By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The top Republican on a U.S. Senate panel whose party rejected President Joe Biden’s nominee to head the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), on Tuesday urged Biden to pick a new nominee, saying the delay puts passengers at risk.
The FAA has been without a permanent administrator since April 2022. Biden’s nominee, Denver International Airport CEO Phil Washington, withdrew in March in the face of opposition by Republicans and some undecided Democrats.
Many Democrats had said Washington was a pick who would help the FAA address management challenges while Republicans said his aviation experience was extremely limited, noting he had not been a pilot.
“The FAA needs a Senate-confirmed administrator with substantial aviation experience,” Senator Ted Cruz, top Republican on Commerce Committee, said in a letter to Biden seen by Reuters. “Every day that passes without a FAA administrator puts the flying public at risk.”
The White House did not respond to a request comment. The FAA declined comment.
Last week, U.S. Transportation Deputy Secretary Polly Trottenberg was named acting FAA head replacing Billy Nolen, who had been acting administrator since April 2022.
Cruz said he hoped Trottenberg “will be an effective caretaker, but it is urgent for the administration to nominate a permanent head of the FAA quickly.”
On Friday, Representative Rick Larsen, top Democrat on the House Transportation Committee, said he was confident Trottenberg could do the interim job but emphasized “we need a permanent administrator” and urged quick action on a new nominee.
“It’s frustrating for me as well as for most of us that there is not a permanent administrator,” Larsen said.
The U.S. faces serious questions about aviation safety after a series of close-call runway incidents this year and a computer outage in January that led to the first nationwide grounding of departing passenger airliners since September 2001.
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating six runway incursion events since January including some that could have been catastrophic.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said he has “full confidence in Polly’s steady hand during the search for a permanent administrator.”
(Reporting by David Shepardson; editing by Jonathan Oatis and David Gregorio)
