The Senate voted to confirm former Rep. Sean Duffy (R-Wis.) to lead the Department of Transportation on Jan. 28.
The former congressman received praise from both Republican and Democratic committee members, who championed his history of bipartisanship in Congress and his commitment to safety while helming the Transportation Department.
“Boeing is a national security issue,” Duffy told the committee. “They need tough love.”
“I [would] like to talk to the safety experts at the FAA to see where we’re at and where we need to go to make sure we continue to advance safe airplanes being built at Boeing and exported around the world,” he said.
The former congressman also addressed the mystery drone sightings in the Northeast and suggested the FAA should do more to distinguish legitimate from illegitimate drone usage.
“We need transparency,” he said. “What’s happening, who’s flying, and so [on].”
Duffy suggested that drone manufacturers rely on a patchwork of laws that incentivize overseas innovation and development, where laws may be clearer, and that the FAA should improve its drone regulations.
“We have to have clear rules to beyond visual line of sight and make sure that this innovation continues to happen here,” he said. “It has [the] potential of revolutionizing so many different things in the way our economy works; let’s make sure it happens here.”
In response to a question from Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) about how to restore revenue loss in the Highway Trust Fund caused by the increased use of electric vehicles, whose drivers don’t pay the gasoline taxes that support the fund, Duffy said the solution is complex.
“They should pay for use of our roads; how to do that, I think, is a little more challenging,” he said.
Duffy said the Transportation Department could raise the gas tax, a move that he doesn’t support. The department could also increase tolls, he said, or the government could implement a mile-driven formula for those who aren’t paying gasoline taxes.
“My concern with that, though, is the privacy around the American citizens,” Duffy said. “We could be far more efficient with our dollars. We could streamline the approach and get dollars into projects quicker.”
He also supports a “robust marketplace” for automobiles instead of relying on tax credits for electric vehicles, as the Biden administration advanced.
“We shouldn’t be forced to buy cars that Washington wants. We should go buy the cars that we want,” Duffy said.
“I think there’s room in this space for electric vehicles and gas-powered vehicles, and [it] might depend on your priorities, the places that you live, the temperatures of where you live—but I want to see a robust marketplace.”
Even though President Donald Trump has signed executive orders halting the implementation of some of the infrastructure funding from the Investments and Jobs Act, Duffy said he supports the transportation infrastructure funding kickstarted by the Biden administration.
“If confirmed, I will work to reduce the red tape that slows critical infrastructure projects, ensuring funds are spent efficiently,” he said.
