Maria Cantwell: “I come to speak about the opposition to the nominee before us that we are going to vote on soon, Mr. John DeLeeuw. It is…”

“I come to speak about the opposition to the nominee before us that we are going to vote on soon, Mr. John DeLeeuw. It is not necessarily about Mr. DeLeeuw's qualifications; it is about the dangerous precedent we are making as we confirm someone to replace an independent NTSB board member who was removed by the President without cause, while they are actively challenging this removal in court. And it is about a needless jeopardizing of public confidence in NTSB's critical work, which I will speak about in a minute, particularly as it relates to the House not taking up the ROTOR Act on suspension yesterday, a bill that we passed by 100 votes here in the U.S. Senate. It has been less than 2 years since this body unanimously confirmed Alvin Brown to be on the NTSB. The Senate's overwhelming support for Mr. Brown should not be surprising. As a former mayor of Jacksonville, FL, and a former senior adviser to the Department of Transportation, Mr. Brown's background and experience qualified him to be on the NTSB.”