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Sean Duffy Testifies at His Senate Commerce Confirmation Hearing, Jan. 15, 2025

January 15, 2025 · Forbes Breaking News · 3:05:15

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What happened

Sean P. Duffy, President-elect Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Transportation, testified at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation on January 15, 2025, in Forbes Breaking News’ live carry of the hearing. Senator Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, his home state, introduced him to the committee, according to the committee’s record of the hearing. Duffy told the senators he was humbled by the nomination and that, if confirmed, it would be “the privilege of a lifetime” to serve as Secretary of Transportation, and he introduced his wife Rachel Campos-Duffy and their children to the committee room.

His opening statement set the agenda he would carry into the department. As a father of nine who thinks about transportation safety “a lot,” he noted that some 40,000 Americans lose their lives in roadway accidents every year, as he stated the toll, and said road safety would be a priority. President Trump, he said, “is a builder” who wants to invest in rebuilding the nation’s crumbling infrastructure and asked him to focus on “the big, the durable projects that connect our country and connect our people”; if confirmed, he said, he would work to reduce the red tape that slows critical infrastructure projects. On aviation, he said America needs more air traffic controllers, must modernize its systems, and that he would work with Congress and the FAA to restore global confidence in Boeing. He closed by saying that together with President Trump, the committee, and the DOT team, he hoped “to usher in a golden age of transportation and travel.” Asked by Chairman Cruz what he would want his legacy to be, he named three things, as he stated them: improving safety, working with the committee to get Boeing back on track producing safe airplanes, and building the big infrastructure projects — without forgetting rural America.

Why it matters

The hearing is the founding document of Duffy’s tenure: every major campaign of his first two years at the department — the air traffic control rebuild, the controller surge, the Newark repairs, the permitting fight, and the Boeing oversight question — is present in his January 15, 2025 testimony as a stated commitment, made before he held the office.

Scoreboard watch

Scoreboard watch: the commitments stated at the confirmation hearing — restoring confidence in Boeing, expanding the air traffic controller workforce, cutting project-delivery red tape, and a safety-first legacy — are the baseline against which the department’s later announcements are measured. Flagged for the scoreboard editor; no entry is published from this page.

Sources: Forbes Breaking News, “WATCH LIVE: Sean Duffy, Transportation Secretary Nominee, Testifies At Senate Confirmation Hearing” (live carry, embedded above). Remarks and figures as delivered by Mr. Duffy at the hearing; introduction per the Senate Commerce Committee’s release on the hearing.