{"id":714,"date":"2019-02-12T22:34:47","date_gmt":"2019-02-12T22:34:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mainsite.maxesio.com\/?p=714"},"modified":"2019-02-12T22:34:47","modified_gmt":"2019-02-12T22:34:47","slug":"pass-president-warns-that-government-shutdown-gambles-with-aviation-safety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mainsite.maxesio.com\/?p=714","title":{"rendered":"PASS President Warns That Government Shutdown Gambles With Aviation Safety"},"content":{"rendered":"

For every day the federal government is shut down and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) employees are impacted, the nation\u2019s aviation system is gambling with aviation safety, Professional Aviation Safety Specialists National President Mike Perrone told Congress today. And while 4,000 aviation safety inspectors were furloughed at the onset of the partial government shutdown, he said, \u201cA critical layer of safety was missing, and this is unacceptable.\u201d (<\/strong>Watch President’s Perrone’s opening statement<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Perrone testified in front of the Aviation Subcommittee<\/span><\/a> of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee at a hearing entitled \u201cPutting U.S. Aviation Safety at Risk: The Impact of the Shutdown.\u201d The hearing was called to examine how the recent 35-day partial shutdown of the federal government impacted FAA functions and operations, as well as the U.S. aviation industry and workforce.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Of the 11,000 safety critical FAA employees PASS represents, the majority of aviation safety inspectors were furloughed and not performing important oversight duties. And the FAA\u2019s technician workforce was on the job, without pay, but as the shutdown dragged on and bills piled up, these dedicated men and women became increasingly stressed, anxious and distracted. \u201cFAA employees need to be focused on their critical duties,\u201d Perrone told the panel. \u201cNot on whether they can pay their bills or if they need to work a second job.<\/p>\n

\u201cDedicated federal employees, many of them lifelong public servants and military veterans, became collateral damage in a dispute unrelated to aviation safety.\u201d<\/p>\n

With each passing day of the shutdown, \u201cA layer of safety was stripped away and the system became exposed to more risk. For example, the FAA was not overseeing foreign repair stations [increasingly used by U.S. airlines] for 35 days and the world knew it. This is not an acceptable standard,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In discussing the human impact of the shutdown, Perrone shared the story of one PASS member in Louisiana, a military veteran and single mother of three, putting two of those children through college. She was furloughed. For 35 days, she had no income and the stress and psychological effect on her family were palpable. \u201cShe deserves better than that,\u201d he said. \u201cAll federal employees deserve better than that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perrone emphasized that \u201cevery day the government is shut down our country is gambling with aviation safety. We can\u2019t subject the flying public to unnecessary risk due to political disagreements.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read the full testimony<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For every day the federal government is shut down and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) employees are impacted, the nation\u2019s aviation system is gambling with aviation safety, Professional Aviation Safety Specialists National President Mike Perrone told Congress today. And while 4,000 aviation safety inspectors were furloughed at the onset of the partial government shutdown, he said, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainsite.maxesio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainsite.maxesio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainsite.maxesio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainsite.maxesio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainsite.maxesio.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mainsite.maxesio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainsite.maxesio.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainsite.maxesio.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainsite.maxesio.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}