NTSB Chair Urges Reauthorization, More Staff and Funding to Keep Pace with Complex Investigations

National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy told the Senate Commerce Committee on March 6 that the NTSB needs reauthorization and predictable funding to maintain investigative capacity across aviation, highway, rail and emerging technologies.

Homendy described a growth in caseload and complexity — roughly 2,200 domestic and 450 foreign cases annually — and said the agency relies on a small workforce to produce detailed investigations. "We are a small agency with a big voice," she said, adding that a hiring freeze and continuing resolutions have reduced staffing from recent highs and are increasing investigation timeliness risks.

She thanked the committee for a FY24 appropriation that provided $140 million but warned that "flat funding in the out years as proposed in the Senate bill would devastate our agency" and reverse progress on backlog reduction. Homendy said that when she took the agency she worked to reduce a backlog of nearly 500 investigations; staffing increases and process changes brought those numbers down, she said, but current hiring limits leave the board with hard choices between equipment, training and personnel.

Senators pressed Homendy on mode-specific needs: air traffic control hiring and training, runway incursion technology, rail inspections and the two-person crew provision in recent railway safety legislation, 911 modernization, helicopter-tour safety standards and the NTSB’s role on autonomous-vehicle recommendations. Homendy emphasized the board’s safety-first mandate and said the NTSB issues recommendations based on facts; regulators implementing rules perform cost-benefit analysis later.

Committee members asked what Congress could do. Homendy urged reauthorization with clear staffing levels and sustained increases to allow the NTSB to maintain lab equipment, hire and train investigators, and produce timely investigations. Senators said they will continue to press for funding in conference and work to include the NTSB in FAA reauthorization measures.