By Andy Pasztor and Andrew Tangel 

A House panel's investigation into Boeing Co.'s 737 MAX provides support for potential far-reaching changes to air-safety laws. But bickering on Capitol Hill, combined with a limited revamp already embraced by regulators, could derail the efforts.

Democrats on the House Transportation Committee released a report detailing a series of errors that led to two fatal MAX crashes in less than five months, including "technical miscalculations and troubling management misjudgments" by Boeing.

The report, released Wednesday along with hundreds of additional pages of backup material, also cites "grossly insufficient oversight" by the Federal Aviation Administration and lays out a litany of agency policies and procedures it claims need revision.

Relevant House and Senate committees still haven't agreed on a common legislative approach for revising the FAA's safety oversight of new aircraft designs, according to people familiar with the matter. At this point in an election year, with limited legislative time left, opportunities to work out agreements or engage in floor debates are shrinking.

As a result, veteran government, industry and labor officials said that barring a breakthrough in the next few weeks, they are skeptical significant changes are imminent.

On Wednesday, the Senate Commerce Committee failed to advance a bipartisan package prompted by the MAX's fatal problems, which claimed a total of 346 lives in 2018 and 2019. Members on both sides of the aisle had expected the bill to pass.

Proposed by Sens. Roger Wicker (R., Miss.) and Maria Cantwell (D., Wash.) after weeks of staff discussions, the bill seeks to give the FAA more control and more clearly defined authority over certification of new aircraft models by requiring the agency to approve specific industry employees working on its behalf. Under longstanding procedures blessed by Congress, such company officials, known as FAA designees, are authorized to make a range of safety evaluations and decisions as stand-ins for the agency.

Among other changes, the Senate bill would establish new whistleblower protections and aim to shore up channels for reporting safety problems during the process of certifying new aircraft. It would also mandate the agency pay greater attention to how pilots react to automated cockpit systems.

Sen. Cantwell said committee members hadn't come to an agreement over several amendments filed late Tuesday. She said she and Mr. Wicker will continue to "work with our colleagues on these unresolved issues."

Calling the delay a setback, Mr. Wicker said in a statement he remained willing to work with committee members on any proposal.

The bill might not come up for a committee vote this year, according to one of the people tracking the legislation.

Democratic staffers on the House Transportation panel, by contrast, over the months have told industry and labor representatives they are aiming for broader changes. The House bill that was being drafted weeks ago, according to people briefed on the process, included provisions that would put certain designees on the FAA payroll, even though they would remain employees of Boeing or other companies. The goal is to insulate them from undue pressure by corporate management.

The House bill also might include some type of a sunset provision, which would bar Boeing and other plane makers from basing new aircraft models on previous designs after a specified number of years. The 737 MAX was the latest of many updated versions of a plane that entered service in the late 1960s. Republicans on the House committee have indicated support for less far-reaching revisions to current practices.

With negotiations under way on both sides of Capitol Hill, some of those earlier provisions could change significantly, according to people tracking developments.

Meanwhile, FAA leaders have said they are implementing several changes of their own aimed at improving communication among various agency offices; providing enhanced protections for FAA employees subject to industry pressure; and ensuring that crucial safety data is promptly and widely distributed throughout the agency.

On Tuesday, before the blowup in the Senate committee, Rep. Peter DeFazio of Oregon, the Democratic chairman of the House panel, expressed optimism he could work with his GOP counterparts to get legislation through Congress, even in a lame-duck session after the November election.

Mr. DeFazio said he didn't want to eliminate the system of delegated regulatory authority entirely.

"We're not going to scrap the whole process," Mr. DeFazio said in a call with reporters. "But in the case of the MAX, it pointed to problems with that process as it exists and we will be adopting significant reforms to it."

Some longtime FAA engineers have complained in recent years that the current delegation system affords the industry too much say over regulatory decisions. They say the current process has diminished FAA oversight over who acts on the agency's behalf, and generally has allowed manufacturers significant sway over safety decisions during the certification process, with managers at times overriding them in favor of the industry.

Front-line FAA employees are often left checking regulatory paperwork after systems are designed, they say, leaving regulators unable to perform meaningful oversight.

FAA officials previously said the existing system of delegation has produced the safest era in commercial aviation safety, and said it would require hiring thousands of additional agency engineers to perform tasks now completed by company employees on behalf of the government.

But even senior FAA officials acknowledge the need for a closer relationship between the agency and those using its delegated authority. "I would certainly wish that we had better communication," Ali Bahrami, the agency's safety chief, told House committee investigators in December 2019.

Write to Andy Pasztor at andy.pasztor@wsj.com and Andrew Tangel at Andrew.Tangel@wsj.com

 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 17, 2020 10:10 ET (14:10 GMT)

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