Ranking Member DeLauro Statement at NTSB Oversight Hearing

House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03) delivered the following remarks at the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Subcommittee's oversight hearing on the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB):

Thank you, Chairman Womack and Ranking Member Clyburn, for holding this hearing.

My thanks also go to today’s witness for appearing today: Chair Homendy, welcome to the Transportation-Housing and Urban Development subcommittee. Today’s hearing is on a very important topic that impacts every one of our districts – the safety and security of our nation’s transportation systems, and it comes in the wake of several heartbreaking and deeply concerning tragedies in our nation’s skies, as well as one involving an American carrier at Toronto’s Pearson Airport, and in addition to the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge. 

The National Transportation Safety Board is a small agency with a tremendously important mission – to investigate and help Congress and the American people understand how and why aviation and other transportation disasters happen. 

The independence of NTSB is critical to its mission. We cannot tolerate any outside pressure, political or otherwise, to influence the investigation of and the reporting on transportation incidents. 

However, broadly speaking, the current administration has shown limited respect for the independence of agencies. I would like to know how we can continue to advocate the agency’s independence in support of NTSB’s fact finding and reporting abilities to Congress.

Unfortunately, after 17 years without a fatal accident involving a U.S. carrier, 67 lives were lost in the Potomac River earlier this year when a PSA Airlines flight, operating for American Eagle, collided with a U.S. Army helicopter just seconds before attempting to land at Washington’s National Airport. 

Two nights later, a medevac flight crashed into a populated area of Philadelphia, taking the lives of all on board and one person on the ground. 

And then in February, a Cessna Caravan crashed in Alaska, leaving no survivors. 

With recent reports of near-miss incidents and runway incursions, the American people are deeply concerned about the safety of our aviation system. While we need to assure the American people that our commercial aviation system is the safest and most reliable air system in the world, I am concerned with how this Administration is approaching aviation safety, and the conflicts of interest involved in billionaire Elon Musk pushing FAA to contract his own Starlink service rather than engaging in a thorough, safety-driven analysis. 

Cuts and decisions at FAA are out of your jurisdiction and beyond the purview of this hearing. But I do want to discuss how this Administration has responded to recent incidents. 

NTSB’s fact-finding abilities are helped by longstanding policies and an industry culture that encourages flight crew members and air traffic controllers to report any and all incidents that take place. Rather than placing blame before we know facts, we need airspace operators to feel comfortable and compelled to self-report any incidents and diversions from procedure that take place.

 However, in the immediate aftermath of the Potomac crash, we saw the President, the Vice President, and the Secretary of Defense lying blaming “DEI” as the reason for the crash before any facts were known.

We cannot afford to put the cart before the horse when it comes to aviation safety. We cannot lay blame on pilots or air traffic controllers or any other personnel until after the NTSB uncovers and reports on the facts. The preliminary report showed no role for DEI. Follow the facts, that is all we are asking.

We cannot overstate the critical importance your agency plays in keeping our families, our colleagues, and our fellow Americans safe. I know you have a deep awareness of this, and I hope you will do whatever necessary to protect and defend NTSB’s authorities and prerogatives when it comes to transportation safety.

Finally, I would like to know how working with agencies such as the Department of Transportation, who are operating under a continuing resolution rather than a full year funding bill that addresses current and near-future needs, affects your collaborative work, ongoing investigations, and the need to close out thousands of transportation safety recommendations in general. 

I wish that we had been able to finish the job on fiscal year 2025 funding bills. 

We were on the brink of a bipartisan agreement between the four corners of the appropriations committees when the House majority decided to upend the process and pursue a partisan bill that does not fully meet the needs of any department or agency across the government, and that instead handed a blank check in my view to Elon Musk and President Trump.

I implore this committee to get back on track and to work towards bipartisan consensus for this subcommittee’s bill and the rest of the appropriations bills for 2026. 

Thank you, and I yield back.

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