Politics is unavoidable, Raf, and I won’t avoid it when it has a direct impact on aviation. Thanks for the kind words as always.
Russ
Obviously they are two separate stories, brief descriptions from my experience.
‘parsing’ is an odd concern.
See “Trump Administration Accomplishments” for what really happened in President Trump’s first term. Especially the category “Massive Deregulation”. The results far exceeded the goals, typical of Donald Trump’s entire career.
“Instead of 2-for-1, we eliminated 8 old regulations for every 1 new regulation adopted.”
In his second term, I predict he will eliminate entire agencies and departments, not only existing regulations. For any activity for which states have their own, the federal government should be forbidden to meddle. For instance, Departments of Education and the EPA.
For any government activity for which the private sector offers solutions, government should be forbidden from involvement. This covers most everything the federal government currently does, including certification of aircraft, which could be far better handled by industry itself, and at no cost to taxpayers.
https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/trump-administration-accomplishments/
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A large problem is time taken to get through the myriad of regulations and steps.
If you can’t get one done today you lose another day - or four if bureaucracy is taking a long weekend off.
(Aviation flies 24/7, bureaucrats don’t.)
There is a rule that leads to cost estimates in proposed rule making.
How realistic the estimates are is a question, sometimes affected persons comment on the record about the estimate.
But in any case it all adds up.
The bureaucrat in me reacts “damn, this is an impossible situation. Screw it and just leave things as they are - I don’t get paid enough for these headaches.” Besides, leaving things exactly as they are appeals to the conservative side of my psyche.
Perhaps the easiest way to meet this ‘twofer’ requirement is to leave MOSAIC as a mirage- something that might come to be some day, but not to-day. After all, if a new regulation isn’t created, then the bureaucrats won’t have too find two to scrap, right?
My antidote whenever my mind goes down such nihilistic paths is “let’s not let the perfect or the idea be the enemy of the good… we are just trying to make things better.” Ahhh, but the requirements (banging head sound).
You mean, privatize ATC?
What might be an issue here that is not mentioned, is that the FAA’s regulations are Federal Laws, passed by Congress. All the other agencies make the rules without voter consent, so to speak, except, I believe the nuclear folks. So will the 14CFR’s come under the 2 for 1 edict at all ?
I thought the gist of a regulation has to be rooted in statute, no? For example, when Congress declares that Medicare can shop overseas for cheaper medications, the details of implementing the law is hashed out by the FDA in 21 CFR, referencing Public Law #xxxxx as the authorization for such.
Regulations tend to grow in time, the add-ons are often to close loopholes as they are discovered. They don’t have to make things convoluted, but they often do, because the revisers are in a hurry or are not really familiar with the original flow and logic and the add-on can inadvertently duplicate, negate or create ambiguity. And sometimes, those seeking to reduce the regulatory burden are actually merely seeking to restore the loopholes—to their benefit. Formulaic regulatory action like “add one, kill two” requires treating regulations like a homogenized commodity with properties of proportional equivalence and commutation—which is not a rational approach.
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That is certainly a likelihood with this incoming administration. And I think we can all agree that privatized ATC will not be a good thing for anyone other than the owners of the for-profit entity.
No, of course not. No reasonable businessperson would want to acquire any government agency due to the baggage this entails. Far better is to start over from scratch with no government involvement at all. There are plenty of private airports, private fuel service, private security systems, etc. who do a stellar job of providing excellent aviation services at an affordable price to users. ATC would need some thinking, but there are no government activities that can not be replaced by free, competing markets. The vast majority of airports in the U.S. are “uncontrolled” and yet operate safely. The best of these are privately-owned. Look at the converse - fly from a government-owned airport and you will pay 2x - 3x for anything from shops in the terminal. A form of government-sanctioned fleecing of consumers. And then there is the “TSA Experience”, the de-humanizing of travelers by unenthusiastic government employees in uniforms. The Limbaugh Theory is 100% accurate: "Everything the government touches, turns to creape.
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I sure love the idealism, and certainly all new things start out with a certain spirit of goodwill. Corporations being corporations though, the best care eventually tends to be to their best paying passengers. If you ever fly on the airlines, you know that elite members get pandered to. The people who look for the cheapest fares get treated almost with distain.
Guess who privatized ATC’s ‘best customers’ will be. Guess who will get the best treatment. You don’t need to look too far to find examples of where GA is unhappy with the service they get from an ATC agency that was privatized 18 years ago.
I remind ‘gmbfly’ of the Canadian solution.
NavCanada is a non-government entity controlled by a motley assortment of ‘stakeholders’. So far it is working as the controllers cooperate. (Canada created a new type of company for that, an odd one.)
Canada’s federal government also devolved major airports to local authorities in a roughly comparable mush including local governments. (Some airports were already owned by local government, such as Kelowna, Edmonton Industrial, Dawson Creek BC, …)
He sure exceeded his ‘goals’ thats without a doubt.
The bigliest list of bankruptcies, cheating, and swindling bar none.
Successes on the other hand… have been very few and far between. The Apprentice show saved him from oblivion.
I hope for our countries sake we do, in fact, see some genuine success, because government day to day doesn’t run on puffery.
Self-regulation within the industry. Right. Two words: 737 Max.
Stupid photo. What did it cost to stage it, and who paid for it? Any misunderstanding over what 'cutting red tape" means?
I can think of many regulations that could be eliminated that TSA has, especially those concerning GA. That includes the latest one enacted for flight instruction. If US citizens had to sit through the TSA training that I am required to, the department would be eliminated quickly. TSA rules are one of several reasons I will not reup my expired CFI when I retire!
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Please let’s DON’T “eliminate… the EPA” (or any of the multitude of out-of-favor federal agencies). As someone whose business was heavily regulated by the EPA, I frequently disagreed with their decisions and approaches to some problems. That being said, one thing worse than an unwieldy but mostly competent Federal agency, is a patchwork of smaller state agencies with less capability, less competence, and 50 different ideas of what needs to be done. Suppose the rules changed every time you flew across a state line? Suppose you had to apply for (and pay for) a “state” Airworthiness certificate for every state to which you might someday fly? As someone once said, “for every complex problem there is an answer that is simple, obvious, and WRONG!” This is one of those…
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Spoken like someone who has never had to navigate the ridiculous complexities of Pt 135 or 121 regulations first-hand. The amount of red tape involved to do the simplest thing is insane. No, it isn’t all to make us safer either.
I am watching a situation very slowly unfold in a training dept where a line pilot with experience on a new aircraft system (designed to increase safety) has to train a check airman on a new system so then the check airman can officially train the first pilot to be legal. How exactly does this make anyone safer?
It’s time for targeted cuts to be made to the tangles of red tape, Russ. Isn’t this your second article in the last week or so hammering the next administration that hasn’t even taken office yet? Be careful, or your bias as a Trudeau-following Canadian might show through…