Under Biden, the FAA’s Focused on Hiring People with ‘Severe Intellectual’ and ‘Psychiatric’ Disabilities, Physical Issues to Hit DEI Targets

In January 2024, The Daily Mil reported that the Federal Aviation Administration is looking for recruits with ‘severe intellectual’ disabilities as it tries to hit woke DEI targets.  Jobs such as air traffic controllers with filled by those with hearing and vision impairments, missing limbs, partial and complete paralysis.

Under Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg’s watch, the FAA started a recruitment campaign to hire people with severe intellectual disabilities and psychiatric problems. How many of them became air traffic controllers? pic.twitter.com/yfiYbz88uR

— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) January 30, 2025

From August 2023:

“They were part of an alarming pattern of safety lapses and near misses in the skies and on the runways of the United States, a Times investigation found … potentially dangerous incidents are occurring far more frequently than almost anyone realizes” https://t.co/E0dcLmKh8j pic.twitter.com/vitR0Vvhf2

— Andrew Kerr (@AndrewKerrNC) January 30, 2025

From a friend who applied to the FAA to become an air traffic controller: pic.twitter.com/uEYk6PgTyc

— Jason D. Meister (@jason_meister) January 30, 2025

One year ago, Republicans stood before Congress and stated that there was shortage of air, traffic control operators, and that the DEI policies and workshops needed to go. They wanted money to go for hiring people to work in air traffic control that had nothing to do with DEI… pic.twitter.com/U303pK1roy

— Insurrection Barbie (@DefiyantlyFree) January 30, 2025

1 year ago 11 Republican Attorneys General wrote a letter to the Biden administration, expressing their frustration with the new DEI practices affecting the Federal Aviation Administration.

Nothing was ever done about their concerns by the Biden administration. pic.twitter.com/9O2UD1WXxS

— Insurrection Barbie (@DefiyantlyFree) January 30, 2025

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller: It’s absolutely heartbreaking and it’s devastating… because it’s so preventable… over the last four years, the FAA and air traffic control under Joe Biden have been dedicated to a mission not of public safety… but of DEI. pic.twitter.com/IOP45Mq0Ci

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) January 31, 2025

President Donald Trump condemned a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) initiative to hire people with disabilities in the wake of the Washington, D.C., plane collision, despite a similar initiative being launched during his first term in office.

AA’s diversity push includes focus on hiring people with ‘severe intellectual’ and ‘psychiatric’ disabilities FAA says people with ‘severe’ disabilities are most underrepresented segment of federal workforce

By Emma Colton Fox News

Published January 14, 2024 3:01pm EST

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Guest: Dalliance between safety, DEI can kill

“The Ingraham Angle” panelists Horace Cooper and Scott Pattillo discuss DEI in the workplace and a door plug detaching from a plane midflight.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is actively recruiting workers who suffer “severe intellectual” disabilities, psychiatric problems and other mental and physical conditions under a diversity and inclusion hiring initiative spelled out on the agency’s website.

“Targeted disabilities are those disabilities that the Federal government, as a matter of policy, has identified for special emphasis in recruitment and hiring,” the FAA’s website states. “They include hearing, vision, missing extremities, partial paralysis, complete paralysis, epilepsy, severe intellectual disability, psychiatric disability and dwarfism.”

The initiative is part of the FAA’s “Diversity and Inclusion” hiring plan, which says “diversity is integral to achieving FAA’s mission of ensuring safe and efficient travel across our nation and beyond.” The FAA’s website shows the agency’s guidelines on diversity hiring were last updated on March 23, 2022.

The FAA, which is overseen by Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s Department of Transportation, is a government agency charged with regulating civil aviation and employs roughly 45,000 people.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg looks on as President Biden speaks in the South Court Auditorium on the White House campus on May 8, 2023. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

All eyes have been on the FAA and airline industry in recent days after a plug door on a Boeing 737 Max 9 blew out during an Alaska Airlines flight on Jan. 5. The FAA grounded all 737 MAX 9 planes after the incident and is carrying out “extensive inspection” and maintenance work.

The FAA is recruiting workers who suffer “severe intellectual” disabilities, psychiatric problems and other mental and physical conditions under a diversity and inclusion hiring initiative. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig/File)

The FAA added it would increase its oversight of Boeing in the wake of the incident, including auditing Boeing’s 737 Max 9 jetliner production line and companies that supply parts to the airline manufacturer.

Following the incident, social media commenters and public figures have said that airlines and airline manufacturers’ emphasis on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives has made flying less safe.

“Do you want to fly in an airplane where they prioritized DEI hiring over your safety?” tech billionaire Elon Musk wrote on X last week. “That is actually happening.”

“The DEI Rot In The Airline Industry Is Way Worse Than You Think,” Daily Wire commentator Matt Walsh wrote in an op-ed last week.

Critics of such commentary have pushed back on the argument that prioritizing DEI has made traveling less safe, with civil rights groups slamming Musk, for example, for the “abhorrent and pathetic” tweet.

On the FAA’s website, the agency states that people with “severe” mental and physical disabilities are the most underrepresented segment of the federal workforce.

“Because diversity is so critical, FAA actively supports and engages in a variety of associations, programs, coalitions and initiatives to support and accommodate employees from diverse communities and backgrounds. Our people are our strength, and we take great care in investing in and valuing them as such,” the FAA reads.

When asked for comment on the initiative, including what roles people with disabilities would fulfill, the FAA told Fox News Digital that the agency thoroughly seeks and vets qualified candidates “from as many sources as possible” for a range of positions.

“The FAA employs tens of thousands of people for a wide range of positions, from administrative roles to oversight and execution of critical safety functions. Like many large employers, the agency proactively seeks qualified candidates from as many sources as possible, all of whom must meet rigorous qualifications that of course will vary by position,” the FAA said.

Dr. Stanley Goldfarb, chair of Do No Harm – a group of health care professionals, medical students and policymakers working to “protect health care from a radical, divisive, and discriminatory ideology” – told Fox News Digital that similar to the medical field, the aviation industry has an obligation to protect its travelers.

Continued…..