CLEVELAND, October 28 — The Senate Committee on Science, Commerce and Transportation will hold a confirmation hearing for Kathryn Higgins to be a Member of the National Transportation Safety Board, on Tuesday, November 1.
The renomination of Chairman Ellen Engleman Conners and member Mark Rosenker will also be considered at the hearing.
Higgins is being nominated as the Democratic member of the Board. She is a former member of Senator Edward Kennedy’s staff and handled transportation security issues in the Clinton administration. Higgins served President Clinton as secretary to the Cabinet and as a deputy labor secretary. She worked with aviation and transportation officials as the White House liaison to Cabinet secretaries, and was also the White House point person on the investigations and relief efforts in two major 1996 commercial airliner crashes: the Valujet crash in the Florida Everglades, and the crash of TWA Flight 800 off the coast of Long Island, N.Y.
“Our Safety Task Force has worked very closely with the NTSB in previous accident investigations,” BLET National President Don M. Hahs said. “I hope that Ms. Higgins will work to continue the past excellent relationship we have had with the NTSB.”