FAA’s Obama-Era ‘Biographical Questionnaire’ for DEI Faces New Scrutiny After DC Crash

President Donald Trump on Thursday directed the Federal Aviation Administration to assess safety standards, including evaluating hiring practices, in the wake of the midair collision over Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on Wednesday night.

The presidential memorandum comes after Trump suggested the military helicopter that crashed into an American Airlines regional jet may have been due in part to the FAA’s diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies.

All 67 people aboard the two aircraft were killed.

“President Trump swiftly signed a memorandum directing an immediate assessment of the Federal Aviation Administration to ensure the federal government is maintaining the highest personnel and policy aviation-safety standards,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said. 

“The memorandum directs the secretary of transportation and the FAA administration to immediately review all hiring decisions and changes to safety protocols made during the prior four years, and to take all necessary corrective action to achieve uncompromised aviation safety,” Leavitt added. “The review will include a comprehensive assessment and reversal in any deterioration in hiring standards and aviation-safety standards and protocols during the previous administration.” 

Trump already signed a governmentwide executive order to do away with DEI related personnel initiatives. 

As The Daily Signal previously reported, under President Barack Obama’s administration, the FAA scrapped a skills-based test and a certification program, and replaced it with a biographical questionnaire to attract more diverse applicants to become air traffic controllers. The FAA previously drew most candidates from the military and a group of 36 colleges that offer air traffic control programs. 

“The Obama administration implemented a biographical questionnaire at the FAA to shift the hiring focus away from objective aptitude. During my first term, my administration raised standards to achieve the highest standards of safety and excellence,” the Trump memorandum says. “But the Biden administration egregiously rejected merit-based hiring, requiring all executive departments and agencies to implement dangerous ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ tactics, and specifically recruiting individuals with ‘severe intellectual’ disabilities in the FAA.”

The memorandum continues: “On my second day in office, I ordered an immediate return to merit-based recruitment, hiring, and promotion, elevating safety and ability as the paramount standard. [Wednesday’s] devastating accident tragically underscores the need to elevate safety and competence as the priority of the FAA.” 

Critics have said the policy that originated under Obama and was revived by Biden gives more points to applicants who have not been employed for the past three years than to an applicant who has been a pilot or a veteran with an air traffic control-related military background. During his first term, Trump discarded the policy in 2018, but President Joe Biden reinstated it.

“When you are flying on an airplane with your loved ones—which everyone of us in this room has—do you pray that your plane lands safely and gets you to your destination?” Leavitt asked reporters rhetorically on Friday. “Or do you pray that the pilot has a certain skin color? I think we all know the answer to that question. As President Trump said yesterday, it’s common sense.”

The spokeswoman said the Trump administration still believes it is safe to fly in the United States. Still, she said, the memorandum is intended to “deliver accountability.” 

Democrats were angry after Trump suggested DEI played a role in the deadly air collision. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said Trump’s comment was “shameful” and promoted “misinformation and misdirection.”

During Leavitt’s Friday briefing, Fox News reporter Peter Doocy asked, “Was the air traffic controller in the [airport] tower on Wednesday night hired, or not fired, at some point, because of his or her race?”

Leavitt said only that the “investigation is ongoing.”

“When we have updates on the exact individuals who were involved in the collision, including the air traffic controller and the pilots of the helicopter and others, we will confirm those,” the spokeswoman said. 

But she added, “The president has rightfully pointed out that there have been problems with the aviation industry over the past several years. This started under Barack Obama in 2014.”

In 2019, the Mountain States Legal Foundation, a nonprofit public interest law firm, filed a class-action lawsuit against the FAA on behalf of 2,500 aspiring air traffic controllers who claimed to be harmed by the policy change.  

“If you are an American who has spent many years studying aviation, and you graduate from school and are an air traffic controller based on skill and merit; you fill out a biographical questionnaire asking you the color of your skin and asking you where you are from, and details that aren’t relevant at all to the job description, I think that deteriorates the morale of people in this industry,” Leavitt said. 

“If you talk to people in this industry, they will tell you that. In fact, many of them filed a lawsuit against the FAA a couple of years ago under Joe Biden’s administration because they were denied positions because of this DEI hiring practice that was putting identity politics over merit and skills,” she added.

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