Senator Ted Budd (R-NC) is a gentleman and a gentleman. But, he embarrassed one of Democrat Joe Biden’s candidates by calmly posing direct questions about the agency’s basis that the president wants the nominee to lead. Seeing the argument on the floor of Congress demonstrates once again how unserious Vice President Biden and his administration are about the vital job that must be done for the American people.

Budd was not the only one concerned about Biden’s selection.

Wednesday, Republican senators questioned Denver International Airport director Phil Washington on his qualifications and history during what some media outlets termed a “combative confirmation hearing” on his candidacy to lead the Federal Aviation Agency.

Several individuals viewed the candidate as unqualified to lead the agency charged for ensuring the safety of aviation travelers in the United States.

The news of the nominee’s incompetence arrives at the same time as aviation authorities are preparing to convene an emergency safety conference in response to a spate of “near misses” between planes and orders from the nation’s top command to evaluate the aviation system.

Philip Lebeau reported for CNBC News on the circumstances of the emergency meeting, stating:

“Compared to two or three years ago, the number of flights has grown substantially, and as a result, the system has hired numerous additional employees. Whether or not Pilots. There have been a number of somewhat high-profile runway incursions or near misses, which is why the FAA is hosting a safety summit the next week.

Representatives from airlines and airports, regulators, and pilots’ unions will be present, and they will focus on the following: Runway incursions, essentially, occur when two or more commercial aircraft come dangerously near to colliding or actually collide.

“In some cases or near-miss incidents were most notable happened in Austin,” he said, showing an animation that was put together by the office of Senator Ted Cruz, describing the footage:

“Again, this is animation. This is not the actual incident that took place, but this gives you a sense of what was likely to happen if the pilot of the FedEx, which is the airline airplane in the air there in this animation when came out of very foggy conditions and saw that they would have been landing on top of the Southwest aircraft.

They immediately pulled up while the Southwest plane hit the brakes. So that’s an example of the type of near-miss that investigators and those in the industry are saying, look, we’ve got to figure out what is happening.”

The reporter went on, adding:

“That’s why FAA acting administrator Billy Nolan has said, let’s have a summit. Let’s get everybody at the table. We’ll talk about what the issues are, and we’ll talk about some possible solutions.

Though we know this industry does not move quickly regarding solutions, as you look at the airline index, remember that the number of us commercial airplane departures is approaching 2019 levels, but we’re not there yet.

We still have an industry that is up-gauging using larger aircraft, but we do not see more departures. It’s close, but we’re not there yet. What we are seeing is an increase in the number of people who are flying because of the demand that is out there. Looking at the significant Airline stocks, more people are flying now than pre-pandemic. Not by a lot, but a little bit more again; that’s because you have larger aircraft, and the airlines as much as they can are adding to their schedules because they want to take advantage of the number of people who want to fly.”

Hence, as air travel increases, so do the hazards associated with flying.

Cruz criticized Washington, the nominee of Biden:

“God forbid, sometime in the next two years, we see a horrific airline crash. You sure don’t want to be the Democrat senator that voted to confirm a guy to the FAA that knows nothing about airline safety.”

One sure wouldn’t want to be a Democrat Senator that would vote to confirm a guy to the FAA that knows NOTHING about airline safety. pic.twitter.com/YLd5I8wZSp

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) March 5, 2023

More on this story via The Republic Brief:

Some media may have found it combative as an excuse to help cover up the fact that Washington couldn’t answer easy questions. CONTINUE READING…