On Friday, about 300 Federal Aviation Administration employees were given pink slips. These were probationary employees who were hired during the Biden Administration under the policies that included aggressive hiring of mentally ill people. Some plan to sue.
The FAA’s targeted disabilities under Biden included:
- Hearing (total deafness in both ears)
- Vision (Blind)
- Missing Extremities
- Partial Paralysis
- Complete Paralysis, Epilepsy
- Severe intellectual disability
- Psychiatric disability
- Dwarfism
“Individuals with targeted disabilities have the greatest difficulty obtaining employment. This is the only protected group for which Federal agencies may have a hiring goal,” the FAA said on its web page last year. According to the FAA, many people with these disabilities could be hired “on the spot.”
“The ‘On-the-Spot’ special appointment authority is a non-competitive hiring method for filling vacancies for people with disabilities. Full benefits are awarded to the non-competitive appointee.”
The Federal Aviation Administration employs over 35,000 people, including air traffic controllers, technicians, engineers, and support personnel. Thus, the employees being released represent less than one percent of the workforce. President Trump has offered many public employees buy outs, and has ordered that the federal workforce be reduced because America faces a debt crisis.
At the same time, the agency is still hiring. Here’s an example of some of the jobs being advertised this weekend:
One man who was fired put out an “URGENT – NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT” message on his LinkedIn account and revealed much about the top-secret work to which he was assigned.
Charles Spitzer-Stadtlander wrote that he believes his firing was in retaliation for his posts on Facebook speaking negatively about Tesla, the automobile company owned by Elon Musk, and about X/Twitter, also owned by Musk. He said he plans to file an appeal:
“I work(ed) for the FAA National Defense Programs (NDP). My position is/was a national security critical-designated job that was supposed to be exempted from the massive (and unlawful) firings of probationary employees.
“On Saturday morning at 12:43AM CST, while I was actively working on an extremely important and classified project in response to a credible threat to America’s national security, I was fired.
“Before I was fired, the official DOGE Facebook page started harassing me on my personal Facebook account after I criticized Tesla and Twitter. Less than a week later, I was fired, despite my position allegedly being exempted due to national security,” he said.
Stadtlander, who lists himself as as a “he/him” in his bio, is a lawyer and has a masters degree in public administration.
“For those who do not know, FAA NDP is tasked with protecting the National Air Space from threats such as missiles, enemy drones, aircraft used as weapons (think 9-11), and so forth.
“FAA NDP is a small, yet critical part of protecting the American public and many of our border states that are at risk of attack from our foreign adversaries such as China and Russia.”
Stadtlander, who has worked in government his entire life, has been with the FAA since March of 2024, after leaving his job as legislative director for the government of Washington, D.C., one of the most socialistic government organization in America.
“In March 2024 – I was recruited from my job as Legislative Director at the DC Government to the FAA NDP for the purpose of working on a critical national defense project and in response to a grave and credible threat to the American Air Space.
“While working for the FAA NDP, I served as the FAA Lead to the DoD for Open Mission Systems and Data Rights on an urgent project underway in response to a credible national defense threat to America’s National Air Space.
“When DOGE fired me, they turned off my computer and wiped all of my files without warning. I had just finished a classified meeting at Hill AFB in SLC and was on my way home when I was fired. I was also scheduled to be at Hanscom AFB this upcoming week for additional briefings.”
Stadtlander also lists himself as a member of the FAA Pride organization for LGBTQ that says, “FAA Pride is the FAA Employee Association dedicated for the needs of the LGBTQIA+ community but membership is open to everyone. Celebrating diversity is important for everyone. This is a non-government organization.” The organization directs civil servants who are worried about their jobs in the Trump Administration to read a Substack written specifically with them in mind, which advises them how to hide their political work and use secret communications.
“I will be appealing my termination based on political retaliation – which happened in the same unsigned form letter others received – and which my boss and FAA leadership appear to have had no idea of, thought was exempted, and vehemently disagreed with,” Stadtlander wrote.
