pro-palestinian protest at george washingto university. the protest of the involved anti-semitism and unlful acvity. we will hear testimony from d.c. mayor myrtle bowser as wl as metropolitan police chief kamal smith. watch live at one p.m. eastern on c-span3, c-span now or free mobile video app or online at c-span.org. >> since 1979 in partnership with the cable industry c-span has provides complete coverage of the halls of congress from the house and senate floors to congressional hearings, artie briefings and committee meetings. c-span gives you a front row seat to have issues are debated and decided with no commentary, no interruptions, and completely unfiltered. c-span cost , your info vief government.

>> -- unfiltered view -- >> joint us to talk about congress and oversight of the airline industry is david shepardson. welcome to the program. >> guest: thanks. >> host: we're up against a friday deadline for reauthorization of the faa. what does it mean? why does immediately reauthorize and why is it separate from everything else? >> guest: so congress basically establishes procedure to reapproved agencies every few years to give them a chance to really take a deep dive into that policy. in the case of the faa it's about safety, consumer issues, air traffic control. so all the functions of the faa and over the past year both the house and senate are working pretty hard to get this done. this past weekend it was not reauthorize the faa would lose the ability to conduct some operations can collect ticket bad thing ife a the agency was not reauthorize. already been really reauthorize several times over the past year as congress has been working to up the five-year

reauthorization, where does the legislation stabenow? stand out was how far alongr have gotten? >> guest: the house passed a bill overwhelmingly last year. the senate got by definition over a pilotot can the so-called four corners, the cheers of the house and senate committees ande the ranking members of the parties, reached about is agreement about a week ago. that bill is expected to be largely what gets approved byato both houses but the still not a debate over some last-minute amendments as well as extraneous bells that members would like to attest to that are popular. th t? guest: right, it's election year and there's not a lot of so-called trains leaving the station so they want to attach a bill that's been languishing. host: speaking of airline safety, remind us of why this has become a big deal them with those issues were that have come

up. guest: the one issue people have most recently thought about is the boeing 737 max 9 midair emergency in january when a door plug which is a piece of the fuselage that is attached to the plane and it blew out of it this last airplane. it was an alaska airlines planet caused a lot of concern about the faa oversight of boeing as well as boeings quality and manufacturing processes. there has been a number of near miss -- near collisions on airport runways, most notably about a year ago in austin, texas where the southwest plane and a fedex plane came about 100 feet from one another from colliding into each other. the third issue was an outage of the system which is a notice to air missions, its messages pilots get to make sure they know what's going on. a year ago in january, that

system shut down and it required the united states to ground all commercial departures for the first time since 9/11 for about two hours. there's been a number of safety issues as well as the shortage of air traffic controllers. host: let's go back to the near misses on the runway, what causes that? is it air traffic control is not paying attention guest:? there is a number of factors in the case of the southwest incident. it's most likely the fault of an air traffic controller made a mistake and allow the southwest plane to depart and go down the runway. in that case, the ntsb will have a hearing about that soon, you had two planes basically going over one another. had the southwest plane taking off in the fedex plane about to land. the copilot saw a single light in the fog and as a result aborted the landing. basically averted of massive

tragedy. host: speaking of boeing, this is on the front page of the business and finance section of the wall street journal -- what's going on at boeing right now? guest: after that january incident involving alaska airlines and potentially the most troubling part was when the door plug was removed, it was missing for keep bolts in blew out. there were no records at boeing of the removal of the door plug and the removal of those bolts so that raised serious questions about boeings quality and manufacturing processes.

