U.S. President Joe Biden's nominee to head the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is withdrawing his nomination after Republican criticism that he was not qualified to serve as the top aviation regulator.
Last year, Biden nominated Denver International Airport CEO Phil Washington to serve as FAA administrator. A spokesperson for Washington at the airport did not immediately comment.
Senator Ted Cruz, ranking Republican on the Senate Commerce Committee, said late Saturday that it has been clear since his nomination that "Mr. Washington lacked the aviation experience necessary to run the FAA ... The Biden administration must now quickly name someone to head the FAA who has an extensive aviation background, can earn widespread bipartisan support in the Senate, and will keep the flying public safe.
The White House insisted Washington was fully qualified. Cantwell had said he would shakeup the agency saying "we feel that industry and FAA got too cozy." Washington was originally nominated in July but did not get a hearing from the Commerce Committee until March 1.In January, the FAA halted all departing passenger airline flights for nearly two hours because of a pilot messaging database outage, the first nationwide ground stop of its kind since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
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