Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) slammed President Joe Biden's nominee for head of the Federal Aviation Administration during a hearing in the Senate on Wednesday.
Cruz and other GOP senators slammed Phil Washington for not being qualified for the job, outlining his lack of experience in the aviation industry.
WHAT DOES THE FAA CHIEF DO, AND WHY IS BIDEN'S NOMINEE BEING STALLED?
Sen. Ted Cruz blasts Biden for playing politics with public safety with his pick of Phil Washington for FAA administrator: "He does not have any experience in aviation safety. This quite simply is a position he is not qualified for. I'm disappointed that pic.twitter.com/uatBZNLDAi… https://t.co/MyyGd5Gnaa
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) March 1, 2023
"He does not have any experience in aviation safety. This quite simply is a position he is not qualified for," Cruz said. "I'm disappointed that the administration has chosen to treat a critical safety position as a patronage job."
He also criticized some policies and expenditures while Washington served as the head of the Los Angeles Metro and Denver International Airport, citing an expensive sauna being approved for the LA Metro employee gym and a trip to Africa while serving as head of Denver's airport. Cruz also discussed whistleblower complaints regarding Washington while he was at LA Metro that alleged a "politically connected contract scheme."
Cruz questioned Washington regarding his lack of experience in the aviation industry, concluding that he has sufficient experience for other transportation roles but not for planes.
"As I look at your record, I see a record where you've got experience with buses. You've got experience with trains," Cruz said. "Buses and trains are very different from planes."
Sen. Ted Budd (R-NC) also concluded that Washington was not qualified for the job, tweeting that "Biden's FAA nominee failed to answer each one of my questions about basic aviation issues."
If you want to lead the Federal Aviation Administration, if would help if you knew a little bit about aviation.
— Senator Ted Budd (@SenTedBuddNC) March 1, 2023
Biden's FAA nominee failed to answer each one of my questions about basic aviation issues.
This nominee is simply not qualified for the job. https://t.co/3YzOG8zU1J
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"If you want to lead the Federal Aviation Administration, [it] would help if you knew a little bit about aviation," Budd said. "This nominee is simply not qualified for the job."
Washington was nominated by Biden in July 2022 to replace acting Administrator Billy Nolen, who took over in April 2022 after Stephen Dickson stepped down prior to the end of his five-year term. The vacancy has come under scrutiny after an outage of the FAA's Notice to Air Missions grounded flights nationwide in January and after several near collisions on runways across the country.