Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee:

My name is Walter W. ("Wally") Pike. I am completing my fifth year as President of the National Association of Air Traffic Specialists (NAATS). I have worked for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for thirty-four years, and in air traffic control continuously since 1973, with assignments at Fort Worth, Childress, and San Antonio, Texas, and at Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

At the same time, I have been a NAATS union official since 1979, serving in various capacities.

NAATS is the exclusive representative of the more than 2,200 controllers and automation specialists who work at the Flight Service Stations throughout the United States, and I am here today to give you their views. I want to note that these dedicated men and women have continued to provide vital safety functions to the flying public during very trying times for our country such as the 1981 strike and September 11, 2001.

My testimony will focus on our recommendations for the FAA's FY2004 budget in three primary areas; staffing, modernization equipment and potential cost savings. I respectfully request that my entire written statement be made part of the record.

STAFFING

For the past several years NAATS has testified before this Subcommittee regarding the critical shortage of Flight Service air traffic controllers. The latest FAA figures show 2,071 flight service controllers actually providing the service to the aviation public. The FAA�s own staffing standard, the document that defines how many Flight Service controllers are necessary to provide essential services, requires 2,210 Flight Service controllers. Therefore we are currently working with a shortage of 140 controllers and this disturbing attrition will only increase during the next year.

The FAA, however, maintains 577 staff overhead positions. This exceeds a 1 to 4 ratio of staff to employees. The FAA staffing standard authorizes 530 for staff. Currently the FAA has an excess of 47 staff positions. Mr. Chairman, we ask that you instruct the FAA to maintain their own staffing standard numbers to ensure that critical services will continue to be provided during the next year.

MODERNIZATION EQUIPMENT

The Operational and Supportability Implementation System (OASIS) is designed to replace the aging and increasingly unsupportable Model One Full Capacity (M1FC). It is the primary tool used by Flight Service controllers to provide information and service to the aviation community. OASIS is operational at three sites and is continuing deployment. However, OASIS has a history of having to move forward in the face of budget cuts, sometimes severe. In 2000 the program requested $21.5 million and was funded only $10 million. In 2003 the program requested $20 million but OMB cut $5 million in its passback. This year the program requested the $5 million be restored but OMB cut it out of the passback again. These latest cuts come at a time when the system is undergoing deployment and adversely affect the ability of the FAA to deploy OASIS in a timely manner. This results in a negative impact to the aviation community as it means that vital equipment is not in place to support them. We ask that you not only fully fund the requested money for 2004, but that you also restore the $5 million that has been removed by the OMB.


POTENTIAL COST SAVINGS

FSS controllers currently provide many critical and essential duties for the aviation public but they are capable and willing to perform many more. In fact this group of professionals represents the largest untapped and underutilized resource within the FAA. More efficient use of the airspace requires a better definition and delegation of air traffic controller (ATC) duties. There are functions currently assigned to some FAA employees that are not part of their primary job responsibility and could be efficiently and willingly performed by FSS controllers. This would allow the first group to focus both their energies and time on their primary responsibilities while allowing FSS controllers the opportunity to provide ever more essential services to the aviation public. The net effect would benefit the entire national airspace system (NAS).

Two examples of some of these duties are:

• Identification of relative aircraft positioning and severe weather hazards,

• Monitoring aircraft in military special use airspace.

These items can be accomplished through the use of equipment called Special Use Airspace/Inflight Situational Enhancement (SUA/ISE). Identification of relative aircraft positioning and severe weather hazards would allow FSS controllers to provide information to airborne pilots thus helping them to avoid flight into adverse weather. Monitoring military special use airspace and providing information to airborne pilots on �hot� areas is particularly important to the technology concept called �Free Flight�. Essentially Free Flight allows much more latitude to pilots to determine their own routings but, obviously, it�s extremely important to them that they know where the military is flying, times and altitudes. These are value added advisory services, primarily for the more than 347,000 general aviation pilots but would be available to any pilot, upon request. As I mentioned, the above can be accomplished through the use of SUA/ISE but this equipments needs to be deployed and certified for use by the FSS controllers.

