You'd think that of all the federal agencies, the Federal Aviation Administration would be one of the least likely to exhibit outright corruption, wouldn't you?
You'd be wrong. The FAA, under Bush crony Marion Blakey, has been every bit as corrupt- maybe even more- as any other federal agency.
The very agency trusted to ensure your safety in the skies (and on the ground underneath the skies!) has been run for the last five years by someone who was about as qualified to do so as Brown was to run FEMA. More after the fold...
From a news item on the FAA's web site, dated August 30th:
It's ITT. The company has been chosen as the prime contractor for Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B), the key to the Next Generation Air Transportation System.
...
Under the $1.8 billion contract, which runs from 2007 to 2025, ITT will build the ADS-B ground stations and own and operate the equipment. The FAA will pay subscription fees for ADS-B broadcasts transmitted to properly equipped aircraft and air traffic control facilities.
ITT will be able to use the existing infrastructure of one of its partners, AT&T, to deploy ground stations throughout the country. Initial coverage will be provided for the Gulf of Mexico, Philadelphia, Louisville, and Juneau, Alaska.
The contract award came just two years after Administrator Marion Blakey proclaimed that ADS-B would become the backbone of NextGen.
Outgoing FAA Administrator Marion Blakey has a new job at the Aerospace Industries Association(AIA). We don't know for sure what her salary is, but her appointment as President and CEO was announced 9 days prior to ITT getting the ADS-B contract. And we know that the previous CEO of the AIA, John Douglass, made over $600,000 in 2004; it's reasonable to assume that Blakey will be getting at least that much, if not more.
Here's an interesting screenshot from the AIA's web site, showing their membership:
(click for bigger image)
So 9 days after she's announced as the next CEO of AIA, Blakey's agency hands out an 18-year contract worth billions of dollars to a company that indirectly employs her at over a half-million dollars a year. (Don't forget the pathetic history of FAA contracts continually ballooning in cost and scope over time- it's reasonable to assume that this will wind up representing considerably more than $1.8 billion to ITT.)
You do the math, folks.
Blakey has destroyed the morale of the FAA. She unilaterally slashed the salaries of the air traffic controllers and jammed new work rules down their throats, making a mockery of the so-called "negotiations" with the union, NATCA.
She's set the FAA onto a course of spending billions of dollars on technology to solve airline delays- you might have read stories in the recent PR push staged by the FAA and the airlines- and is now running for the safety of a job with the same companies that will win the contracts to develop, build, and install that technology.
Yes, you read that right- "develop". The technology doesn't yet exist- it's not yet been designed, let alone tested and proven safe.
Meanwhile, ATC staffing levels are plummeting (which was known to be looming as far back as 2002, which- not coincidentally- was the beginning of Blakey's term as FAA Administrator), air travel delays are up almost 20% in 2007 from 2006 (which was the worst year ever on record for delays) and there's even talk of wildcat sickouts beginning to rumble through the internet.
It's time for you to call, write, fax, telegram, or email your Congressional represntatives and demand that the next FAA Administrator be someone who can fix this mess.
It's also time to demand that Congress revert the controllers back to the old contract and start new negotiations with a fair, neutral-third-party arbitration method for resolving impasses.
Finally, Congress should begin investigation into Blakey's cushy job at the AIA, and how she managed to have it announced prior to even leaving the FAA- the very agency handing billions of dollars to AIA member corporations.
Check out www.faafollies.com for tons of stories of FAA buffoonery under Blakey's reign.