[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 remarks at today’s hearing on three Department of Transportation (DOT) nominees: Gregory Zerzan, to be General Counsel of DOT; Michael Rutherford, to be Assistant Secretary for the Office of Multimodal Freight Infrastructure and Policy; and Seval Oz, to be Assistant Secretary for the Office of Research and Technology.

Sen. Cantwell: “Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and welcome to the nominees. Congratulations on that nomination. We're here today to consider, as the Chairman said, Mr. Zerzan to be General Counsel at [the] Department of Transportation, Mr. Rutherford to be Assistant Secretary for the Office of Multi[modal] Freight Infrastructure and policy, and Ms. Oz to be Assistant Secretary for the Office of Research and Technology.

“These three positions are critical to the core mission of the Department in improving safety and investing in our nation's infrastructure. The Department's leaders must be committed to holding the transportation sector[s] it regulates to protect safety and consumer standards.

“Mr. Zerzan, the General Counsel plays a critical role in everything the Department does, determining which safety requirements are approved or eliminated, signing off on grant agreements, [and] allowing cities and states to begin building projects. I have recently expressed my concern about the now Deputy Secretary Steven Bradbury, who, as General Counsel during the first Trump Administration, orchestrated a number of rollbacks on important safety issues, and I hope to ask you questions about that and look for a different approach.

“I am alarmed that the Department's recent formalization of a new process that would authorize you, if you were confirmed, to take actions against safety inspectors, if a company claims the inspector violated DOT’s enforcement procedures, [essentially] allowing regulated entities to regulate the very officials charged with keeping public safety.

“We found in the ODA process at Boeing, this became a very big issue, where the ODA individuals responsible for approving the process were retaliated against and thereby pulled their punches…and the rest of it is history. So we need a strong safety regime.

“Maintaining the strongest safety process doesn't just save lives, it spurs economic growth, enables the U.S. to stay competitive, and certainly is essential for selling U.S. airplanes abroad. Now, we continue to see a huge opportunity in which we want aviation to win, as there's a world demand for 40,000 planes [over the next 20 years]. At the same time, we have to address other sectors of transportation.

“Last week, we saw reports indicating the loss of more than 20 percent of the Federal Highway Administration workforce and 30 percent of the Federal Transit Administration's workforce. So clearly this is impacting our ability to move quickly in improving projects and getting them implemented. So I would love to ask you about that and how you expect to turn that around so that DOT can continue to move forward.

“Mr. Rutherford, I created the Freight Office to improve multimodal freight planning. Okay, that sounds like a generous staff writing there. I'm not sure if I created it. Maybe I had legislation and we all approved it, or something like that. But let's not get Al Goreish here.”

Sen. Cruz: “We're happy to give credit to the former Chair.”

Sen. Cantwell: “Okay…Well, to be clear, our state had a freight office. Why? Because if you moved freight in the state of Washington, you got a percentage of the gas tax because moving freight was part of economic development, so why not prioritize transportation investment that moved economic development?

“So yes, we did say, let's create a federal freight policy, which Ray LaHood and others, and we all did. So okay, great. So now we know ‘freight can't wait.’ We had yesterday's hearing on the Surface Transportation Act, similar issue, where we're saying, if we're not competitive as a nation and moving freight quickly, then we're going to lose, in our case, to British Columbia or somewhere else, and then the competitive[ness] of the United States is impacted.  So definitely want to continue to make sure that freight investments are prioritized, and we talked about that yesterday as we prepare for a Surface Transportation Act.

“Ms. Oz, the DOT’s research programs are vital for using technology to improve both safety and efficiency, and it's important to recognize that the industry that we continue to work together on the development of these issues and get them implemented. One thing that we're really concerned about now is…spectrum interference and radio altimeters. When we look at what happened in the DCA air crash, there was a lot of discussion even about how the altimeters of those helicopters might have been affected, giving them different altitudes. And…for the previous implementation and discussion between DOT and NTIA, [there is] a lot of confusion over how to have the airline industry safely transmitting, and the interference that might occur with 5 and 6G. So look forward to asking questions about that.

“Clearly, we have a lot to do to continue to improve transportation. I'm excited about the opportunities, excited about the the continuation of drone technology, which we have championed here in the Committee for many years, and the applications are so numerous and continuing to pay dividends. So obviously DOT has a very big role here to continue the roll out of that drone technology. And so look forward to asking about that.

“Thank you, Mr. Chairman.”

A full transcript of the opening remarks including Sen. Cantwell’s Q&A can be found HERE.

###