[VIDEO] 

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, delivered the following opening statement at the July 30, 2025, Full Committee Markup:

“Thank you, Mr. Chairman, I want to first acknowledge, as you did, the tsunami warnings that we had last night and a magnitude 8.8 earthquake off the coast of Russia. Those warnings were made possible because of the incredible work of NOAA employees, emergency responders to make sure that our coastal communities, like the state of Washington, Hawaii and Alaska and California and Oregon and other impacted areas were given warning safely in advance

“We have this capability because of investments we've made in infrastructure. This includes the DART program, the NOAA buoys positioned in the ocean to monitor for tsunamis in real time, and the work of NOAA Center for Tsunami Research in Seattle, working to improve the models to provide faster and more accurate weather and warning information.

“Today, our committee meets to consider seven nominations and the promotion of 20 Coast Guard officers and three pieces of legislation. Today's bills include, as you mentioned, the shark interactions with fisheries, aligning strategic planning timelines for US advanced manufacturing and providing increased flexibility to NASA's leasing authority to allow on site research by outside entities.

“We consider the SHARKED Act of 2025, from Senator Schatz and Senator Scott of Florida, this bill creates a task force to focus on reducing shark interactions with fisheries. This task force would review partially or fully-consumed hooked fish before they can be landed by anglers, to seek ways to reduce these interactions. The streamlining American Manufacturing Act by Senator Blunt Rochester and Budd aligns timelines for updating both the manufacturing USA strategic plan – which was previously on a three-year cycle – and the National Strategy for Advanced Manufacturing to every four years on the same cycle. This alignment ensures a clear set of goals and synchronized data and reduces bureaucracy for U.S. advanced manufacturing stakeholders.

“And finally, the Space Exploration Research Act by you, Mr. Chairman, and Senators Padilla, Britt, Lujan, Schiff and Wicker would also allow NASA to lease its property to states, local governments and nonprofits, for higher ed organizations, so they can build and expand research facilities with non-federal funding sources. This purpose is to support activities related to space and aeronautic research, and workforce training and education and public-private technology partnership. And I can just tell you, from the Pacific Northwest, we have a very big space industry, and we want to continue to see it grow.

“I plan to support Dr. Jacobs to serve as NOAA Administrator.  In the face of a rapidly changing climate, increasingly extreme storms and wildfires, the NOAA position could never be more important. And while we may have some differences with Dr. Jacobs and some issues with [his] previous time, I believe that he is in agreement on what NOAA's priorities should be like the Organic Act, our long overdue mission to make sure that we're continuing to invest in forecasting technology, including the proposals I put forth on a Five Point Plan, and other pieces of legislation critical to NOAA's future.

“Next, Paul Roberti to be Administrator of Pipeline and Hazardous Materials [Safety]. I'll also be supporting him. I am concerned about the steep decline in pipeline enforcement cases thus far in the Trump Administration, but I believe Mr. Roberti is qualified to lead the agency and will work hard to reverse this alarming trend – specifically this issue of how foreign actors attack our pipeline system, and what we need to do to work with other agencies to strengthen the resiliency of that system.

“Other people though -- I will not be supporting Mr. Taylor [Jordan] to be Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Environmental Observation [and Prediction]. I have serious concerns about his views on climate and a variety of activities in the private sector. I do not plan to support Derek Barrs…nominated as the Administrator of Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. The trucking industry is essential, but it must be operated safely, and we've seen a significant decline in enforcement actions. And we had a chance to talk about this, but I did not - was not satisfied with his answers.

“Mr. Morrison to be NHTSA Administrator again, same, same issues. We want to see an Administrator that is going to enforce and make sure that the laws are upheld. And Mr. Zerzan, I'm concerned that in the vacuum left [for] the Deputy Secretary, Mr. Bradbury, the agenda of the Trump administration [is] trying to get rid of aviation regulations when we have lots of aviation problems and we need to have good oversight. 

“Finally, Mr. Rutherford to be Assistant Secretary of Transportation for multimodal.  While we had great conversation here in the Committee about working for the priorities of Mega, and freight and various things, in the QFRs, he said he no longer supported increasing investments in these programs, and so I'm not going to support his nomination.”

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