WASHINGTON — The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee will hold a hearing next week on three nominees for Amtrak’s board of directors, as well as a member of the National Transportation Safety Board.
The hearing will be Wednesday, June 21, at 10 a.m. ET, the committee chair, Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), announced. It will be live-streamed on the Committee’s website, and the Twitter feed and Facebook page of the Democratic majority.
The three Amtrak board nominees to be considered are Anthony Coscia, the current Amtrak board chair; Chris Koos, mayor of Normal, Ill.; and Joel Szabat, a former military officer who was previously President Donald Trump’s Assistant Secretary of Transportation for Aviation and International Affairs.
These three are among six nominees advanced by President Joe Biden; both Republican and Democratic senators have objected to the makeup of the group, in large part because it does not meet a “geographic diversity” requirement under the Infrastruture Investment and Jobs Act [see “Senators challenge Northeast Corridor tilt of Amtrak board nominees: Analysis,” Trains News Wire, April 26, 2023].
Coscia is among existing board members whose terms have expired, but they continue to serve until a new board is confirmed by the Senate. Koos was first nominated in 2020 by Trump but was never confirmed; Szabat is a recent Biden nominee.
Also to be considered is the nomination of Alvin Brown as a member of the NTSB. Brown, a former major of Jacksonville, Fla., was first nominated in August 2022 to fill the seat formerly held by former NTSB chairman Robert L. Sumwalt, but the Senate did not act before the end of its term. He was renominated in January of this year.
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