The Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee on November 19 approved the nomination of Steve Carmel to be Administrator of the Maritime Administration. When confirmed by the Senate, Carmel will complete the Trump Administration second-term modal leadership team at DOT, with all modal administrators in place and fully confirmed. (The Inspector General is the only Senate-confirmable modal-level post still vacant.)

However, there are still a few gaps at high-level posts in the Office of the Secretary. Commerce held a confirmation hearing on November 5 for the nominees for Under Secretary for Policy and for Assistant Secretary for Aviation and International Affairs, and those nominees were not approved in committee this week and will have to wait for December. However, the responses of both nominees to post-hearing questions for the record (QFR) are now posted on the committee website:

• Under Secretary QFR from Republicans (not much there)
• Under Secretary QFR from Democrats (lots of detailed questions from Cantwell, Duckworth, Baldwin, Lujan)
• Assistant Secretary QFR from Republicans (some detailed questions from Moran)
• Assistant Secretary QFR from Democrats (detailed questions from Cantwell, Klobuchar, Duckworth)

The latest status chart for USDOT nominees is below. Remember that in the first Trump term, they went several years without nominating an Assistant Secretary for Transportation Policy. And, given how glad the Under Secretary nominee was that Congress established the new Assistant Secretary for Aviation Consumer Protection to report straight to the Secretary, bypassing him, I wonder if the Administration will ever fill that politically contentious role.