Another area of improved service to the flying public is truly interactive weather briefings; meaning pilots and FSS controllers view the same graphics during briefings thereby enhancing this critical service. Thus far technology and cost have prohibited these simultaneous active interaction types of briefings. Nevertheless, there are opportunities. Video graphics can be �slaved� from FSS briefing workstations directly to fixed base operators (FBO). Using dedicated phone lines the FSS controller providing the briefing and the pilot receiving it would be able to engage in a more meaningful dialogue while seeing the same picture. Simple technology can also provide the briefer with a �white pencil� to highlight areas of high interest. The security and control would remain within the FAA flight service stations while the pilots would benefit from the personal interaction.

NAATS has initiated innovative discussions with senior FAA management to further identify and study these duties and cost savings. Our hope is that these discussions will result in more effective utilization of employees through a Flight Service reclassification of duties. This reclassification would result in Flight Service becoming a true performance based organization (PBO). Side benefits would be the resolution of the above-mentioned staffing crises and, through the use of gain sharing, our pay negotiations impasse with the FAA. The outcome of these meetings is far from certain however. Mr. Chairman, I would ask that you and your Subcommittee continue to provide oversight on this process and ensure these and other efficiencies are realized through appropriations.

By the FAA�s own accounts Flight Service controllers are essential to the safe and expeditious flow of air traffic. The FAA has gone on to say that the branches of air traffic controllers; terminal, enroute and flight service are all interrelated and interdependent. Further, the FAA has acknowledged that air traffic control response to the tragedy of September 11 would not have been possible without the considerable contributions of FSS controllers.

Despite this, Mr. Chairman, I regret to report to you and the Committee that the FAA is still conducting the ill-considered and ill-advised A76 contracting out study on this workforce. If this process proceeds unabated it will result in mandating that the lowest bidder will provide the critical and essential Flight Service function in the future. At the conclusion of the A76 process the FAA will not be required to seek and, indeed, has no intention of soliciting, congressional oversight or approval. Once the bids go out it will be too late to stop the process. The latest FAA cost estimate for conducting this study is $20 million; a colossal waste of resources.

We understand and agree with the desirability of conducting A76 studies for those functions that can be better performed by private industry. OMB Circular A76, however, makes a distinction between those duties that are core to the agency mission from those that are support to this mission. Flight Service controllers provide pilot weather briefings to pilots both in the air and on the ground thus ensuring that flights are safely completed. Enroute Flight Advisory Service (EFAS) provides �real time� weather briefings to airborne pilots, advising them of the most recent weather available. Additionally Flight Service controllers coordinate search and rescue for overdue pilots and aircraft orientation for pilots lost during their flights. We coordinate with both the Customs and the Drug Enforcement Agencies; I know that both you and your Subcommittee understand the significance of these duties in today�s world.

I also want to emphasize that Flight Service controllers are responsible for providing the temporary flight restriction (TFR) information to pilots so that they do not stray into prohibited, restricted or special use airspace. Recent examples of these are the restrictions during the President�s State of the Union Address, the unfortunate tragedy of the space shuttle and the Air Defense Identification Zone restrictions, implemented here in our nation�s capital and planned for other areas across the United States. When President Bush travels by air his location is frequently identified in advance using TFR�s. It�s hard to imagine a more inherently governmental operation relating to national security. Without doubt the duties performed by Flight Service controllers are central to the core mission of the FAA and national security.

Mr. Chairman, we appreciate your interest and the interest of the members of this Subcommittee in this matter. We are very concerned, however, that this A76 process will soon have so much momentum that it will be beyond even the control of this Subcommittee. Once these loyal and dedicated employees are replaced it will be too late to bring them back and undo the damage. We urge you to withhold funding for this study before it is too late.

I would be pleased to respond to any questions. Thank you.
 

NAATS

The National Association of Air Traffic Specialists (NAATS) is a labor union with national exclusive recognition as the bargaining agent for all GS-2152 series Air Traffic Control Specialists employed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in the Flight Service option. NAATS was certified as the national exclusive bargaining representative in February 1972.

The objectives of NAATS are to promote, enhance and improve the dignity and stature of controllers in the Flight Service option; to improve the hours, wages, and working conditions of NAATS members; to foster public sentiment favorable to reforms sponsored by NAATS; to petition Congress and other government agencies for the enactment and enforcement of laws and regulations that protect and enhance the welfare of our members; and to cooperate with all persons interested in the promotion and advancement of aviation safety and services. As we say in our motto, "Aviation Safety Is Our Business.