesday thread connected X, GOP Sen. Mike Lee called retired the FAA's past practices and called retired the agency's "woke" approach.
"I started calling retired the FAA’s hiring practices astatine Air Traffic Control an full decennary ago, pointing retired that they were drifting from their longstanding signifier of hiring radical with a coagulated mathematics and subject inheritance and / oregon acquisition successful aviation — recognizing that specified radical execute amended successful these important positions," Lee said.
"But the ATC’s hiring decisions nether Obama and aboriginal Biden prioritized fundamentally everything other successful favour of woke hiring practices," helium continued.
Fox News Digital reached retired to the offices of Biden and Jeffries for comment.
Peter Pinedo is simply a authorities writer for Fox News Digital.
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