Bryan Bedford, President Trump’s pick to lead the Federal Aviation Administration, refused on Wednesday to commit to holding all commercial pilots to the same federal training requirements, unnerving Democrats as he outlined his vision to modernize the air travel safety agency at a critical moment.
The issue emerged as a flashpoint during Mr. Bedford’s confirmation hearing before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, which centered mostly on issues of safety. Mr. Bedford, a longtime airline executive, is expected to receive enough support to be confirmed.
Nevertheless, he is auditioning to run the F.A.A. as the agency tries to address several issues, including an air traffic controller staffing shortage and outdated technology that has caused significant outages and delays, that critics have said make flying riskier.
“I’m a big supporter of structured training as opposed to pure time building,” he told senators of the current federal training requirements, later adding that: “I don’t believe safety is static.”
Mr. Bedford has been a longtime critic of the federal requirement that commercial pilots complete 1,500 flight hours of training, a standard he called “arbitrary” in congressional testimony in 2014.
In 2022, as the leader of Republic Airways, he petitioned the F.A.A. to allow graduates of Republic’s flight school to be certified after completing only 750 hours of training, the same number required of military pilots seeking to pilot commercial aircraft. The petition was denied.
As F.A.A. administrator, Mr. Bedford would have some discretion to grant such waivers to other pilots, and potentially even to graduates of Republic’s school, if they reapply for a waiver, after a mandatory two-year recusal period with which he has agreed to comply.
On Wednesday, he declined to pledge he would not dole out such waivers until the F.A.A. could fully staff air traffic control towers, rankling Democrats. They warned that chipping away at pilot safety standards before other safeguards were in place could lead to more midair accidents like the fatal collision between a commercial jet and a military helicopter near Ronald Reagan National Airport on Jan. 29.
“Now is not the time for less cockpit time for the pilots,” Senator Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, the top Democrat on the panel’s aviation subcommittee, said while questioning Mr. Bedford, adding: “In incident after incident it has been the pilots — the pilots — who made a last-second decision to avert disaster.”
Fears about air travel safety came to a head this year after the crash near Reagan Airport. The ensuing crisis of confidence in air travel has inspired sweeping debate over how to balance the oftentimes competing demands of speed and safety as officials rush to fix the F.A.A.’s longstanding problems.
While Mr. Bedford’s stance on pilot training is expected to cost him support among Democrats, the panel’s top Republican backed his position.
“Fifteen hundred hours of mindless banner towing is no way to train a commercial pilot,” Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, the panel’s chairman, said during the hearing.
Mr. Bedford repeatedly emphasized that his top priority as administrator would be improving the air traffic control system. He pledged to accelerate the hiring of controllers and roll out more advanced technology, much of which he argued was already commercially available.
“There’s stuff that’s on the market today, made by American manufacturers, that they’re selling abroad,” he argued, adding later: “The tools that we are giving our work force are unacceptable.”
As part of that, Mr. Bedford endorsed the expansion of tracking technologies that would allow airplanes — including military aircraft — to be more visible to air traffic controllers, noting that the military helicopter that crashed into an American Airlines plane near National Airport had turned off its tracking device.
Mr. Bedford spoke favorably of the Essential Air Service, a federal program that subsidizes air travel to rural and underserved areas, despite a Trump administration proposal to slash its budget by about half. He also noted that he would support an influx of federal funds to upgrade aging air traffic control towers, saying that though the $12.5 billion Congress had already authorized was “a great start,” that “it’s going to take a lot more than that.”
But he was cautious about running afoul of other initiatives Mr. Trump has championed.
After recounting an anecdote about how Republic’s flight school, had trained a woman of color to become an airline captain, Mr. Bedford deflected questions about whether he agreed with Mr. Trump’s claim that diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives were at fault in the crash at National Airport. The claim has been roundly criticized.
“I don’t have any earthly idea,” Mr. Bedford said.
He also sidestepped queries about whether a proposed auction of federal spectrum, the portion of the spectrum used for wireless communications that belongs to the government, to private operators might negatively affect aviation safety. Last week, Mr. Trump endorsed a plan from congressional Republicans to authorize such an auction.
“I’m not informed enough to formulate an opinion,” Mr. Bedford said, despite Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington, the panel’s top Democrat, insisting that Mr. Bedford had previously told her that the proposed auction would be “a big problem.”
“We had significant challenges with the last spectrum,” Mr. Bedford replied, adding: “I said for the record we should learn those lessons of the past and act more collaboratively.”
Several airline companies and trade associations, as well as the air traffic controllers’ union, have backed Mr. Bedford’s candidacy. But a union representing airline pilots has raised concerns, pointing to his stance on training.
On Wednesday, family members of recent plane crash victims who attended the hearing also offered mixed critiques of Mr. Bedford’s stance on lowering pilot training standards.
“If we get the very best training, there may be room for that,” said Tim Lilley, whose son, Sam Lilley, was one of the pilots for the flight that was hit by an Army Blackhawk helicopter on Jan. 29. The elder Mr. Lilley previously flew Blackhawk helicopters for the Army for 20 years.
“His additional training, we were all for, but make that in addition to the 1,500 hours,” said Ron Aughtmon, who lost his uncle, John Fiore, in the 2009 crash of Colgan Air Flight 3407, which prompted Congress to order the 1,500-hour rule be put in place. “There shouldn’t be a reduction. It works.”
In ethics disclosures, Mr. Bedford promised to resign from his current positions running or serving on the boards of various airlines, noting that he expected to receive a lump-sum severance payment and outstanding bonuses from Republic upon leaving his position should he be confirmed as the next F.A.A. leader.
He also committed to serving a full five-year term to ensure that the agency had stable leadership as it tried to accelerated fixes. The F.A.A. has had five leaders in the last four years.
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