Former Top Gun instructor-pilot Robert Sturgell, who took over the FAA as acting administrator when Marion Blakey completed her five-year term on September 13, has been nominated by President Bush to run the agency for the next five years.
But it is unclear whether Sturgell will receive the required confirmation by a Democratic-controlled Senate that is loath to have a Bush appointee in charge of the FAA long after the current president leaves office.
Although general aviation and the airlines don’t agree on the FAA funding issue, they wrote a joint letter to President Bush in August urging him to appoint someone quickly to run the FAA for the next five years following Blakey’s exit. The aviation leaders said there is a “vital need to nominate a strong individual who can be confirmed as the next administrator of the [FAA]. Our nation cannot afford a recess appointee as we face the time-critical challenge of modernizing our nation’s aviation infrastructure.”
