Clock Ticks on Trump Transportation Nominees
High-Profile DOT, NTSB, NASA Posts Still Pending in the Senate
Key Takeaways:
- The Senate Commerce Committee advanced several Transportation Department and NASA nominees, setting up potential confirmation votes with fewer than a dozen legislative days left in 2025.
- The nominations drew partisan tension as Democrats objected to proceeding with an NTSB pick while a lawsuit challenges the administration’s removal of the agency’s vice chair.
- Senate Republican leaders have not scheduled final votes, leaving the nominees’ confirmations pending as the legislative calendar winds down.
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As congressional leaders work to wrap up the 2025 legislative calendar, President Donald Trump’s picks for senior posts at the Department of Transportation await consideration in the Senate.
The Commerce Committee recently approved nominees for leadership roles in the secretary’s office and key safety agencies, setting up confirmation votes as early as this month. The Senate has fewer than a dozen legislative days before the holidays.
These nominees include Michael Graham for reappointment to the independent National Transportation Safety Board, Adm. Kevin E. Lunday to become U.S. Coast Guard commandant, and Ryan McCormack for the role of undersecretary of transportation for policy.
McCormack, nominated in September, is the department’s deputy chief of staff. Prior to that role, he had been a longtime congressional aide.
Responding to a questionnaire from the Commerce Committee, McCormack told senators his responsibilities, if confirmed, would include assisting the secretary of transportation in carrying out presidential policies while exercising the statutory authorities of the undersecretary position.
In November, committee Chairman Ted Cruz (R-Texas) applauded McCormack’s credentials, saying his “experiences in both the legislative and executive branches give him a deep institutional knowledge needed to address the 40,000 annual highway fatalities, streamline project permitting and make America a world leader in advanced transportation technologies such as drones and autonomous vehicles.”
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The panel also recently approved Jared Isaacman for the chief post at NASA. Cruz said the agency stands at an inflection point and needs a leader who can prioritize amid competition with China to return to the moon.
“NASA can’t do everything it wants to; the agency must prioritize if we are to beat China back to the moon,” Cruz said, adding that, if confirmed, Isaacman will be “taking the helm just as NASA is set to launch Artemis 2 — the agency’s first crewed use of the Space Launch System rocket and the first crewed mission on the Orion spacecraft, which will bring American astronauts closer to the lunar surface than at any point since 1972.”
Senate Republican leaders have yet to schedule votes on the nominees.
The committee also has yet to vote on John DeLeeuw’s nomination for a spot on the NTSB. DeLeeuw, managing director of safety and efficiency at American Airlines, was nominated in September.
Democrats have pushed back on the NTSB vote following the Trump administration’s removal of NTSB Vice Chair Alvin Brown earlier this year. Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), the committee’s ranking member, has repeatedly questioned the removal.
Cantwell. (Jim Watson/Pool via Associated Press)
“As my Democratic colleagues and I have made clear, this committee should not be rewarding President Trump’s illegal removal of NTSB Vice Chair Alvin Brown by rushing to confirm his replacement,” Cantwell said Dec. 6. “This is especially true when Vice Chair Brown’s lawsuit challenging his unlawful removal is pending.
“But unfortunately,” Cantwell went on, “my Republican colleagues are doing precisely that — disregarding the significant uncertainty this may create, the dangerous precedent this would set, and the damage this may cause by enabling the White House’s power grab.”
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