Phil Washington faces uncertain path to FAA confirmation

The trail for Denver Worldwide Airport CEO Phil Washington to guide the Federal Aviation Administration is not getting much less turbulent.

Why it issues: Washington awaits his affirmation listening to greater than six months after President Biden put ahead his nomination. In the meantime, the FAA — which faces a collection of challenges — has been with no everlasting chief since March 2022.

Driving the information: The Biden administration earlier this month resubmitted Washington’s nomination to the Senate after it expired on the finish of the earlier Congress. It did so regardless of missing clear endorsements from most Democrats, besides Colorado U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper.

• Biden’s transfer introduced a recent wave of assaults from Republicans, who’re scrutinizing Washington’s skinny aviation expertise and ties to a prison search associated to his time as CEO of Los Angeles’ Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

State of play: Following the FAA’s mass outage final week, Senate Majority Chief Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Sunday stated he’ll push to substantiate Washington.

• “I intend to interrupt this logjam, work to carry a listening to for Mr. Washington, the place he can element his expertise and reply questions after which work in direction of a speedy Senate affirmation,” Schumer stated in an announcement.
• Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), who chairs the committee that oversees the FAA, has centered on how she is going to completely vet Washington’s candidacy, as a substitute of full-throated help for his nomination.

The opposite aspect: Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), the highest Republican on the Senate Commerce committee final yr, used the system outage that quickly grounded home flight departures to criticize Washington’s temporary aviation resume.

• “We want a brand new nominee,” Wicker tweeted. “We will’t depart the flying public’s wellbeing as much as probability.”

What to look at: With the FAA’s laundry checklist of challenges within the highlight, former FAA chief counsel and performing deputy administrator Arjun Garg advised Politico the White Home will “put an additional emphasis on the purpose … that [Washington] has robust government administration capabilities.”

• “[H]e’ll really want to carry these to bear to right the sorts of points that we’re seeing proper now,” Garg added.

What’s subsequent: Cantwell’s workplace has referred to as the FAA affirmation listening to a high precedence, however has but to say when one can be held.