Move Comes After Recent News Reports On ATC Recruitment And Hiring Practices

The U.S. House of Representatives has passed an amendment to the transportation and housing appropriations bill to cut the funding for administering the Biographical Questionnaire (Bio Q) to persons seeking employment as air traffic controllers.

The amendment was offered by Congressman Randy Hultgren (R-IL) who said in a news release that his amendment would restrict funding for the FAA to further implement its discredited Biographical Questionnaire (Bio Q), a personality test the agency has used since last year as an obscure gatekeeper for hiring new air traffic controllers. Recent investigations have revealed that FAA or aviation-related employees shared inside information with instructions about how to pass the test with particular air traffic controller recruits to help them gain jobs with the FAA.

In his remarks on the House floor, Hultgren said the intent of the amendment is not to slow hiring, but to stop the FAA’s use of a discredited gatekeeper hiring test.

"Setting aside its decades-long process by which qualified collegiate training initiative (CTI) students and military veterans were given preference in hiring, the FAA implemented a new Biographical Questionnaire—Bio Q—which contained such questions as, “How many sports did you play in high school?”

"With no way to know what a right answer is, how to improve on the test, or what their final score was, many otherwise highly qualified applicants failed, after spending countless resources and time training to become air traffic controllers," Hultgren said.

"The new procedures caused the agency to divert the hiring process around highly-qualified, CTI-certified trainees and experienced veterans, jeopardizing air travel safety in favor of “off-the-street” hires, some of whom have little experience or ambition.

"Since then, the FAA has been under fire following a six month investigation which uncovered that FAA or aviation-related employees may have assisted in giving potential air traffic controller recruits special access to answers on the Bio Q to help them gain jobs with the FAA.

"This cheating is greatly disturbing and jeopardizes any shred of credibility the Bio Q had as an accurate and fair test to determine who should be air traffic controllers.

"Yet we are now finding out that the cheating may run deeper than first reported, possibly with knowledge at the highest levels of the FAA.

"If additional FAA or aviation-related employees helped applicants cheat on the Bio Q, it is imperative we expose those responsible and determine how widespread and systemic the misconduct is.

"I have urged Congress to compel the FAA to appear before the American people to get to the bottom of this troubling discovery."

Fox News, which brought attention to the practice through a news report last month, said that there are several members of Congress "demanding" a hearing to investigate the alleged cheating on the exams, but none has been scheduled.

FMI: http://hultgren.house.gov