Republican and Democratic senators are blaming each other for delays in confirming White House appointees to key safety agencies, some of which have been without leaders while responding to deadly accidents and natural disasters.
The top U.S. rail safety chief was confirmed in February after a series of lethal railroad accidents in January, for instance, and two members of the National Transportation Safety Board weren’t approved until after a duck boat crash in July left 17 people dead.
Now, in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence, a top Republican is sounding an alarm over a vacancy at the top of the Commerce Department’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, the office in charge of severe weather warnings and climate-monitoring, among other things.
President Trump’s selection of Barry Lee Myers, the former chief executive officer of AccuWeather, to fill the post was approved on a party-line vote by the Senate Commerce Committee in January, but he has yet to be confirmed by the full Senate. Trump made the nomination in 2017.
“Despite its responsibility for these critical functions, NOAA has been without a Senate-confirmed administrator for nearly two years due to obstruction by Senate Democrats,” Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune of South Dakota said on the chamber floor last week.
Thune, the chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, also pointed to delays in the confirmation of top posts on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Consumer Product Safety Commission, again putting the blame on Democrats.
“This all feels like déjà vu,” he said. “We’ve already seen this disturbing pattern play out.”
The Senate is set to vote Monday on Peter Feldman’s nomination for commissioner of the product safety agency. Its current acting leader, Ann Marie Buerkle, is also awaiting confirmation for the role after her nomination in 2017. A spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said no information was available on the timing of a vote for Myers.
In some cases, Democrats say, they were simply adhering to traditional confirmation norms.
Bruce Landsberg, the Republican choice for the National Transportation Safety Board, was nominated for the post last year, but not confirmed until July 2018. Democrats say the delay was justified because Republican and Democratic nominees for that board are traditionally approved simultaneously. Jennifer Homendy, the Democratic nominee, was not put on the Senate calendar until May.
Federal law allows no more than three of the board’s five members, all of whom are nominated by the president, to be from the same party.
In other instances, the delays were attributed to unrelated disagreements. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer initially objected to Ronald Batory’s nomination to lead the Federal Railroad Administration over concerns about the Trump administration’s opposition to the Gateway Tunnel project to improve travel between New Jersey and Schumer’s home state of New York. Completing the tunnel for commuter trains would allow repairs on existing, heavily used routes beneath the Hudson River that were damaged during Superstorm Sandy in 2012.
Batory was confirmed in February after a series of deadly Amtrak accidents the previous month, one of which was a crash involving the train carrying GOP members to their annual policy retreat.
A Schumer spokesman didn’t respond to request for comment.
In some instances, the delays are a result of the White House failing to nominate an individual for the vacant post. The administration has not yet announced its pick to lead the Federal Aviation Administration.
