▶ 0:21:25Chair Cruz: You've got to like when you open a hearing strongly enough that chairman of the senate armed services committee starts. Welcome. This committee will come to order. Today, the committee will consider the nomination of sean duffy to be secretary of transportation.
▶ 0:21:44Chair Cruz: If confirmed, cumbersome and duffy will take the helm of a department with more than 55,000 employees, leading the administration efforts to make it easier and faster for families, commuters, truckers, and flyers to get around, without running into traffic, potholes, or delays. Conger's been duffy comes to the department -- congressman duffy comes to the department at a pivotal moment.
▶ 0:22:08Chair Cruz: The faa continues with a persistent shortage of air traffic employee use -- employees as it works to instill safety. President trump has moved to stop costly electric vehicle mandates so that every american can choose to buy the car of his or her choice.
▶ 0:22:30Chair Cruz: Meanwhile, across all sectors, the department faces the rise of emerging technologies, like unmanned drones and self-driving car's, which bring both opportunities and challenges. Congressman duffy is prepared to meet these challenges. To quote senator baldwin at his hearing last week, sean is the right person for this job.
▶ 0:22:53Chair Cruz: A five term congressman and former cochair of the great lakes task force, representative duffy has successfully advanced transportation projects like the st. Croix crossing, with strong bipartisan and bicameral support. As secretary, he will prioritize safety while fixing our broken permitting process.
▶ 0:23:18Chair Cruz: Sadly, radical environmentalists have captured permitting and shifted it from nimby to bananas , as in build absolutely nothing anywhere near anyone. I expect that to end with secretary duffy. He will work, as senator baldwin said, with both sides of the aisle, to improve our infrastructure and address the challenges that arise in the years ahead.
▶ 0:23:48Chair Cruz: Most importantly, congressman duffy's personal experiences -- his wife rachel's head on crash. His dedication to raising a daughter with a disability, said that he appreciates the responsibility of the role. He told us as the father of nine kids, I think about transportation quite a bit, and about transportation safety a lot. He knows what american families face in their daily lives and how important safety is to them.
▶ 0:24:19Chair Cruz: In many ways, he embodies the revolution of common sense that president trump has called for. I hope we can agree Mr. duffy is the kind of consensus driven leader we need to oversee the department of transportation. I urge my colleagues to support his nomination.
▶ 0:24:39Sen. Cantwell: We are here today to vote on the nomination of former congressman sean duffy of wisconsin to be the secretary of transportation, and as the chair mentioned, there are many reasons why the secretary of transportation is important, not just our committee, but to the nation. I hope that this year we will start work on another surface transportation bill, because it is not too soon to continue to focus on them for structure investments that will grow the economy of the future.
▶ 0:25:09Sen. Cantwell: The president shall, with the consent of the senate, move forward. This is not a partisan exercise. Rather, a constitutional obligation. Guard list of what party holds the white house, our shared goal must be for every nominee to have a fair and thorough and complete process. I appreciate the majority waiting until today, when we finally got Mr. duffy's fbi reports. Mr.
▶ 0:25:39Sen. Cantwell: Duffy received a tough but fair questioning from many members. I don't know that his family was ready for this questioning, but they did well and survived. I think we will advance his nomination with bipartisan support today. Ring are hearing last week, Mr.
▶ 0:25:56Sen. Cantwell: Duffy, in subsequent meetings, has had an opportunity to talk about many things that are important not just to my state, but to the nation, about a strong and resilient transportation network that allows us to compete in a global economy. In my state, the bipartisan info structure bill delivered billions of dollars of investment in many projects about the state of washington, including our courts. As a gateway state, we grow a lot of products all throughout the country that are delivered through our ports to asia.
▶ 0:26:28Sen. Cantwell: 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.
▶ 0:26:52Sen. Cantwell: I know that many people have seen president trump's executive order issued that raised new concerns. Thankfully, Mr. duffy has clarified for me and for many others on this 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.
▶ 0:27:14Sen. Cantwell: This is critical, because we have learned through the pandemic that supply chains are critical to our investment, to moving systems throughout the united states as bridges, public transit, railroads -- because they are part of a holistic system. Willing a resilient transportation system that mitigates disruptions and drives down costs for businesses and consumers should be our highest priority.
▶ 0:27:41Sen. Cantwell: That is why I had authored many programs that help us do that, like the railroad crossing elimination programs. Mr. duffy also submitted this week for many impornt initiatives that this committee talked to him about. I would let committee members talk about the commitments and conversations they had, both at the hearing and in subsequent conversation.
▶ 0:28:04Sen. Cantwell: I want to say I do remain concerned about project when he 25 and this administration's war against electric vehicles. I think the project 2020 five derogatory language with respect to transportation rises -- 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 and I yield back.
▶ 0:28:29Chair Cruz: I now recognize ranking member cantwell.
▶ 0:28:36Sen. Cantwell: I move the nomination of sean duffy to be secretary of transportation.
▶ 0:28:42Chair Cruz: Can I hear a second? >> Mr. chairman, I asked for a roll call vote. >> Mr. thune? >> aye. >> Mrs. fisher? >> aye. >> Mr. sullivan? Mrs. blackburn? Mr. young? Mr. budd? Mr. schmitt? Mr. curtis? Mr. marino? Mrs.
▶ 0:29:12Chair Cruz: Capital -- calit Mrs. capital -- calpito? Ms. cantwell?
▶ 0:29:18Sen. Cantwell: Aye. >> Ms. klobuchar? Mr. shotz? Mr. markey? Mr. peters? Ms. baldwin? Ms. duckworth? Ms. rosen? Mr. lujan? Mr. hickenlooper? Mr. fetterman >> >>? Aye by proxy. >> Mr. kim? Ms. blunt rochester?
▶ 0:29:52Sen. Cantwell: The yeses are 28. The nos are zero.
▶ 0:29:57Chair Cruz: The ayes have it. The motion is agreed to and the motion is reported favorably. This also augurs well for this committee to start with such a strong bipartisan and unanimous vote. With that, I am now happy if folks want to leave. They can. If there are members who want to be recognized to talk on secretary duffy -- senator klobuchar?
▶ 0:30:21Sen. Klobuchar: I guess secretary duffy is going to have a lot on his shoulders with that strong bipartisan vote. I will say I worked with him and senator baldwin was involved in this as well, with legislation I lead on the bridge from minnesota to wisconsin. I mentioned it at the hearing. And he was -- we actually had to get a bill passed through both chambers. One was, at the time, democratic. One was republican.
▶ 0:30:50Sen. Klobuchar: We were able to get an exemption into law to allow a most beautiful bridge to be built. I appreciated his willingness to work with me. I thought he did a good job at his hearing. I told him that. What I think it is really important, with his words and with this vote, he followed through on that bipartisan work, to work with members about projects in their district, to make sure that the funding gets completed from the bipartisan infrastructure bill.
▶ 0:31:19Sen. Klobuchar: And I am concerned about the recent executive order, which I shared with him, to stop the rollout of some of the funding delaying and adding costs in my mind to these projects. I hope he will be an advocate for getting these projects done and moving forward. Thank you, Mr. chair.
▶ 0:31:38Chair Cruz: With the senator yield? Senator klobuchar?
▶ 0:31:44Sen. Markey: I just wanted to associate myself with your comment.
▶ 0:31:48Chair Cruz: Does anyone else wish to be recognized? Hearing nothing, that concludes our markup for today. This executive session is adjourned.