During an interview with Bloomberg on Thursday, Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA) reacted to FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker’s announcement that he will resign in January by saying that while he has concerns about who President-Elect Trump will pick for the position, “certainly, we’ve also had problems with the FAA in terms of their ability to adequately monitor Boeing planes, as has been documented.”
Smith said, “[A] lot of the people in these positions are concerned about how Donald Trump is going to run these agencies. Is he going to put personal loyalty over the interests of the American people and the responsibilities of the job at [the] FBI and FAA? I say ding, ding, ding, ding, yes, that’s a big yes, from everything Donald Trump has said, it seems like he is going to do that. And I think there [are] a lot of people in these agencies that have a dilemma now, do they stick around and try to make the best of it, or do they resign on principle and say, look, I don’t believe in the way that he’s going to run things. And also, I should say, I don’t know why the FAA director left. So, until we know more about that — but certainly, we’ve also had problems with the FAA in terms of their ability to adequately monitor Boeing planes, as has been documented. And certainly, there’s a lot of fault for Boeing in how that played out. But the regulatory agency didn’t seem to be up to the job either. So, we’ve got to resolve those issues, all against the backdrop of the unique way that Donald Trump apparently intends to run the United States government.”
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