VIDEO

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- In her opening remarks at today's Commerce Committee hearing on the National Transportation Safety Board's (NTSB) final report on the tragic mid-air collision near DCA, Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Ranking Member, addressed the FAA's closure of the airspace over El Paso and her ongoing concerns about the lack of interagency coordination necessary to keep the public safe.

"I also want to say, Mr. Chairman, that yesterday's incident in El Paso reminds me of why this interagency coordination is so important," Sen. Cantwell said. "If we can get into this kind of conflict, where the FAA is saying that we're going to shut down airspace for ten days, and then another agency is saying something different - and there's concern about what is happening in the airspace-it just seems to me that we have a real problem of coordination between DoD and FAA. We need to resolve that. I hope that your (Sen. Cruz) calls for an interagency briefing will be heeded and that we will get to the bottom of this. Not one more day needs to go by without that kind of information and oversight for the public."