“My boss and FAA leadership had actively advocated for my position to be excluded from DOGE terminations due to the grave national security implications of my work and believed that such an exemption had been granted,” he said, although it’s clear he was a probationary employee who believes the country depends on him alone.
“I had also received excellent performance evaluations and even received a valuing for performance pay raise in January as the FAA is one of the only federal agencies that gives pay raises based on merit and performance.
“I decided over the weekend that I want to talk publicly about what happened – especially the harassment I received from DOGE on my personal social media accounts prior to my being fired simply for criticizing Tesla and Twitter (X).
“I’m also deeply concerned about DOGE’s disregard of the national security implications of my termination.
“I believe that the public has a right to know that America’s national security has been made less safe,” Stadtlander wrote.
The union representing the employees called the firings a “hastily made decision” that would increase the workload of a workforce already stretched thin. The union statement referred to the Washington crash as well as two others in recent weeks across the country as evidence that it was not the time to cut personnel at the agency.
“This decision did not consider the staffing needs of the FAA, which is already challenged by understaffing,” David Spero, the national president of the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists, AFL-CIO, said in a statement. “Staffing decisions should be based on an individual agency’s mission-critical needs. To do otherwise is dangerous when it comes to public safety. And it is especially unconscionable in the aftermath of three deadly aircraft accidents in the past month.”
Only Democrats would think it a great idea to hire blind and deaf people as ATC’s…….
The FAA has many more jobs than just air traffic controllers…and blind and deaf people are not manning the controls in the tower.
The Democrats thought it was a great idea to invite Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette, the director of government affairs at the Project On Government Oversight, to testify at a congressional hearing that he doesn’t see any widespread abuse or wasteful government spending and that DOGE won’t find any.
Mr. Hedtler-Gaudette is blind. As in, sunglasses wearing, white cane tapping blind. The optics weren’t good, so to speak…
How many of these 300 are disabled or otherwise inappropriate for the position they were hired into?
I question the validity of He/Him Statlander. It’s the little things that catches the lie. Hill AFB is not in SLC it’s in the Ogden Clearfield area.
Honestly, you will defend anything Trump and Musk do, even if it works against your own interests. Pathetic. The takeover of your minds is 100% complete.
Whidbey,
When will you realize that everyone needs to take a bite out this bitter apple. And I mean everyone to get this crazy debt under control. Clinton & Obama both ran under the premise to get the spending & debt under control. Now we finally have a Administration that is actually doing it.
Another leftist more upset about the person exposing the massive waste of taxpayer dollars than the actual waste of taxpayer money.
If you do not think that says a lot about your mind, you are very special.
Stadtlander: “For those who do not know, FAA NDP is tasked with protecting the National Air Space from threats such as missiles, enemy drones, aircraft used as weapons (think 9-11), and so forth.
Wow, if we have to depend on the FAA to protect National Air Space, then we’re in trouble with or without this crybaby.
““I believe that the public has a right to know that America’s national security has been made less safe,” Stadtlander wrote.”
Obviously more safe now that this crybaby is chopped. He undoubtedly violated his security clearance with some of his sniveling message.
If he had/has any kind of skill as claimed “a lawyer and has a masters degree in public administration” he could move on to bigger and better things. This is likely a tell as to why he was actually snipped.
He just gave everyone the exact reason why he should not be in a high security position, what a dim-wit
Someone let him know that Hill AFB is in the Layton Utah area about 30 minutes North up the road, way closer to Ogden than SLC. They should hire me, at least I know where things are located.
As someone that was married to an air traffic controller for many years, I can’t imagine anyone with the disabilities that could handle the stress of being an air traffic controller. This is someone that has to be at the top of mental and physical health. If they are applying for other jobs in the FAA that do not require both mental and physical health they should be considered. There are many other jobs in the government that would be better fit for their hiring.
I supposed this gentleman is too young to remember the old adage:
“Loose lips sink ships!”
Keeping this in mind, one wonders about his qualifications and expertise to assess threats to our national air space with a background in administration and lawyering.
Anyone with a passing acquaintance with any Tom Clancy or similar novels, can discern that this individual doth protest too much. His mental stability along with the veracity of his claims are called into question.