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Officials uncover anterior outages astatine Newark
The Federal Aviation Administration has resorted to buying replacement parts connected eBay and making caller parts with 3D printers, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told lawmakers Thursday — arsenic the aerial information strategy draws scrutiny for decades-old exertion and persistent staffing problems.
"We bash effort to bargain replacement parts connected eBay for this truly aged equipment," Duffy told members of a Senate Appropriations subcommittee Thursday. "Sometimes, we can't adjacent bargain it connected E-Bay, truthful we're trying to usage 3D printing to trade replacement parts for the strategy that we use."
Duffy made akin comments connected "Meet The Press" past weekend, saying the FAA has turned to eBay due to the fact that "we can't bargain parts for new" for immoderate of the agency's aging systems.
Duffy appeared astatine the Senate proceeding arsenic the Trump administration pushes for a sweeping overhaul of the country's aerial postulation power strategy implicit the adjacent 3 years, calling for the replacement of hundreds of radars, implicit a twelve caller power towers and a caller telecommunications system. The program could outgo "lots of billions," Duffy said past week, apt requiring Congress to due further funds for the FAA.
Air information has entered the fore aft a bid of jarring incidents. Dozens of radical were killed successful a January collision betwixt a commercialized pitchy and a subject chopper adjacent Reagan Washington National Airport. And successful caller weeks, the FAA installation that handles the airspace adjacent Newark Liberty International Airport has been plagued by staffing shortages and instrumentality outages, starring to terrible delays astatine the engaged airport.
"We are facing a crisis," said Sen. Susan Collins, a Maine Republican who chairs the appropriations panel.
Duffy told lawmakers Thursday aerial question successful the U.S. is inactive safe, citing "multiple redundancies" — but helium acknowledged the aerial postulation power strategy needs an overhaul.
"The strategy we presently use, it genuinely is 25, 35, 40 years aged successful immoderate places. We should've paid mode much attraction to it arsenic a country," Duffy said Thursday. "We've fto it age, and present we're seeing the cracks of that property play retired successful existent clip for us."
Duffy besides pushed backmost connected disapproval that occupation cuts astatine the FAA could extremity up impacting safety. The bureau laid disconnected several 100 probationary staff earlier this year, amid a wider effort by the Trump medication to shrink the national workforce. A national representing immoderate FAA workers told the Associated Press successful February the cuts affected mechanics and different specialists who assistance enactment the enactment of aerial postulation controllers and information inspectors.
"You tin person each your aerial postulation controllers there, but if they don't person the enactment staff, we can't cognize that they're doing the job," said Sen. Patty Murray, a Washington Democrat.
Murray besides cited reports that aerial postulation controllers were mistakenly sent an email earlier this twelvemonth offering them buyouts to permission their jobs, which she said was "really callous."
Duffy said the bureau has not chopped immoderate aerial postulation controllers, and the layoffs and voluntary buyouts that deed the national workforce earlier this twelvemonth excluded information positions. "We've been hiring aerial postulation controllers arsenic rapidly arsenic we can," Duffy told lawmakers.
Joe Walsh is simply a elder exertion for integer authorities astatine CBS News. Joe antecedently covered breaking quality for Forbes and section quality successful Boston.
Kathryn Krupnik contributed to this report.
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