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By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Personnel from Elon Musk's government downsizing team DOGE will make additional visits to Federal Aviation Administration facilities as they assist in efforts to modernize U.S. national airspace, the acting head of the agency said on Wednesday.
Acting FAA Administrator Chris Rocheleau said the DOGE team -- which visited the Air Traffic Control command center and Potomac TRACON in Warrenton, Virginia, on Monday -- will be at other FAA facilities, including FAA headquarters.
"We are asking for their help to engineer solutions while we keep the airspace open and safe," Rocheleau said in an email to employees that was seen by Reuters. "They will contribute to our goal of continuous improvement, which is the key to making sure flying continues to be the safest mode of transportation. We will learn from them, and they will learn more about aviation safety from us."
A U.S. Transportation Department spokesperson said the DOGE team at the FAA consists of SpaceX engineers acting as special government employees. Musk is the founder and CEO of the rocket company SpaceX. To avoid conflicts, the SpaceX engineers are being walled off from the FAA's Office of Commercial Space Transportation, which regulates SpaceX.
The FAA in September proposed fining SpaceX $633,000 for allegedly failing to follow license requirements and not getting approval for changes during two launches in 2023.
Musk called for the FAA's administrator at the time, Mike Whitaker, to resign after the fine was proposed. Whitaker opted to resign on Jan. 20, just over a year into his five-year term, and Trump has yet to nominate a replacement.
The FAA fired more than 300 probationary employees on Friday. Rocheleau said the moves were "in alignment with the Administration’s goal to make government more efficient. ... I want to assure you the agency has retained employees who perform safety critical functions."
A coalition of aviation industry and union groups on Wednesday urged Congress to approve emergency funding to boost FAA air traffic technology and air traffic control staffing.
The FAA remains 3,500 air traffic controllers short of targeted staffing and has outdated technology. In 2022, the FAA said it was working to end a long-ridiculed, decades-old practice of air traffic controllers using paper flight strips to keep track of aircraft. But adopting the change at 49 major airports will take the FAA until late 2029.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Leslie Adler)
