White House Press Release - President Donald Trump Wants the Highest Standards in Air Traffic Control

President Donald Trump has repeatedly taken action to ensure that only the best are working as air traffic controllers.

It's necessary to ensure that we have the highest standards with stakes as high as air travel. The New York Times found that in Fiscal Year 2023, "there were 503 air traffic control lapses that the F.A.A. preliminarily categorized as 'significant.'"

The previous administration did not prioritize raising standards among FAA employees. Instead, Fox News reported that the Biden FAA was "actively recruiting workers who suffer 'severe intellectual' disabilities, psychiatric problems and other mental and physical conditions under a diversity and inclusion hiring initiative."

President Trump put an end to that last week when he signed a presidential memorandum ordering "the Secretary of Transportation and FAA Administrator to immediately stop Biden DEI hiring programs and return to non-discriminatory, merit-based hiring."

This is not the first time President Trump has taken decisive action to ensure merit-based hiring for air traffic controllers.

During the Obama administration, the FAA changed the hiring process for air traffic controllers. A new test meant that "applicants with a lower aptitude in science got preference over applicants who had scored excellent in science. Applicants who had been unemployed for the previous three years got more points than licensed pilots got. In other words, the FAA actively searched for unqualified air traffic controllers." The FAA was aware that the test had "nothing to do with finding the best air traffic controllers," but used it anyway.

Fox Business investigated the FAA hiring practices and "uncovered changes that may put the nation's flying public at risk."

In 2018, the Department of Transportation under President Trump's leadership announced it would put an end to the use of the "biographical questionnaire" introduced by the Obama administration.

As President Trump said Thursday, "For an air traffic controller, we want the brightest, the smartest, the sharpest ... and that's what we're going to have."