The Senate voted today to confirm the nomination of Bryan Bedford to head the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), despite the pick being a controversial one among Senate Democrats.
Bedford’s nomination was confirmed on a vote of 53 – 43 largely along party lines.
The new FAA administrator enters the role after pledging he’s ready to undertake mass modernization efforts at the FAA, buoyed by $12.5 billion of funding that was approved by Congress last week for the agency.
That funding has been referred to as a “down payment” toward modernization by Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. The FAA-focused efforts will include replacing legacy air traffic control systems and Notice to Air Missions systems, which have been responsible for nation-wide airport delays and other issues in recent years.
Bedford, who has been CEO at regional airline Republic Airways, is a controversial pick among Democrats who have said that his ties for industry may lead to favoritism, and for his unwillingness to commit to not lowering the current 1,500 training hour threshold required for airline co-pilots.
When testifying in front of lawmakers last month, Bedford said he would overhaul FAA’s current leadership and safety culture, and laid blame for multiple technical failures and recent deadly incidents on “half measures.”
Bedford also pledged he wouldn’t consider privatizing the FAA right now and said that “industry hijacked” the dialogue surrounding improving system safety and slowed modernization progress. Instead, he vowed to lead a “massive upgrading” of air traffic control systems.