as a result, the faa band boeing from increasing production of the 737 max. in this instance since then, boeing has encouraged employees to report any problems. an employee basically noticed another employee not following procedures and boeing investigated and found out one of these required tests for the 787 dreamliner was not being done. the records were being falsified that the test had been completed. boeing instead of taking swift action, called it misconduct and the faa said they were investigating so it questions about other tests. what assurances does the public have that the required tests are being done? host: let's take a look at a portion of ted cruz, the top republican on the senate commerce committee about safety provisions from the faa bill. [video clip] >> i'm proud to say that our

bill includes numerous crucial safety provisions such as requiring 25 hour cockpit voice recorder's in all commercial aircraft. this safety upgrade will allow the national transportation safety board and the faa to have access to vital information needed during accident investigations. this became abundantly clear after the cockpit voice recorder in the alaska airlines flight was lost because of an out dated two hour requirement. that's unacceptable and it should never happen again. with this bill, it will not happen again. in response to recent runway surface incidents, this bill establishes a zero-tolerance runway safety policy. it prioritizes projects that improve surface surveillance and establishes a runway safety council and it requires a timeline and an action plan to

actually get better runway and turmeric incursion technology installed at airports that need them. air traffic controller shortages have plagued airports across the country. that includes in my home state of texas. it puts traveler safety at risk. this legislation aims to relieve the strain on air traffic control by directing the faa to hire the maximum number of air traffic controllers. hopefully, aiding the many facilities that are been understaffed for far too long. host: there is a lot there. what stood out in that list? guest: on air traffic controllers, senator cruz is right, we are about 3000 lower than targets, 10% fewer controllers than 2012 and despite the fact the faa is hiring a lot, 1500 this year, it's not enough to increase the

number insignificant terms. it's catching up with attrition and controllers in many places are working six-day weeks in 10 hour workdays. controllers are really overstressed. host: why is there a shortage? guest: this is a long-running problem where the faa or multiple administrations did not do enough to catch up and there was a dispute over the proper number of staffing at certain facilities. this problem really has festered for years. as a result, the controllers are working to me hours the faa wants to set mandatory rest times and there are a lot of these near misses that are a result of air traffic control errors. one of the issues is to increase technology and to have systems on the airport runway to ensure that if a controller or pilot makes a mistake that there is an alert in the cockpit and the control tower through technology

on the ground to ensure they don't result in a fatal incident. host: we will be taking your calls and you can start calling in now. our lines are regional so if you were in the eastern time zone, (202) 748-8000 mountain or pacific time zones, (202) 748-8001. you can also talk to us via text or on facebook at x. legislation does not increase the retirement age for pilots. what's going on there and is that in line with other international countries? guest: the international body that sets aircraft regulations has 60 fit -- age 65 in some countries do allow 67 but the vast majority do not. there was a big push especially in the house to get 67 but

ultimately, what we've seen recently is there's been a slow down in a need for pilots. some airlines furloughed pilots because boeing is having trouble delivering a number of planes that airlines expected to get so as a result, they are cutting some expected flights. they are asking pilots to work fewer hours. i think that took some of the steam out of the push for increasing the pilot retirement age of 65 to 67. there is also a big fight over pilot training. after the last major fatal commercial airplane crash in february of 2009, there is a big boost in the required training for pilots, about 1500 hrs and there was a push to lower that and make it more in line with what other countries require. that effort failed and that was one of the reasons the senate took so long to get back to this bill. once those two issues got off

the table, they were left with a couple of outstanding big issues like biometric screening by the tsa and adding some additional flights at dcaa and whether to change the refund provisions in the bill. host: i wanted to ask you about the consumer protection. what's in the bill currently? guest: the bill is similar to what the administration has proposed in that if your flight is canceled or delayed by more than three hours for a domestic flight, six hours for international, the airline has to refund your money. this refund only applies if you take the flight. if you fly to tulsa and your flight gets delayed, you can get your money back but you are not getting home from tulsa unless you buy another ticket. the question be comes, the administration wants this to be mandatory. your flight gets delayed and they had to give you your money back within seven days. the question be comes in the senate bill, you have to ask for the refund.

