Trump’s pick for FAA leader is grilled over views on pilot training and safety

On Wednesday, June 11, 2025, Bryan Bedford, President Trump’s nominee for FAA Administrator, faced sharp questioning during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, specifically over his stance on commercial pilot training standards.

Bedford is a longtime airline executive and has been critical of the federal requirement that commercial pilots must complete 1,500 flight hours of training, going as far to call the standard “arbitrary” in 2014. In his former position as the leader of Republic Airways, he petitioned the FAA to allow graduates of Republic’s flight school to be certified after completing only 750 hours of training, as military pilots are only required to complete 750 hours to operate commercial aircraft. In 2022, the petition was denied. However, if confirmed as FAA administrator, Bedford would be able to grant these waivers to pilots, which he declined to agree not to do during his hearing. This raised safety concerns among Democrats, particularly because of recent aviation incidents.

Bedford emphasized that his primary priority if confirmed would be to improve and modernize the air traffic control system, pledging to accelerate the recruitment process of controllers and utilizing more advanced technology to elevate American aviation abilities.