The deregulation doctrine remains the corporatist bipartisan federal policy consensus, despite the fact it has eroded both worker and consumer safety over the past four decades. Regulations that prevent monopolistic consolidation or ensure workplace safety represent burdensome red tape to free market fundamentalists. American regulatory policy is trapped in an endless cycle between Republicans gutting policies that keep us safe and Democrats doing little to combat further corporate capture of public institutions. We’re currently in the middle of this cycle right now; however, Trump’s deregulatory crusade is far more aggressive and front-facing than what has come before.
During his time in office, former President Joe Biden did what little he could to clean up the destruction left by the first Trump Presidency. While the Biden Administration implemented decent policy reforms in some areas of federal regulatory policy, other agencies under Biden failed to address systemic problems created by decades of deregulation. One such agency was the Federal Aviation Administration. The lack of action under Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg left the agency defenseless against the Second Trump Administration’s extreme deregulatory onslaught. At the helm of this deregulation project is South African-born billionaire Elon Musk. Musk’s governmental task force, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), is quickly making him the poster child for elite capture in this country. DOGE has acted with complete impunity as it takes a hacksaw towards several federal agencies and public programs.
In the opening days of the second Trump presidency, DOGE initiated the first of many mass firings of civil servants in critical safety roles including National park rangers, data security technicians, and air traffic controllers. Nine days after inauguration day, disaster struck when American Airlines Flight 5342 collided with a black hawk military helicopter above the Potomac River, killing 67 people. Throughout February, several more plane crashes have occurred across the country, creating a disturbing pattern of aviation related incidents. FAA administrator Michael Whitiker was one of the first regulatory administrators forced out by Musk, likely to prevent an impending enforcement action against SpaceX.
For nearly nine days, the FAA was leaderless and severely understaffed, exacerbating the already dire working conditions experienced by air traffic controllers. In the days preceding the fatal collision, there were signs that something was about to go horribly wrong. Air traffic controllers were reporting several near misses that could have resulted in collisions, some only 24 hours before the January 29th incident. These near misses were not isolated incidents, the FAA 2023 safety report revealed the increase was due to chronic understaffing of control towers and inconsistent funding streams for safety programs. It should be noted, however, that disturbing aviation-related incidents didn’t originate under Trump. Gutting the FAA’s regulatory authority has been a bipartisan endeavor over the past few presidential administrations. Democratic and Republican administrations have overseen an extremely flawed “self-regulation” program.
Aviation experts have nicknamed the FAA the “tombstone agency” because of its incredibly reactive approach to airline safety. Administrators routinely address problems well after disaster strikes, rather than acting preemptively. This problem is only made worse by national shortages of air traffic controllers. For the past 15 years, the FAA has shifted much of its oversight responsibilities onto the airline industry itself. At the heart of this deregulatory approach to airline safety is the Organizational Designation Authorization (ODA) program, which allows Boeing, the largest airplane supplier in the US, to conduct its own safety inspections of its jets. Boeing’s safety program has notoriously produced lackluster results. Disturbing safety blunders like an Alaska airlines flight losing its passenger door mid-flight plagued Boeing with bad press throughout 2024. According to an anonymous Boeing whistleblower, the door plug malfunction was caused by four missing bolts meant to secure the door in place. Boeing safety inspectors likely missed the glaring safety issue because of the program’s convoluted reporting system.
It is beyond clear that Boeing cannot be trusted to conduct its own safety inspections, which is why several union leaders in the aviation industry have called for an end to the ODA program. Similarly to Trump, the Bush administration justified this approach under the guise of “improving government efficiency” and “cost savings”. The ODA program has done the opposite, only making air travel less safe. Critics claim that the ODA’s “organizational designee system” is an unnecessary regulatory cost that should be put into hiring more FAA inspectors. Despite originating as a Bush Administration rule, it was President Obama and the Democratic controlled 111th Congress that implemented the program. Boeing spent upwards of $26 Million lobbying Congress to sign off on the plan.
By 2011, Department of Transportation officials openly criticized the FAA’s lack of oversight in hiring inspectors that perform work on behalf of the agency. According to the 2011 report, “without proper FAA oversight, companies could appoint inspectors with inadequate qualifications or a history of poor performance to approve certification projects.” After a slew of Boeing 737 Max 8 crashes in 2018, congressional review uncovered the true extent of lax FAA enforcement. The reputation of these planes are so negative, that Boeing employees openly joke about how Max 8 designers were “clowns” and didn’t know what they were doing. Further investigation revealed that Boeing withheld critical information about the Max 8’s flight control system from the FAA.
Legislative and federal reform efforts have done little to improve Boeing’s compliance with safety standards because of Boeing’s immense influence over elected officials. Former Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg largely squandered his chance at rolling back deregulatory policies from past administrations. Despite a consistent amount of reassurances to the public, his office did little to improve airline safety. Buttigieg initiated an investigation into Boeing’s gross negligence after significant public outcry forced him to address the issue. So far, Buttigieg’s successor has indicated that he intends to continue the oversight measures on Boeing’s safety plan. It remains to be seen if these measures will be targeted by DOGE’s deregulation crusade.
DOGE is simply the latest manifestation of the deregulation doctrine that began under Jimmy Carter and intensified under Reagan, Bush, and Clinton. Both parties failed to reign in the monster they created, and now American workers are paying the price. It only took a few weeks for DOGE to shatter the FAA’s safety program and countless other public programs. Destructive deregulatory policies continue only at our expense. Dissolving safety standards in the interest of “market efficiency” only degrades the quality of governmental services. Stripping the FAA of its ability to hold the aviation industry accountable has only made air travel less safe over the past decade. DOGE’s attacks on airline safety might finally be enough for our elected officials to sweep the deregulation doctrine into the dustbin of history.
(Photo by Pixabay for Pexel)
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