President Donald Trump’s nominee for second-in-command at the Transportation Department, who has called for reforming the permitting process under the National Environmental Policy Act, has cleared the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation.
The panel voted 15-13 to approve Steven Bradbury, a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation who served as DOT’s general counsel during the first Trump administration.
Senators from both parties highlighted the need for the DOT to focus on aviation safety, in the wake of the January crash at Washington’s Ronald Reagan National Airport that killed 67 people.
“Now more than ever, it’s essential for the Department of Transportation to have officials who understand the systems they are tasked with managing, and who can assess whether such incidents have a systemic cause,” Chair Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said.
