Ted Cruz Asks Government Watchdog to Investigate DEI Hiring’s Role in FAA ‘Near-Misses’

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) suspects woke hiring practices might be behind recent airline near catastrophes and has asked the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) to investigate.

Cruz wrote to the GAO Thursday in advance of a Senate Commerce Committee hearing on “addressing close calls to improve aviation safety” to request an investigation into the extent to which recent ‘near-misses’ are a result of overworked controllers due to Obama’s woke policy change that prioritized diversity over graduates of air traffic Collegiate Training Initiative (CTI) programs, which resulted in thousands of qualified applicants leaving the controller pipeline.

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The Obama administration in 2013 introduced a biographical questionnaire (BQ) into the Air Traffic Control (ATC) hiring process in an attempt to improve ATC diversity. In his letter, Cruz writes, “After the FAA adopted the BQ and began favoring ‘off-the-street’ hiring over graduates of air traffic CTI programs, thousands of qualified applicants left the controller pipeline.”

His letter requests the GAO assess the impact of the biographical questionnaire on the controller workforce and the extent to which recent near-misses are a result of controllers being less-well-trained due to the Obama policy change.

Cruz says that the BQ “reportedly awarded more points for applicants who scored lower in science and were unemployed during the previous three years.

“The BQ has never been made public, but it also reportedly asked applicants about their favorite music and colors to learn more about an applicant’s background.”

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Since April, Cruz has been urging Treasury Secretary Pete Buttigieg for answers regarding the FAA’s inability to tackle congestion and air traffic controller shortages.

Under Buttigieg, the department seems to have prioritized woke policies over its core mission. The secretary appointed 24 diversity advisers {snip}

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