Cantwell Statement Ahead of Commerce Committee Vote to Advance Sean Duffy’s Nomination to be Transportation Secretary

U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, spoke ahead of today's bipartisan vote to advance Sean Duffy's nomination to be Secretary of the Department of the Transportation. The senator addressed commitments Mr. Duffy made during his nomination hearing to honor the transportation infrastructure investments in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and to build a strong, resilient transportation network. His nomination now advances to the Senate floor.

Ranking Member Cantwell's Remarks as Delivered:

We are here today to vote on the nomination of former Congressman Sean Duffy of Wisconsin to be Secretary of Transportation.

And as the Chair just mentioned, there are many reasons why the Secretary of Transportation is important, not just to our Committee, but to the nation. I hope that this year we will start work on another surface transportation bill because it's not too soon to continue to focus on the infrastructure investments that will grow the economy of the future.

The Constitution provides that the president "shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate" more forward.

This is not a partisan exercise, but rather a Constitutional obligation. Regardless of what party holds the White House or the majority, our shared goal as a Committee must be for every nominee to have a fair, thorough and complete process.

I appreciate the majority waiting until today when we finally got Mr. Duffy's FBI report. I think that's the way the Committee should operate.

Mr. Duffy received a tough, but fair, questioning last week by many members. I don't know that his family was ready for this many hours of questioning but they did well and survived.

I believe that we will advance his nomination with strong bipartisan support today.

During our hearing last week Mr. Duffy, and in subsequent meetings, has had the opportunity to talk about the many things that are important, not just to my state, but to the nation on [building] a strong and resilient transportation network that allows us to compete in a global economy.

In my state, the Bipartisan Infrastructure bill delivered billions of dollars of investment, and many projects throughout the State of Washington, including our ports, because as a gateway state we grow a lot of products all throughout the country that are delivered through our ports to Asia.

I was pleased that Mr. Duffy, in response to questioning last week, stated clearly that the funding for these infrastructure priorities and critical infrastructure needs are already underway and that he will honor the funding commitments made in the last Administration. Mr. Duffy committed that these funding decisions will be free from political interference under his leadership at the Department of Transportation.

I know that many people have seen President Trump's Executive Order issued Monday that potentially froze all Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding, which raised new concerns. Thankfully, Mr. Duffy has clarified for me and many others on the Committee that he is going to continue to work to expedite transportation infrastructure investments that have been made by this Congress and hopes to get these projects completed.

This is critical because as we've learned through the pandemic, supply chain are critical to our investment to moving [goods] throughout the United States - our roads, our bridges, our public transit, our ports, our railroads - because they are part of a holistic system. Building a resilient transportation system that mitigates disruptions and drives down costs for businesses and consumers should be our highest priority.

That is why I had authored many programs that helped us do that, like the at-grade railroad crossing elimination and Mega programs.

I am pleased that Mr. Duffy also signaled this week for many important initiatives that this Committee talked to him about. I'll let Committee members talk about the commitments and conversations they had both at the hearing and in subsequent conversations.

I want to say, I do remain concerned about Project 2025 and this Administration's war against electric vehicles. I think the Project 2025 derogatory language, with respect to transportation, raises some serious questions. But I'm sure that will go on in a long debate well past today's hearing.

I look forward to supporting Mr. Duffy's nomination.

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