The FAA-the agency near and dear to my heart because I've worked in airlines/aviation in some capacity nearly my whole career, including when I was in High School. The FAA is also the largest of the federal transportation agencies.

The FAA itself employs over 45,000 people, but is also indirectly responsible for over half a million more of us who work directly for airlines, airports, general aviation providers, flight academies and aircraft manufacturers. We ALL answer to the FAA in the end

At any given moment there are approximately 5,000 aircraft in U.S. skies. The FAA is responsible for 5.3 million square miles of U.S. domestic airspace and 24 million square miles of U.S. airspace over the oceans.

Before Covid, there was an average of over 43,000 flights DAILY in and out of the USA, and that is not counting drones, many of which are now under FAA rules and jurisdiction.

The US Air Traffic control system is governed by the FAA and it's been ancient and crumbling. There is a nextgen system going in to place and my hope is that Pete Buttigieg will lead the charge in moderninzing it, because what worked in 1978 isn't so great now.

The FAA was also weakened under the Trump administration and was one of the causes of the Boeing 737 MAX fiasco, which grounded the new, state of the art aircraft for almost 2 years because of crashes and safety concerns. Lack of oversight, faulty training was the root cause.

At a fundraiser, I took the opportunity to ask Pete about how he would strengthen the FAA to ensure that kind of thing never happened again. He stressed the importance of oversight and infrastructure because as being mayor, he knew that he was indirectly responsible for many.

I can't remember the entire answer, because it was complete and we conversed for a few minutes and I admittedly was mesmerized, but I went away feeling that he would take care of me and mine in the airline industry should he be president.

And although he didn't win this time, I am thrilled he will still be able to do this and I will have an even bigger reason to do my best at MY FAA regulated job, because I adore the person who's in charge and I definitely will not let him down.