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Letter: Bill streamlines hiring of controllers

By Richard Kennington, Vancouver
Published: June 13, 2016, 6:00am

The National Air Traffic Controllers Association appreciates Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler’s, R-Camas, recent support of House Resolution 5292, the Air Traffic Controller Hiring Improvement Act of 2016.

This bipartisan legislation would help ease the current staffing crisis within the Federal Aviation Administration, which is currently at a 27-year low for certified professional controllers. In fact, there are more controllers eligible to retire today than there are personnel in the pipeline to replace them.

As an air traffic controller, I know the controllers who remain will not allow safety to be compromised, but in order to accomplish this, capacity will be affected. This could result in a dramatic increase in flight delays. These delays would affect more than just those who fly regularly, because civil aviation contributes $1.5 trillion to the nation’s economy.

This bill cuts through the bureaucracy and red tape of government to streamline the hiring of military veterans, graduates of Collegiate Air Traffic Programs, and experienced controllers in order to reverse the troubling downward trend of the FAA’s air traffic controller staffing.

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