Elon Musk walks on Capitol Hill on the day of a meeting with Senate Republican Leader-elect John Thune (R-SD), in Washington, U.S. December 5, 2024.
Benoit Tessier | Reuters
Elon Musk’s involvement in the Trump administration’s airspace reform plan has quickly spurred calls to bar the Tesla and SpaceX leader from those efforts over his alleged conflicts of interest.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Wednesday he spoke with Musk — who also leads President Donald Trump’s government-shrinking group DOGE — in the wake of a deadly plane crash above Washington, D.C., last week.
“We’re going to remake our airspace, and we’re going to do it quickly,” Duffy said after praising Musk as a “pretty remarkable guy” with “access to the best technological people, the best engineers in the world.”
Duffy later Wednesday wrote on Musk’s social media site X that DOGE is “going to plug in to help upgrade our aviation system.”
Musk replied, “With the support of President @realDonaldTrump, the @DOGE team will aim to make rapid safety upgrades to the air traffic control system.”
But Sen. Maria Cantwell, the top Democrat on the committee that oversees air traffic control, said that Musk should not be allowed anywhere near those reform efforts.
“It’s a clear conflict of interest,” Cantwell told reporters Thursday.
The senator from Washington state said Musk has been “fined for violations.” She was referencing the Federal Aviation Administration proposing $633,000 in civil penalties against SpaceX last year over the company’s alleged failures to follow licensing rules during two rocket launches in 2023.
Musk had responded to that proposed fine by threatening to sue the FAA for “regulatory overreach.” Days later, he publicly urged then-FAA chief Michael Whitaker to resign.
Cantwell said, “At a time when you need the FAA to call the shots and say, ‘Don’t launch now because there could be a conflict in the airspace,’ the last thing I want is that guy trying to control the airspace.”
Whitaker stepped down on Jan. 20, the day Trump took office, after running the agency for less than 15 months. The move left the FAA without a Senate-confirmed head for the first days of Trump’s second term, including the day when the American Airlines flight collided with an Army Black Hawk helicopter in D.C.
Trump appointed Christopher Rocheleau as acting FAA commissioner one day after the crash, which left 67 people dead.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., sent Musk a letter last week questioning his role in Whitaker’s resignation.
In a letter shared later Thursday, Cantwell asked Duffy to “make sure that all conflicts of interest between the FAA and Elon Musk are removed.”
Cantwell wrote to Duffy that during their most recent conversation, “You did not discuss your intention to involve Elon Musk in the FAA’s safety systems or process.”
“It is a conflict of interest for someone whose company is regulated by the federal government to be involved in anything that affects his personal financial interest, his company or his competitors,” the senator wrote.
Cantwell also noted that Whitaker had been unanimously confirmed by the Senate.
— CNBC’s Leslie Josephs contributed to this report.
