Originally Posted by
exwannabe
The way it works is that all agencies in the administration have a political appointee at the top. They will do what the President tells them.
There are some independent and quasi independent agencies (like the FED) but the FAA is not such.
Starting to get into dangerous "political" territory here, so I'll stick to the facts:
Trump hasn't nominated anyone to head the FAA (one of long list of "open" positions), so for the last 14 months the agency has been run by it's acting administrator Daniel Elwell. The FAA’s top three positions are all held by officials who "shifted up" to cover their bosses's position in an acting capacity (including deputy administrator Carl Burleson & chief of staff Tina Amereihn).
There were reports that Trump wanted his eminently unqualified longtime personal pilot to lead the FAA (an $18 billion, 45,000 person federal regulatory agency), but apparently he was talked out of that.
Also of note is that Elwell's boss is Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, who is Mitch McConnell's wife.
All of Trump’s proposed budgets cut hundreds of millions from the FAA's annual budget. For two years Trump pushed a plan to privatize air traffic control which would have eliminated about 60% of employees. That idea seems dead now.
Airline enforcement fines have dropped 88% in two years and lengthy tarmac delays have doubled.
The generally close relationship between the President and the FAA (and major industry players, like airlines and Boeing) is seemingly more cozy these days.