Cruz to FAA Nominee Phil Washington: 'Have You Ever Flown a Plane?' (March 1, 2023)

On March 1, 2023, the Senate Commerce Committee held its hearing on Phillip Washington, President Biden’s nominee to run the Federal Aviation Administration. The FAA had been without a Senate-confirmed administrator since March 2022. In January a pilot-alert system had failed, briefly halting departures nationwide, and a string of close calls between planes had raised safety concerns [2][6]. Washington, a 24-year Army veteran, had run the Denver and Los Angeles transit systems and, since July 2021, Denver International Airport. He told senators he would “leave the FAA better than I found it” [1][2]. The committee’s ranking Republican, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, used his time on a single argument: that Washington had no experience in aviation safety. This video shows the start of that exchange; C-SPAN carried the full hearing [9]. All quotes below are from the official hearing record, Senate Hearing 118-672 [1].

Key Moments

”Have you ever flown a plane?”

Cruz opened by noting that Washington had emphasized his “20 months” as chief executive of the Denver airport, then asked a series of short questions:

“Have you ever flown a plane?” — “Thank you for the question, Senator. No, I have never flown a plane.”
“So, you weren’t a military pilot or a commercial airline pilot?” — “No, Senator.”
“Have you ever worked for an airline?” — “No, Senator.”
“Have you ever worked as an air traffic controller?” — “No, Senator.”
“You ever worked for a company that manufactures airplanes?” — “No, Senator.”
“You ever worked for a company that fixes airplanes?” — “No, Senator."

"Coffee shops and clothing stores and newsstands”

Cruz then turned to the airport job. “You are in charge of the airport’s buildings, correct?” he asked. “I am in charge of everything that goes on at that airport,” Washington replied. Cruz asked how many parking spaces the airport had (“Thousands”) and how many restaurants (“We have anywhere from 150 to 200 or so”). “You are in charge of coffee shops and clothing stores and newsstands,” Cruz said. “You are not in charge of the pilots, are you?” Washington said no, and said no again when Cruz asked whether he was in charge of the airplane mechanics or the air traffic controllers.

”Buses and trains are very different from planes”

Cruz contrasted Washington with four men who had led the FAA: the acting administrator, Billy Nolen, a former commercial airline pilot; Steve Dickson, an Air Force fighter pilot, airline pilot and Delta executive with “40 years of aviation experience”; Daniel Elwell, an Air Force combat pilot and airline pilot; and Randy Babbitt, an airline pilot for 25 years who had led a pilots’ union. “As I look at your record, I see a record where you have got experience with buses, you have got experience with trains,” Cruz said. “Buses and trains are very different from planes.” He added that the administration had previously considered Washington for Amtrak’s board, a job for which he “might well have received bipartisan support.”

The 737 MAX questions

Cruz then asked about the two Boeing 737 MAX crashes, which killed 346 people. Washington described an angle-of-attack sensor as “a sensor that is on the front of the plane that controls the tilt and the altitude of the plane” and said he believed the 737 MAX had two. Asked what system responds to contradictory sensor signals, he named MCAS, the flight-control software that Cruz said was “responsible for the crashes at issue.” Asked what happens when two sensors give different readings, he said, “I think human reaction needs to take over.” Asked why that did not happen on the Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines flights, he answered: “Well, Senator, I am not a pilot. I don’t know if I can answer that particular question.”

Cruz closed his round: “it gives no comfort to the flying public that their pilot might be a transgendered witch but doesn’t actually know how to prevent the plane from crashing into the ground and killing them.” Earlier, in his opening statement, Cruz had said Washington’s record suggested he “would focus on virtue signaling” instead of safety, citing equity initiatives at L.A. Metro and the Denver airport [1][3]. “I don’t believe you will have the votes for confirmation,” Cruz told him.

The Rest of the Hearing

Democrats defended the nominee. The committee’s chair, Sen. Maria Cantwell, noted that Denver International was “the third busiest airport in the world,” and Sen. John Hickenlooper of Colorado argued that “Phil fits the mold of several past Administrators” [1].

Sen. Ted Budd of North Carolina, a pilot, then quizzed Washington on aviation rules. Washington could not say which airspace requires an ADS-B transponder, could not name the six types of special use airspace, and could not list the three certificates the FAA requires for manufacturing an aircraft. Asked what causes an aircraft to spin or stall, he said: “Again, Senator, I am not a pilot, but I would lean on our career employees and our safety folks within the FAA” [1]. Republicans also raised a corruption investigation at the Los Angeles transit agency, in which Washington’s name appeared in a search warrant, though he said no law enforcement agency had contacted him; a lawsuit by a former Denver airport employee; and his military retirement, which Cruz said required a waiver from Congress [2][3].

The Record

“Have you ever flown a plane?” Washington conceded the point: he was not a pilot and had never worked for an airline, an aircraft manufacturer or in air traffic control [1]. His only aviation-related experience was running the Denver airport for less than two years, the AP reported, and he had led Biden’s 2020 transition team for the Transportation Department [6]. Fourteen Republican lawmakers who are pilots made the same case against him in a letter to President Biden [4].
The pilot-administrators. Each of the four FAA leaders Cruz named had flown professionally, as Cruz laid out at the hearing [1].
The 737 MAX. The answer Cruz was after is in the FAA’s 2020 review of the plane. The original MCAS design “relied on data from only one sensor at a time,” and Boeing’s fix “uses inputs from both AOA sensors to activate MCAS.” The crashes killed all 189 people on Lion Air Flight 610 and all 157 on Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, the 346 Cruz cited [5].

What Happened Next

The vote that never came: On March 22, Cantwell abruptly called off the committee’s scheduled vote, a sign she lacked the votes. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, an independent, was reported to be holding up the nomination [6].
Withdrawal: On March 25, 2023, Washington withdrew his nomination, a setback for the administration. “Republicans were united in opposition to Washington, calling him unqualified because of limited aviation experience,” the AP reported, and key senators on the Democratic side balked at supporting him [6].
The next administrator: On October 24, 2023, the Senate confirmed Michael Whitaker, a former FAA deputy administrator and airline executive, ending a 19-month vacancy [7].
The law changed: In May 2024, the FAA Reauthorization Act rewrote the administrator’s qualifications. The old law said the administrator must be a “civilian” with “experience in a field directly related to aviation” [3][4]. The new one requires “experience in organizational management and a field directly related to aviation,” and, in place of the “civilian” rule, bars only nominees who are on active duty or who retired from the armed forces within the previous seven years, so a veteran who left the Army in 2000, as Washington did, would no longer need a waiver [1][8].