James Comer says NTSB was a typo

[SpankMe]

42. The NTSB 5-member governing board is frequently short one or two members

The NTSB has powers to investigate accidents and subpoena records. They have no authority to enforce rules and regulations, and they have no power to create new regulations. They can make criminal referrals to law enforcement if they find evidence of criminal acts. But they otherwise have no law enforcement powers. They can - and are required to - determine root cause or probable cause of accidents, and to make recommendations (and ONLY recommendations) about how to prevent accidents in the future.

In exchange for having no authority whatsoever - other to investigate unfettered and make recommendations based on findings - the NTSB was originally protected from any and all politically partisan interference so that they could be completely truthful, candid and unencumbered in their investigations, opinions and recommendations.

This hasn't stopped pro-business and anti-regulation lawmakers (mostly Republican, but not exclusively so) to weaken the NTSB by stifling NTSB's budget, politicizing some NTSB findings, and failing to keep the 5 member governing board fully staffed. They're afraid that the exposure of deficiencies by even a powerless board is a threat to their capitalist overlords. (Members of the governing board require senate approval, and the chair and vice chair are named by the president.)

In recent times there is evidence that the NTSB has been lax in investigating general aviation (GA) accidents and paying even shorter shrift to accidents where the pilot is black. It has been taking up to 3 years to publish final accident reports - even on simple GA accidents. This is way too long. They have not been able to come up with root causes in many cases, and the reported probable causes have been overly generalized and weak. Many final reports have no recommendations (which are required) or the recommendations are perfunctory one-liners.

The governing board is frequently short one or two members, and I believe this is a factor in the degradation of vigor that we're seeing at NTSB in recent years. Currently, they are one member short. With a Democratic Senate and Whitehouse, there is no excuse for not getting a new board member in there right now. For some reason, this just isn't a priority for either party.

I want the NTSB's budget increased. I want the governing board to be fully staffed, with vacancies no longer than a few months. I want the NTSB getting final reports published in a year or less - 18 months max for complicated cases. I want to see new technologies employed that will significantly improve the ability to get to the root cause of accidents. I want staff to be required to document real and detailed root/probable cause statements, and make specific recommendations that would have a positive impact on future aviation (and train/truck/marine) safety.

Also, Rep. James Comer can eat my ass.