Senate panel advances nomination for nation's top highway official

Grant Schwab, The Detroit News on Jun 11, 2025

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WASHINGTON — A Senate panel voted Wednesday morning to advance the nomination of Sean McMaster, most recently a lobbyist for aerospace giant Boeing Co., to lead the Federal Highway Administration, or FHWA.

McMaster, if confirmed, would be responsible for overseeing an agency that conducts maintenance of federal highways, performs research into transportation-related topics and manages the disbursement of federal funds for certain infrastructure projects.

Two of those projects are controversial electric vehicle charging programs created under the Biden administration: the $5 billion National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Program and the $2.5 billion Charging and Fueling Infrastructure Grant Program.

There was bipartisan support in the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works for McMaster, though some Democrats on the committee chafed at the Trump administration recently freezing NEVI and CFI funds, with pledges to eliminate the programs altogether.

Democratic U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island supported McMaster's nomination Wednesday, citing assurance from the Department of Transportation that it would soon unfreeze the EV charger funds. The FHWA is administratively housed within DOT.

Whitehouse added, however, that he and other Democrats would withhold support for McMaster during an eventual Senate floor confirmation vote if DOT action to unfreeze the funds "doesn't appear or is unworkable for states."

"I am trusting at this point. Progress like this is key to Democratic support for a highway bill next year, so I'm doubly happy to see steps going in the right direction," he said.

EV chargers, while politically prominent, represent a small part of the FHWA's responsibilities.

The agency remains responsible for implementing funds and projects approved as part of the $1.2 trillion Biden-era Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The bill included about $350 billion for federal highway programs, though much of that flows to states based on formulas specified in federal law.

Republican U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, who chairs the committee, praised McMaster ahead of the vote: "Mr. McMaster's relevant professional background in the public and private sectors make him, I believe, especially well suited to be the administrator of the Federal Highways Administration."

Prior to his time lobbying for Boeing, McMaster was a vice president at HNTB Corporation, an infrastructure design firm. He also served in the Transportation Department during the first Trump administration and previously worked as a Republican staffer on Capitol Hill.

A Michigan resident, Shailen Bhatt of Troy, led the FHWA throughout much of the Biden administration.

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