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NTSB seeks roughly $156 million for FY26 to reach full staffing; chair warns of burnout and hiring bottlenecks
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Summary
NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy told the House Appropriations Subcommittee the agency seeks increased FY26 funding to grow from about 427 employees toward a fully staffed target of roughly 485–500 and to expand training and first‑responder outreach.
The National Transportation Safety Board told House appropriators it needs increased appropriations and targeted hiring authorities to maintain investigative capacity and reduce burnout among specialized investigators.
Jennifer Homendy, Chairwoman of the National Transportation Safety Board, told the Appropriations Subcommittee the NTSB’s workforce numbered about 427 at the time of testimony, that agency authorizations permit roughly 450, and that true full staffing would be in the 485–500 range. She said the NTSB requested roughly $156,000,000 for FY26 to reach closer to that full staffing level and to increase training and outreach.
“Seventy percent of our budget is our workforce,” Homendy told the panel, arguing that the agency runs lean and must invest in hiring and retention for highly skilled specialties such as structural engineering and recorder analysis. She noted the agency had hiring exemptions for investigative staff and was actively recruiting for more than a dozen positions but emphasized it also needs additional support personnel (CFO, CIO, HR and safety staff) to avoid overloading investigators.
Homendy and committee members discussed staff turnover, the time required to train new investigators (she estimated three to five years to fully prepare new hires for major investigations), and the risks of burnout from constant on‑call deployments. Homendy said some investigators had to work holidays and international responses, and that retaining experienced personnel requires staffing redundancy and predictable time off.
Representative Stephanie Bice praised individual investigators and asked how the NTSB plans to recruit and retain people with specialized credentials; Homendy described outreach and the NTSB’s party process (bringing external technical experts into investigations) as recruitment pathways but said sustained funding is the primary constraint.
No appropriation was voted on during the hearing. Homendy asked the committee to treat the FY26 request as an investment that will reduce backlog, shorten the age of open investigations and improve the agency’s responsiveness to emerging transportation threats.
