A group of 11 Republican state attorneys general sent a letter to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) criticizing its focus on diversity hiring over merit and aviation expertise.
The letter cites statements by the FAA about prioritizing a diverse workforce and hiring people with disabilities.
It alleges these DEI efforts are putting passenger safety at risk by not ensuring the most qualified experts are in key roles.
The prosecutors wrote in a letter to FAA Administrator Michael Whitaker, “We are troubled by some recent reports regarding your agency’s hiring practices and priorities.”
“It seems that the FAA has placed ‘diversity’ bean counting over safety and expertise, and we worry that such misordered priorities could be catastrophic for American travelers,” the letter explained.
The signatories wrote that the FAA “appears to prioritize virtue-signaling ‘diversity’ efforts over aviation expertise.”
Adding, “This calls into question the agency’s commitment to safety.”
Kobach and the other attorneys general criticized the FAA’s plan to “diversify its workforce by rethinking its hiring practices and capitalize on opportunities to hire people who will bring new and diverse skills to the agency and reflect the demographics of the U.S. labor force.”
“These efforts follow on work that reportedly started under the Obama Administration when the agency shockingly sought out applicants with ‘severe intellectual’ and ‘psychiatric’ disabilities to staff the agency responsible for air traffic control, aviation safety, major airports, commercial space regulation, and security and hazardous materials safety,” reads the letter.
The attorneys general insisted that the agency “must return to prioritizing safety over diversity and virtue signaling” and “should once again hire based on merit so that only the most qualified aviation experts take care of America’s air travel.”
Kansas Republican Attorney General Kris Kobac, said, “Given the recent FAA failure that delayed thousands of flights last January and the recent spike in near aircraft collisions, I am very worried that the FAA has lost sight of its primary goal — ensuring the safety of American skies.”
He added, “American lives depend on the FAA hiring the most qualified aviation experts.”
The attorneys general take issue with racial sensitivity training and say previous research found diversity can negatively impact job performance.
They argue the FAA must return to merit-based hiring of aviation experts given recent flight delays and near-collisions.
Kansas AG Kris Kobach, who helped organize the letter, told Fox passenger lives depend on the FAA selecting the most qualified experts and expressed concern the agency has lost sight of safety.
Overall the letter accuses the Biden FAA of virtue signaling over diversity at the expense of aviation safety.
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