But for a brief three months last summer, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration hasn’t had a Senate-confirmed administrator for the last six years. And last week, President Biden withdrew his nominee from Senate consideration only two months after making the nomination.

At least Biden tried with the safety agency. As for another of the Department of Transportation major components, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, the White House has never even found anyone to submit to the Senate since the Trump appointee departed in January 2021. Americans would not normally care about such a job, but that changed when a Norfolk Southern freight train almost two miles long derailed in East Palestine, Ohio on Feb. 3, spilling nasty vinyl chloride and forcing mass evacuations.

One of the DOT’s bureaucracies that millions in the air-traveling public do care about is the Federal Aviation Administration and here too, Biden and Secretary Pete Buttigieg have come up empty as well. Biden’s FAA pick, made a year ago, flamed out and withdrew in March. The acting chief is quitting on Friday.

And picking up the baton is Brooklyn’s own Polly Trottenberg, the deputy secretary. On the DOT organization chart, the deputy secretary is above all of the subagencies, so Pete and Joe must have been sorry to saddle the very capable Trottenberg with a ruined summer vacation to make sure that millions of others’ summer vacations aren’t ruined by an airline meltdown like last summer, or even what happened over the winter with Southwest Airlines canceling thousands of flights, an FAA computer glitch that grounded all planes or scary near misses.

In an op-ed in USA Today published right before the Memorial Day weekend, Buttigieg wrote that the feds are improving air travel and promised a better summer than last year’s. It will be up to Trottenberg to deliver on those promises until they can find someone to take over the FAA permanently.

Unlike the DOT vacancies at highway safety and hazardous materials, the FAA is not being left on autopilot.

Daily News Editorial Board

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