H.R. 5292

Air Traffic Controller Hiring Improvement Act of 2016

This bill directs the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), in appointing air traffic controllers, to give preferential consideration to qualified individuals maintaining 52 consecutive weeks of experience involving the active separation of air traffic after receipt of an air traffic certification or facility rating within 5 years of application while serving at an FAA air traffic control facility, a civilian or military air traffic control facility of the Department of Defense, or a tower operating under contract with the FAA.

The FAA shall consider additional applicants by referring an approximately equal number of employees for appointment among two applicant pools. The number referred from each group shall not differ by more than 10%.

Pool one shall consist of applicants who:

• have successfully completed air traffic controller training and graduated from an institution participating in the Collegiate Training Initiative program and have received an appropriate recommendation or endorsement from such institution,
• are eligible for a veterans recruitment appointment and provide a Certificate of Release or Discharge from Active Duty within 120 days of the announcement closing,
• are veterans eligible for veterans' benefits who maintain aviation experience obtained in the course of the individual's military experience, or
• are preference eligible veterans.

Pool two shall consist of applicants who apply under a vacancy announcement recruiting from all U.S. citizens.

The FAA: (1) may not use a biographical assessment when hiring, (2) must provide an individual who applied in response to a specified 2014 vacancy announcement and was disqualified as the result of a biographical assessment an opportunity to reapply under the revised hiring practices, and (3) must waive any maximum age limit for such reapplying applicants who met such requirement when they applied under such announcement.

Otherwise, the maximum age limit for an original appointment as an air traffic controller under this bill shall be 35 years of age.

The FAA shall consider directly notifying secondary schools and institutes of higher learning of a vacancy announcement for pool one applicants.