US Senate Commerce Committee to vote on FAA chief nominee next week

The United States Senate Commerce Committee said this week that it will be voting on President Joe Biden's nominee to lead the Federal Aviation Administration. The committee is set to vote on the nominee as the FAA is facing concerns after several incidents.

The Democrat-led Senate committee is set to vote on Biden's nominee to lead the FAA, Denver International Airport Chief Executive Officer Phil Washington, setting the date of the vote to March 22. This comes as Republicans have criticized Washington, questioning his aviation experience on whether he is fit for the post. The Transportation Department defended Washington, saying that he is qualified for the role.

This follows the Republican-controlled House of Representatives' move in January to pass legislation that would establish an FAA task force to improve a key pilot messaging database. The Senate committee will also be voting on the measure next week. The passage of the measure follows an incident that also took place in January, where the FAA halted all departing passenger airline flights for almost two hours due to an outage in pilot messaging.

The FAA has since come under scrutiny for a series of close-call incidents and is facing questions regarding its oversight of Boeing after two fatal 737 MAX crashes.

The Senate committee's ranking Republican member, Ted Cruz, and other congressional Republicans said Washington must have a waiver from the rules that require civilian leadership to head the FAA and that Washington was not able to answer basic questions about the agency. Washington retired from the US army in July 2000.

The Senate Commerce committee chair, Maria Cantwell, said Washington is the right candidate to change the culture n the FAA and ensure accountability.

On Wednesday, the Senate confirmed Biden's nominee, former Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, as the US ambassador to India after being nominated in 2021, with the delay due to allegations over Garcetti's handling of workplace harassment complaints. Garcetti was confirmed on a vote of 52-42, with seven Republicans voting to confirm and three Democrats opposed.

"The United States-India relationship is extremely important and it's a very good thing we now have an ambassador," said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer following Garcetti's confirmation.