Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), the score member of the Senate Trade Committee, has despatched a letter to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy elevating considerations that Elon Musk’s involvement in reform of the Federal Aviation Management poses a “clear conflict” given his stake within the corporate SpaceX.
“I’m sending a letter to Secretary Duffy. It’s a clear conflict of interest. Secretary Duffy should make sure that Mr. Musk is not part of the FAA air transportation system. He has been fined for violations,” Cantwell advised journalists Thursday morning.
She identified that Musk careworn former FAA Administrator Michael Whitaker to renounce at the day of President Trump’s inauguration, leaving the company with out a everlasting chief in a while sooner than an American Airways flight from Wichita, Kan., collided with an Military Black Hawk helicopter at Reagan Washington Nationwide Airport, killing 67 other people.
The FAA underneath Whitaker had proposed $633,000 in fines in opposition to SpaceX for failing to apply its license necessities all over two launches in 2023.
Cantwell mentioned Musk “worked hard to get Mr. Whitaker — somebody who was approved 98-0, I think — out of the system.”
In a letter to Duffy launched Thursday afternoon, Cantwell famous that she advised Duffy in a up to date assembly that she would paintings with him to modernize the FAA however raised her fear that the newly-confirmed Transportation secretary didn’t point out his aim to contain Musk in that paintings.
“When we spoke, you did not discuss your intention to involve Elon Musk in the FAA’s safety systems or process. It is a conflict of interest for someone whose company is regulated by the federal government to be involved in anything that affects his personal financial interest, his company, or his competitors,” Cantwell wrote.
The Washington senator wrote that the FAA has a criminal duty for protection oversight of businesses with business transportation licenses and subsequently must now not be influenced by way of Musk, whose rocket launches occupy that airspace.
“Elon Musk’s SpaceX rocket launches share the airspace with commercial airplanes and the FAA has the responsibility for keeping the entire airspace safe. SpaceX has been fined by the FAA for failing to comply with specific requirements in its launch license,” she wrote.
She reiterated her fear that Musk “called for the firing of Mike Whitaker … because the FAA issued a fine against SpaceX for not following the rules.”
“We have ethics and recusal laws for a reason — to prevent corporate interference in protecting the public interest,” she argued.
Musk introduced Wednesday that the Division of Executive Potency, which he leads, will make “rapid safety upgrades” to air site visitors regulate techniques overseen by way of the FAA.
“With the support of President @realDonaldTrump, the @DOGE team will aim to make rapid safety upgrades to the air traffic control system,” Musk wrote Wednesday at the social media website online X, which he owns.
He cited a up to date outage of the FAA’s Realize to Air Venture device as proof of the want to improve its techniques.
Senate Trade Committee Chairman Ted Cruz (R-Texas) on Thursday applauded Musk’s possible involvement in reforming the FAA.
“I’ve been advocating for a long time modernization of air traffic control. Our air traffic control technology is from the 1950s,” he advised journalists.
“The fact that Elon Musk, one of the top technology CEOs on planet Earth, is available to bring his expertise and the expertise of world class engineers to bring air traffic control out of the 1950s and into the 21st century I think that is a real opportunity.”
