More Government Oversight

It has been all over the news -- the Bush administration is pushing for more government oversight in order to restore public confidence in imported products like toys and food. The administration's proposal calls for increased on-site inspections. Instead of relying on spot inspections of foreign-produced products as they enter the U.S., the proposal would shift focus to catching bad products before they are ever exported. This is an example of the reactionary mentality that the government seems to have. Instead of being proactive and ensuring the imported products were safe to begin with, it now must react to increasing public anger in the wake of recent events. But what about maintenance oversight? As AMT reported in June , PASS (the union representing FAA employees) has been saying for some time it doesn't have the resources to properly oversee foreign repair stations. Tom Brantley, national president of PASS said in June, "Inspector staffing has not kept pace with the exploding outsourcing business and nearly half of the workforce will be eligible to retire by 2010; yet, the FAA is refusing to take any steps to rectify the situation." We cannot afford to be reactionary when it comes to FAA oversight of foreign repair stations. We need to make sure that foreign repair stations are properly inspected and held to the same standards as U.S. repair stations are. It would be a shame if our government waits until a major incident or accident until it addresses this issue. Thanks for reading, Joe Escobar