President Biden’s nominee to head the FAA, Denver airport chief Phil Washington, has withdrawn from the nomination process. I was, frankly, surprised to see him re-nominated in January after a Democrat-controlled Senate saw him as too vulnerable to move forward with a hearing in 2022. And though he led the Biden Presidential campaign’s Department of Transportation transition, he hardly seemed the best fit for the role.
The FAA needs a confirmed Administrator, and Phil Washington’s transportation & military experience made him an excellent nominee. The partisan attacks and procedural obstruction he has faced are undeserved, but I respect his decision to withdraw and am grateful for his service.
— Secretary Pete Buttigieg (@SecretaryPete) March 26, 2023
Washington faced three hurdles,
- He’s still paid by the military. As a retired General he’s on the military payroll. The FAA’s governing statute requires its director to be a civilian. While the Administration argued he was no longer military, the consensus view was that his agency leadership would have required a waiver – legislation passed in both houses – and that wouldn’t have been forthcoming from a Republican House. At a minimum, if he’d taken charge at the FAA following Senate confirmation his actions would have been subject to litigation.
- He is embroiled in corruption allegations from his time leading LA Metro, where he signed off on several no-bid contracts for LA Metro’s sexual harassment hotline were awarded at a cost of over $8,000 per call to a charity led by a friend and donor of Metro board member and L.A. County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl. At a minimum, if there was no corruption involved, his leadership abilities touted by Democrats were called into question.
- He lacks experience in aviation safety at a time when numerous safety-related incidents have called into question the agency’s air traffic control function, its culture, and its technology contracting. While Democrats stress his outsider perspective and leadership skills, critics argued that blames Republicans, Democrats control both the committee and full Senate that would have needed to move on his nomination and had been tepid on him the first time he was nominated. He’s been removed because Democratic Senators were unwilling to push the nomination forward given his liabilities.
The Biden administration now must find a new nominee to lead the agency, or leave its temporary head in place, but most importantly address critical safety deficiencies that have led to a series of near-miss incidents over the past three months.
Oh, don’t worry I’m sure they will find another political hack that will also fall into the “he hardly seemed the best fit for the role.” model. Hunter doesn’t seem too busy right this minute, why not him?
I won’t even get into Mr. Washington’s net worth with a career in the Army and public service.
Both parties make mistakes like this, the only sad things are that they let their nominees continue to embarrass everybody far too long, and that sometimes these errors get confirmed. The holdover Postmaster General is a good example of that. And I well remember the discussion about Barry Goldwater being a sitting U.S. senator while also on the payroll as a retired major general. (He donated his salary to charity, but that’s not exactly the point.)
@Readers: Watch, or read the transcript of, Sen. John Kennedy’s cross examination of this political makeweight. It is one of funniest and (to the nominee) embarrassing events of this year. Kennedy asks him basic factual questions, drawn from the legislative mandate, about the job and Washington is completely flummoxed.
Clearly the wrong man for the job.
@ James N
Nobody likes to look at the truth
Pete should be careful about whining that much. Washington is more qualified than he is
I find is fascinating that the Secretary of Transportation (who doesn’t know an airplane from an air fryer) thinks that the Biden FAA nominee was tanked because of partisan politics. I listened to the questions. There were more “…I don’t know” answers than I could count. Finally, the nominee was put out of any further misery (as well as the nation, had he been confirmed) by withdrawing. It’s too bad that the administration is just trying to “fill a hole” with anyone to promote its diversity agenda with no real thought as to whether the nominee in any position is qualified. As a pilot, Part 121 flight instructor and citizen, I do not care about “diversity”. Put all of the nominees behind a door, read their qualifications and ask hardball questions. Then pick the nominee based on facts alone. Take a vote and hire the nominee “…behind door number 4”. whomever that person is.
Does it really matter? All the people below him do all the actual work. He just shows up to cut ribbons. And his boss is an exmayor…..