FACT SHEET: Information on Sean Duffy, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation
FACT SHEET: Information on Sean Duffy, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation
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President Trump picked former airline industry lobbyist, Fox Business host, and Congressman, Sean Duffy (R-WI), who was swept into Congress as part of 2010’s “Tea Party wave,” to be secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation. Notably, Duffy “has little to no experience in the transportation field.”
Airline Industry Lobbying
In February 2020, The Partnership for Open and Fair Skies hired Sean Duffy and three other BGR lobbyists to lobby in “support for US Open Skies policy,” The Partnership for Open and Fair Skies’ membership includes American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and United Airlines, which all joined in a May 2024 lawsuit alongside industry trade group Airlines for America against the Biden Department of Transportation’s rulemaking to “protect airline passengers from surprise junk fees when purchasing a ticket.”
Unsurprisingly—Airlines for America, the “trade association for the country’s leading passenger and cargo airlines,” including American Airlines, Delta, Southwest, FedEx, And UPS—was quick to congratulate Duffy on his nomination. The group’s President and CEO said they were “‘thrilled’” with Duffy’s nomination and said “‘we are eager to collaborate with him.’”
Notably, Airlines for America and six of its major member companies spent over $26 million while lobbying against the Biden Department of Transportation’s (DOT) efforts to rein in airline junk fees after taking over $40 billion in taxpayer-funded COVID-19 aid.
Southwest Airlines Scheduling Crisis
Following Southwest Airlines’ “service meltdown” over the 2022 holiday season, Duffy attacked Biden administration Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who warned that his department will “‘use the fullest extent of its investigative and enforcement powers to hold Southwest accountable.’”
Duffy claimed “Southwest will fix this” and “Pete Buttigieg never will” as he said market forces were enough to address the issue—although Southwest chose to spend billions on stock buybacks and slashed its workforce rather than investing in infrastructure ahead of the 2022 crisis.
In December 2023, Secretary Buttigieg’s Department of Transportation issued a $140 million civil penalty against Southwest for “numerous violations of consumer protection laws during and after” the 2022 “holiday meltdown,” which the Department found “stranded over two million passengers.”
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