On Thursday Feb. 8 the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee of the United States Senate is scheduled to mark-up the Senate version of the FAA reauthorization legislation. It's a fair guess at this point that the extension of the mandatory retirement age to 67, which is part of the bill passed by the House, will not be approved by the Committee or the Senate. Vehement opposition by Sen. Duckworth especially (and in light of the Senator's military aviation career and experience) as well as other legislators, plus the position taken just days ago by the FAA on the item, point to the outcome. Likewise, probably, on modifications of the so-called 1500-hour rule. (These observations aren't meant to comment on the merits of either proposal.)
Though sadly there's precious little making much sense in Washington at present, it does appear that the legislation will get through the Senate now and move to conference where the House and Senate conferees will reconcile the two somewhat different bills and derive a final bill.
The point is, with the significantly ramped up scrutiny of Boeing announced by FAA in the aftermath of thr Flight 1282 door plug accident, getting reauthorization legislation done (and enacted and signed into law), finally, will enable if not empower the recently-confirmed Administrator to press forward more deliberately. Provisions in the bill also are designed to address ATCO staffing directly if not aggressively. The legislation also addresses issues in several other parts of the aviation sector.
This SLF/attorney had observed that the nomination and confirmation of Mr. Whitaker was praised widely throughout various parts of the aviation community (and deservedly so). Once the reauthorization of FAA finally is complete, curb your surprise over FAA taking more intensive approaches to issues with Boeing. And other safety-critical issues too.