the airline is required to have visible buttons on their website suit and as for the money but what do we do with passengers who don't want the refund and they want another flight? does the legislation make it easy enough for airlines to get you on the next flight? it's very technical but in the language come in if you don't respond and you a flight mounts are now in gets changed 2:00 to 8:00, that would trigger this automatic refund provision. if you don't respond to the airline, can the airline have to automatically refund your money or can they just push you out of the flight if you don't respond? it's a small bucket of people we are talking about who would be impacted but it comes down to this debate over whether it should be automatic or you have to ask for it. host: we've got some calls lined up for you. i wanted to ask you about the minimum seat size.

congress has declined to weigh in on that. guest: they tried in 2018 to set the seat sizes if they determined it poses a risk to safety. the safety risk is not because we are crowded in the seat, it's about evacuation standards. are the seeds to small and are we too crowded for people to properly evacuate the flight in the case of an emergency? the faa not -- opted not to do that. the faa has to certify why it's not setting seat sizes. it would be a dashboard that would disclose to the public the minimum seat sizes by airlines. it doesn't look from a regulatory standpoint whether congress -- they will not set a number and so far the faa has shown no interest in actually setting a specific number in

terms of the minimum seat size. host: i wonder if the legroom would also be an issue because you expect that to be a safety issue as well. guest: it's not just about the size and pitch and how you get across. senator duckworth said it's not how realistic these standards are. it is a test versus a real emergency. how will we act? make your dad leave your lap top behind if there was an evacuation. host: george is in st. louis, missouri, good morning. caller: interesting conversation, thank you for taking my call. if it ain't boeing, i'm not going. now it's completely reversed. people see what type of airline they are flying. if it's boeing, they don't want to go. there is a lot of blame to go

around. when those two planes fell from the sky, the faa and boeing management should have taken a long hard look at what was going on. i don't think it really was done to the extent it needed to be. i am a shareholder of boeing and it hurts me to say this. this was an iconic company, one of the best, it was run originally by engineers. when they merged with mcdonnell douglas, it became a bean counting company run by bean counters rather than engineers and they've had a series of bad ceos in there and i don't understand why mr. calhoun is still there. he should be gone. they should seize back his bonuses. they should bring in somebody that has an engineering background.

the faa is not clean on all of this either. it's just horrible when a company of boeing's quality and you see keep going down. they tried to launch their missile in the aircraft down there in florida last night and that was scrubbed. i personally don't understand what's going on. however, i will say that unless they get somebody out there who's an engineer first, this company is too large to fail. they have their tentacles and so many things and they cannot and should not outsource all of their business. they started outsourcing everything. they used to make every thing in the house and they don't have control over everything. you cannot do that anymore. you've got to take control. host: let's get a response.

guest: he raises a lot of interesting points. dave calhoun the ceo of boeing said he's going to step down by the end of the year and boeing is actively looking for a new ceo. many people raise the same questions and said boeing needs a new ceo with an engineering background, not someone from the financial services side. after those two crashes in 2018 and 2019 that forced the grounding of the plane for almost 20 months, it did caused legislation and the faa and boeing to rethink about their processes. they did get criticized for their oversight of boeing and boeing agreed to a 2.5 billion dollars settlement with the justice department over its representation during the certification of the max 8.

that is still ongoing. the doj now is deciding did the alaska incident, was that a violation of that agreement? will that prompt it to reopen or extend that prosecution agreement? the broader point is one that's been raised alive. has boeing move too far from its roots as an engineering company and become a financial company? there is anecdotal evidence that people have moved away from blowing -- boeing flights a little bit. one in every two commercial planes as a boeing plane. most people don't know they are getting on a boeing airplane. air travel is extremely safe despite these incidents. it's safer to get on airplane and flight your destination and driving your car to get to the airport. that's because there has not been a single fatal u.s. airline

