Would you agree that reviewing the public record of someone’s prior performance at the same agency is not the same as simply throwing up your hands and saying that “there is clearly no worthy candidate”?
If being a LEADER our primary criteria, we can see Mr. Whitaker’s demonstrated track record of his ability to lead at the FAA. He was there Jun 2013- Jun 2016 and he was given one thing to do, which was to get NextGen on track. The public record is very transparent on exactly how effective his leadership of FAA progress NextGen during the three years that he was in charge of it.
There is tons of testimony in the Congressional Record with him trying to answer Senators’ and Congressperson’s questions on delays if you want to spend the time, but if you need a concise, objective, performance-based record of his performance, simply read the Department of Transportation Office of the Inspector General’s audit reports of his time there.
I invite you to review:
DOT OIG Audit Report Number: AV2014027 Title: “FAA Made Limited Progress in Implementing NextGen Provisions of the FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012”
DOT OIG Audit Report Number: AV2014031 Title: “Addressing Underlying Causes for NextGen Delays Will Require Sustained FAA Leadership and Action”
DOT OIG Audit Report Number: AV2015012 Title: “Planning for High-Priority NextGen Capabilities Underway, But Much Work Remains for Full Realization of Benefits”
DOT OIG Audit Report Number: AV2016094 Title: “FAA Lacks a Clear Process for Identifying and Coordinating NextGen Long-Term Research and Development”
DOT OIG Audit Report Number: AV2017009 “Total Costs, Schedules, and Benefits of FAA’s NextGen Transformational Programs Remain Uncertain”
and then use that information to tell me if you would say he has a shown the ability to lead the FAA. There’s a lot of info in there, and it’s clear there’s a lot of institutional issues that he inherited in a project that was already had major issues and was 10+ years old before he got there, so it’s not all his fault.
But the sole reason he was brought in to the FAA was because the program was off the rails, and he was tasked with leading it back on track. I think the record is clear on how successful his leadership actually was in doing that. And I think it’s 100% fair to extrapolate his past performance on managing the $1B / year NextGen project with how well he’d do running the entire agency.
If you think he has demonstrated leadership that I’m missing, I’d be curious to know what you see that I’ve overlooked