WASHINGTON—The FAA’s Fiscal 2022 budget request includes plans to place senior officials in four international offices to bolster the agency’s global regulatory collaboration and policy-setting efforts, a detailed breakdown of the agency’s plan shows.
Under the proposed budget, the FAA would spend $2.4 million in the coming fiscal year to place “senior representatives” in the UK, Mexico, Poland and somewhere in Southeast Asia.
“These permanent overseas positions will provide the necessary seniority, workforce and resource bandwidth, skill sets, and collaboration capabilities to successfully engage the international civil aviation community and effectively influence and drive global aviation standards, policy, direction, and modernization based on U.S. positions,” the agency’s budget-justification document said.
The new UK position is justified both by the country’s global aviation footprint and its recent departure from the European Union, the FAA said.
“The UK has the largest aviation industry in Europe and a geographic position that is strategic for the U.S.,” the FAA said. Following Brexit, “the FAA must now establish new legal and working arrangements with the UK as it is no longer covered under existing U.S./EU agreements. This is a considerable workload to create, maintain, and manage, but is also an opportunity to strengthen the U.S./UK aviation strategic relationship,” the agency added.
Closer to home, Mexico’s aviation industry continues to grow, as does its ties with the U.S. Most high-level policy concerning Mexico is handled by Washington, D.C.-based staff, but managing U.S.-Mexico aviation regulatory issues “now requires more time and seniority than the current junior-level officer at FAA headquarters can provide,” the FAA said.
Eastern European issues are handled out of the FAA’s Moscow office, while the agency has personnel in Singapore. But increased activity in each of these regions is prompting the agency to ask for more resources. “The projected workload to address Eastern Europe cannot be effectively assumed by the representative in Moscow,” the agency said. “While the FAA has a senior representative in Singapore, the growth in U.S. engagement have quickly exceeded the representative’s bandwidth.”
More focus on international collaboration is one of several key themes the FAA is pursuing at least in part because of evaluations triggered by two Boeing 737-8 accidents in five months in 2018 and 2019. The four added positions would come under the agency’s Office of Policy, International Affairs and Environment.
Separately, FAA’s Aviation Safety organization is requesting $17.4 million and 81 new full-time equivalent positions to support an “action plan” that targets issues spotlighted by the 737 accidents and related probes. The plan addresses a series of recommendations from different groups, including an ad hoc committee formed by the U.S. Transportation Department to examine the agency’s certification processes, the FAA said. The funds also will go toward a planned ombudsman organization—one of several new requirements mandated by Congress.
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