passenger crash in 15 years. it's an unbelievable safety record that we shouldn't take for granted and recognize these near miss incidents are incredibly serious but the united states had an unprecedented history of safety in the last 15 years. host: we've got a text from new york -- guest: these whistleblowers have raised a number of concerns. it goes back to the 787 issue that was reported about boeing's quality process. fundamentally, manufacturing is the biggest issue they have to address. that's what the faa has said. by may 28, after they set this deadline, boeing has to show here's how we fixed our quality and their manufacturing and here are the safeguards to ensure that nobody makes a mistake like

leaving out bolts that are processes in place. it ensures that gets caught and documented. host: ron is calling from san clemente, california, good morning. caller: good morning and thank you for taking my call. we've got some issues here and i applaud that first caller from missouri. good job on the entry there. a couple of things that are very important. believe it or not, boeing is competing against airbus. airbus is funded by the saudi's. they have unlimited ability to build as many planes as they want as fast as they want. we restrict that. the second thing is, an eso anp

employee stock option plan and, have to cut back. they cut back because they want their stock money in their pension money later on. as a result, quality control and quality assurance get put to the side. i was raised and worked for north american back in the space program. in those days, there wasn't one nut or bolt that wasn't checked and not written off by a quality control person. the quality assurance person oversaw the whole thing. these are important things. when congress is looking at the faa, why in the world are flight attendants not paid for on boarding when they get on board a plane? they are not paid until they rollback the plane. that's all money.

there are so many things involved with the faa that they really need to look at and especially these collisions on the ground. that is unacceptable. i will stop there. guest: back to the near miss collision, we had six very serious ones last year that came close in the other important thing to remember is we are looking at potentially a record summer travel with a lot of pent-up demand from covid and people are still traveling a lot despite the concerns. the system is strained. the air controllers, the pilots, the mechanics and the faa has to ensure that the system works properly and when is it a problem? you need to slow things down and you need to ensure the system operate safely at all times. it's going to be a difficult summer especially with carriers

having to cut flights. host: ronni says -- guest: this is an issue that has rankled the industry for a while. pilots are in a special class of employees where they are subjected to much stricter scrutiny than other people. part of that is entirely justifiable. we don't want pilots in the cockpit who are suicidal for sure. we saw that happen in europe several years ago with the german wing flight. the current rules basically as a pilot, can you go to therapy and talk to a therapist without scrutiny but you would temporarily lose your ability to fly. some pilots don't mess up.

there is a difference whether certainty test certain antidepressant should be allowed to be taken and be in the cockpit. i think there is a lot of support for this idea that if you have some sort of family crisis or an issue, should pilots be allowed to talk to somebody, counselor or psychiatrist without having to hide or fear they might lose their livelihood? whether it's a pilot, the ntsb or the f aa, there's wide support for trying to encourage pilots to be transparent about their concerns but allowed them to take steps for their own mental health without putting their pilots license at risk and ensuring the system gives quicker answers and doesn't keep pilots out of service for a long time. host: glenn is in clearwater, florida good morning. caller: i just wanted to make it comment about the statement that you head or a question that was asked of your guest.

why is there such a shortage of air traffic controllers? suddenly it sprang into my memory that ronald reagan initial election in 1980, in august of the following year, i remember quite distinctly that he had fired 11,000 or more air traffic controllers because they were striking, protesting that they were working 12 and 15 hours shift and it was creating a dangerous situation for air traffic -- airline passengers. these people were fired and i was kind of shocked that your guest didn't know or didn't remember or forgot to mention that this was the beginning, this was the line for corporations in this country to start to deal with

to start to do with the rise for the power of unions. still to this day there is a real reduction, there's been a a real reduction over the intervening 40 years or so for more speed is we'll step away from this to take you live to the u.s. senate where today members will be voting on the confirmation of the u.s. ambassador to the southeastern asian nation. this week senators are working on a five-year reauthorization for the federal aviation administration ahead of the friday deadline. that legislation would increase the number of air traffic controllers and require the faa to use new technology to design to prevent collisions on runways. live coverage of the u.s. senate here on c-span2. the chaplain, dr. barry black, will lead the senate in prayer. the chaplain: let us pray.