Senate Weighs New FAA Safety Provisions

From the Wall Street Journal
The Senate is considering a proposal to mandate a two-year cooling-off period for inspectors who leave the Federal Aviation Administration to work for the airlines as part of a broader bill that authorizes funding for the agency. Details of the bill were released by Senate committees Tuesday. The bill authorizes funding for the FAA, including long-sought upgrades to air-traffic-control facilities, for four years. The Senate may complete work on the bill by the end of this week. The proposal that former FAA inspectors be prevented from representing an airline in contacts with the FAA for two years is part of an effort to prevent the kind of oversight lapses that occurred at Southwest Airlines Co. The bill also incorporates a recommendation from the Department of Transportation's inspector general to improve the FAA's regime that allows airlines to voluntarily disclose violations in exchange for more leniency. Under the bill, such disclosures would have to be approved by more than one FAA inspector. The FAA safety provisions were added in the wake of a congressional investigation into lapses at the FAA's office that oversees Southwest Airlines, which led to a record $10 million fine on the airline. A nationwide audit launched by the FAA after the Southwest incident revealed further safety gaps throughout the system.
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