All of this comes after recent upheaval in the aviation world. FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) administrator Michael Whitaker resigned on the day of Trump’s inauguration — following a years-long back and forth with Elon Musk that included safety violation fines for SpaceX and Elon calling for Michael’s resignation on X (formerly Twitter). Trump also fired the head of the Transportation Security Administration and disbanded the Aviation Security Advisory Committee.
On top of that, several Democrats protested the Trump administration’s Jan. 20 federal hiring freeze. The Jan. 22 joint statement from House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure ranking member Rick Larsen and Subcommittee on Aviation ranking member Steve Cohen said that “hiring air traffic controllers is the number one safety issue according to the entire aviation industry” and asked the Trump administration to “allow the FAA to do its job protecting the flying public.”