Sen. Patty Murray Holds a Hearing On the Fiscal Year 2008 Budget for the Federal Aviation Administration

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Sen. Patty Murray Holds a Hearing On the Fiscal Year 2008 Budget for the Federal Aviation Administration

U.S. SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS, SUBCOMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION, HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT AND RELATED AGENCIES HOLDS A HEARING ON THE FISCAL YEAR 2008 BUDGET FOR THE FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION

MAY 10, 2007

SPEAKERS: SEN. PATTY MURRAY, D-WASH. CHAIRWOMAN SEN. ROBERT C. BYRD, D-W.VA. SEN. BARBARA A. MIKULSKI, D-MD. SEN. HERB KOHL, D-WIS. SEN. RICHARD J. DURBIN, D-ILL. SEN. BYRON L. DORGAN, D-N.D. SEN. PATRICK J. LEAHY, D-VT. SEN. TOM HARKIN, D-IOWA SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN, D-CALIF. SEN. TIM JOHNSON, D-S.D. SEN. FRANK LAUTENBERG, D-N.J.

SEN. CHRISTOPHER S. BOND, R-MO. RANKING MEMBER SEN. RICHARD C. SHELBY, R-ALA. SEN. ARLEN SPECTER, R-PA. SEN. ROBERT F. BENNETT, R-UTAH SEN. KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON, R-TEXAS SEN. SAM BROWNBACK, R-KAN. SEN. TED STEVENS, R-ALASKA SEN. PETE V. DOMENICI, R-N.M. SEN. LAMAR ALEXANDER, R-TEXAS SEN. WAYNE ALLARD, R-COLO. SEN. THAD COCHRAN, R-MISS. EX OFFICIO

WITNESSES: MARION BLAKEY, ADMINISTRATOR, FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION

CALVIN SCOVEL, INSPECTOR GENERAL, DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

[*] MURRAY: This subcommittee will come to order.

I want to welcome our witnesses this morning: FAA Administrator Marion Blakey and DOT Inspector General Calvin Scovel.

Over the next eight years, it is estimated that the number of air passengers will grow by 40 percent. That's pretty good news for our country. But it's also good news for my region because we build the best airplanes in the world and we are a gateway to our biggest trading partner in Asia.

But all those new aircraft will do little to expand our economy if we don't have a modern air traffic control system to move those planes safely and with maximum efficiency. If we fail to modernize that system and soon, it will not just be a drag on the economy of my region, it's going to be a drag on the entire global economy.

Unfortunately, we are years behind in this effort.

We are years behind because just three years ago the Bush administration and Administrator Blakey successfully advocated a cut to our annual investment in air traffic modernization funding by more than $400 million. And the program has been funded roughly at that reduced level every year since. That represents a loss of more than $1.2 billion from the baseline that we established back in 2004.

We are years behind because well over a decade ago the FAA's modernization effort got seriously derailed as the agency wasted billions of dollars in a failed effort known as the Advanced Automation System. That debacle was characterized by the FAA constantly changing its requirements and throwing good money after bad through undefined, open-ended contracts.

Today, in 2007, we are still paying to replace systems that were slated to be fixed in the '80s and '90s as part of that failed effort.

Back then, the FAA was not up to the task of rapidly and efficiently modernizing the system. I worry that the FAA may still not be up to the task today.

Just last month, Administrator Blakey gave a speech that included the following passage, and I quote, "It stings when I listen to criticisms about the FAA that are based on something that happened 10 or 20 or 30 years ago. In the last few years, we have achieved enormous management efficiencies, and at the end of FY '06, 97 percent of our major capital projects were on time and on budget."

The administrator has made similar statements before several House and Senate committees.

I don't disagree with the administrator that things have improved since the bad old days of the Advanced Automation System. But I do have to question whether it's appropriate or accurate to claim that the overwhelming majority of FAA's capital projects are progressing along just fine.

Part of my goal for this morning's hearing is to scratch under the surface of that claim.

From my perspective, we still see too many examples where the FAA has signed contracts with underdefined requirements, encountered sizable cost overruns that get handed right back to taxpayers, purchased equipment that could not provide all the functions promised, and failed to produce all the operating savings that have been promised.

Now, I'm not talking today about examples from 10 or 20 or 30 years ago. I'm talking about examples in the last five years.

I'm talking about programs that we are paying for right now. And I'm talking about programs for which the administrator is seeking more money in 2008.

So how can we have all those procurement delays and cost overruns but have the FAA claiming ...

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