"Targeted disabilities are those disabilities that the Federal government, as a matter of policy, has identified for special emphasis in recruitment and hiring," the FAA's website states. "They include hearing, vision, missing extremities, partial paralysis, complete paralysis, epilepsy, severe intellectual disability, psychiatric disability and dwarfism." The FAA currently has 47,000 employees.

In recent days, heightened attention has been directed toward the FAA and the airline industry following an incident on January 5, where a plug door on a Boeing 737 Max 9 blew out during an Alaska Airlines flight.

"Do you want to fly in an airplane where they prioritized DEI hiring over your safety?," Tesla CEO Elon Musk wrote on X last week. "That is actually happening."