Despite More Democrat Obstruction, Republic Airlines CEO Bryan Bedford Confirmed As FAA Administrator

On Wednesday, the Senate confirmed Republic Airways CEO Bryan Bedford as the new administrator for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Bedford is a 30-year veteran of the aviation industry, having served in leadership positions for Mesaba Airlines, Business Express Airlines, and other regional aviation outfits. Bedford's confirmation comes at a critical time for the FAA, which has been under increased scrutiny due to safety breaches, particularly the January mid-air collision of an American Airlines flight with a Black Hawk helicopter at Reagan International Airport in D.C. Bedford will be tasked with the oversight of the 12.5 billion dollar upgrades to air traffic control systems, as well as securing key personnel to staff the agency.

Bedford's confirmation hearings grew contentious, particularly over the "1,500-hour rule," an FAA regulation that requires pilots to clock 1,500 hours of flight time before they can be certified as a commercial pilot. As CEO of Republic, Bedford was very vocal about the rule being a "time building exercise" rather than structured training that helped to ensure safety. Bedford also alleged that this rule was partially to blame for the shortage of certified pilots.

Senate Democrat challenges focused around such questions, as they remained committed to their goal of obstructing any Trump nominee.

Sen. Janine Shaheen (D-NH) was the only Democrat who voted to confirm Bedford in a 53-43 vote.

Confirmed, 53-43: Confirmation of Executive Calendar #197 Bryan Bedford to be Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration for the term of five years.
— Senate Cloakroom (@SenateCloakroom) July 9, 2025

The Senate on Wednesday confirmed Bryan Bedford as the next administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration, handing a longtime airline executive the reins of a beleaguered agency at a critical moment for air travel safety.
Mr. Bedford, who was confirmed largely along party lines, has pledged to spearhead a crucial modernization effort as the F.A.A. works to address staffing challenges and to upgrade outdated air traffic control systems that have contributed to a series of outages, near-misses, and deadly accidents in recent months.
Last week, Congress approved $12.5 billion for the agency, funding that was praised by Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy as a “down payment” toward improvements.
But Mr. Bedford rankled Democrats last month when he would not commit to holding all commercial pilots to a federal requirement to complete 1,500 hours of training, a standard he had criticized as the chief of Republic Airways, a regional airline.

Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy took to X to say he is "thrilled" to have Bedford on board.

.@USDOT is thrilled to have Bryan Bedford confirmed as our new @FAANews Administrator.

Bryan will help me deliver and execute @POTUS’s vision for a brand new air traffic control system.

Welcome aboard, Bryan! ✈️ https://t.co/OpqbOrDTJ6
— Secretary Sean Duffy (@SecDuffy) July 9, 2025

Sen. Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) spoke about getting Bedford over the finish line, but affirmed there is much work yet to be done to get all of Trump's nominees confirmed. Work made more difficult because of Democrats' tactics of obstruction and delay.

WATCH:

.@LeaderJohnThune: "We're not going to let up from our foot on the gas. We have, this week in particular and the weeks ahead, a lot of nominees in the pipeline that we're going to try and get across the finish line... We're going to keep pressing forward." pic.twitter.com/WN2QiwGkTh
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) July 9, 2025

There's a lot more work to do. And we're not going to let up from our foot on the gas. We have, this week in particular and the weeks ahead, a lot of nominees that are in the pipeline that we're going to try and get across the finish line. And that without any cooperation or help, total obstruction, total delay, total blockage on the part of the Democrats.
In fact, President Trump is the first president going back to the Hoover administration who hasn't had a single one of his noms confirmed either by voice vote or by unanimous consent. That's the level of obstruction we're seeing from the Democrats. And that includes even bipartisan noms, noms that we know have a lot of support on both sides of the aisle. So, we're going to keep pressing forward, notwithstanding that.
We think that the path that we're on, the track that we're on is the right one for the country. We're going to do everything that we can to ensure that President Trump's nominees get in place, and then obviously we got a lot of other work ahead of us in the weeks and months ahead.

Editor's Note: President Trump is leading America into the "Golden Age" as Democrats try desperately to stop it.

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