It’s time to pass the Shuster FAA plan

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) does an exceptional job regulating aviation safety. It does an exceptionally poor job managing complex technical projects. That should come as no surprise, as these complex challenges require fundamentally different skill sets. Unfortunately, both challenges must be met for the U.S. to maintain its lead in global aviation, and this is why Congress should embrace changes, proposed by Bill Shuster, that would establish a federally chartered, not-for-profit corporation to manage air traffic control—the technological core of our National Airspace System (NAS). 

The FAA has spent four decades and tens of billions of dollars attempting to modernize our ATC system to ensure it capitalizes on innovations that would make flying safer and more efficient for everyone.

{mosads}Despite the time and effort, most of our ATC system’s technology and many of its processes remain cumbersome, antiquated and fragile. A system that handles 40,000 flights every day is too critical to be undone by poor system design and a general lack of resiliency such as the issue that snarled East Coast airspace last week when a key facility in Leesburg, Va., was evacuated. This is, after all, the 21st century.  

At no time has the need for a new and modernized system of air space management been so important. Innovations in aerospace design and technologies permit increasing autonomy, and other nations are at the forefront of experimenting with drone technology and autonomous flight in ways that hold the promise to redefine how we move people and goods. We are seeing advances in commercial space flight; this emerging field is dependent upon an agile and effective system of air space management that will accommodate changing schedules and increasing levels of traffic. America currently enjoys a leadership position in aerospace development, but this position is at risk until we effectively modernize our ATC system. 

Modernizing ATC doesn’t mean simply “paving the cowpath” by automating processes and procedures that have their roots in the 1940s, as previous efforts sought to do. Instead, we must fundamentally rethink and re-design processes and systems that emphasize safety, security, agility and resiliency, and take full advantage of innovations in avionics, sensors, communications, computing and advanced capabilities in position, navigation and timing. 

The undertaking will be complex. We often point to other nations that have successfully established independent organizations to manage their air traffic systems. While these are useful models, make no mistake, our NAS is the most crowded and complex of its kind. This is why we must act now. Our ATC system must be redesigned to leverage innovation to improve the system’s resiliency, agility and safety, increase capacity and better serve both the industry and the public.

Some are concerned about lawmakers playing a diminished oversight role when it comes to managing the system. Yet despite well-intentioned efforts on all sides, the existing oversight model and FAA’s management of this vital national resource has failed to produce a modern, resilient and efficient system of airspace management. 

If America is to maintain its position as the global leader in aviation, we must ensure we have the mechanisms in place to meet this challenge. The Shuster proposal to create a federally chartered, not-for-profit corporation is key to ensuring the U.S. ATC system will continue to be the safest and become the most technologically advanced in the world—as it should be.

Paul Brubaker is president and CEO of the Alliance for Transportation Innovation (ATI21). Previously, he served as the Department of Transportation administrator of its Research and Innovative Technology Administration as well as Deputy Assistant Secretary and Deputy Chief Information Officer for the Department of Defense.

The views expressed by this author are their own and are not the views of The Hill.