Improve ATC

09/19/2026

Washington Examiner Reporter Anna Giaritelli takes us inside the on...

09/18/2026

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09/17/2026

09/16/2026

09/16/2026

Federal Aviation Administration: Bryan Bedford;
Sit with controllers, talk to CPCs and trainees, and ask about their schedules. Listen to their concerns about modern pay, morale, retention, staffing, longevity, and living distance from the facility.

You should be speaking with at least several controllers a week. Be as excited about improving their lives as you are about improving software.

09/16/2026

Key points from the September 15 hearing:

• Chairman Steve Womack (R-AR), ranking Democrat James Clyburn (D-SC), Mike Quigley (D-IL), Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ), and Stephanie Bice (R-OK) all challenged Bedford’s reasoning.
• Clyburn questioned whether Congress authorized Bedford to use the raise to “squeeze more work” from an already overworked workforce.
• Quigley told Bedford, “You seem to be putting a condition on something that we passed.”
• Womack exposed the contradiction in Bedford’s argument: If controllers’ time on position is supposedly declining, why is overtime increasing?
• Watson Coleman described Bedford’s position as a “Catch-22”: controllers are understaffed and working six-day weeks, yet Bedford is blaming them for not being sufficiently productive.
• Bedford still provided no date, objective benchmark, or specific conditions for releasing the 2.8%.
• When challenged about morale, Bedford dismissed lawmakers’ information as “anecdotal” and said his data showed something different.
• The FAA’s own workforce-plan chart reportedly contradicts Bedford’s five-hour comparison: time on position averaged about 4.25 hours in 2011 and four hours in 2025—not the dramatic decline his testimony suggested.
• Quigley closed with perhaps the strongest line: “Show them the full 3.8% to show the respect of what we need them for.”

The biggest takeaway is that Bedford’s dispute is no longer merely with controllers or NATCA. Members of Congress are now questioning whether he is using discretion in a way Congress never intended—and whether he is effectively holding congressionally funded compensation hostage to an undefined productivity demand.

Bedford demands precise performance measurements from controllers, but when Congress asks him for a date, standard, or measurable condition for releasing the raise, he cannot provide one.

09/15/2026

House appropriators rebuked FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford for not issuing a 2.8% pay increase to the nation's air traffic controllers.

09/15/2026

When you relocate someone to a new city where they cannot afford housing or maintain a reasonable quality of life, staffing problems should come as no surprise.

Now add an extraordinarily difficult job, inadequate pay, and the loss of family and community support.

Why would anyone go?

You cannot solve air traffic controller staffing without addressing where controllers are sent, what it costs to live there, and whether their compensation allows them to build a life.

09/15/2026

Watching Administrator Bedford’s testimony today, one thing became very clear to me.

When he talks about software, modernization, and new technology, he becomes visibly energized. He leans in. He seems genuinely excited about the possibilities.

But when the conversation turns to air traffic controllers, his demeanor changes noticeably.

That contrast is difficult to ignore.

The FAA can collect all the data it wants about software, staffing models, schedules, productivity, and infrastructure. But there is another source of data that Bedford appears to be missing: the people actually operating the National Airspace System every day.

Air traffic controllers are not a problem to be managed around. They are one of the FAA’s most valuable and most limited resources.

If Administrator Bedford truly wants to understand what is happening inside this workforce, he needs to go to facilities. Sit with controllers. Talk to CPCs and trainees. See the schedules they are working. Listen to what they say about fatigue, morale, retention, staffing, and longevity.

Not through another report. Not through another metric. Directly.

You cannot successfully modernize the National Airspace System while failing to understand the people who keep it running.

Before you can assess, advocate, or act, you first have to ask and listen.