Senate Panel Delays Vote on Trump’s NHTSA Pick

The nomination of Heidi King, President Donald Trumps choice to head the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration appears headed for trouble, The Detroit News reports.

The U.S. Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee has postponed a vote to move the nomination forward after Democrats expressed concern about her comments on such issues as the lingering Takata airbag inflator recall and what steps NHTSA is taking to regulate self-driving cars.

King, currently NHTSA’s deputy administrator, has been leading the agency for the past seven months. Safety advocates oppose her, asserting that she favors deregulation and has done little to push carmakers to push carmakers harder to complete their Takata recalls.

Last week King told the committee she doubts NHTSA has authority to order car companies to reveal specifics about their plans to replace explosion-prone Takata inflators because some of the information could be proprietary, the News notes.