FedEx opposes transportation nominee
FedEx is opposing the nomination of Kirk Van Tine to become the No 2 official at the Transportation Department.
Van Tine was the department’s general counsel when the government gave the airlines $5 billion to compensate for losses sustained after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. Transportation officials later demanded that FedEx return about a third of the $101 million it received because it hadn’t lost as much as it had claimed.
The cargo company, which blames Van Tine for the decision, is fighting the matter in court.
FedEx spokeswoman Kristin Krause said Van Tine also took the wrong approach in a fight over ownership of a competitor. FedEx claims Astar Air Cargo, formerly DHL, is owned by a German postal company and therefore is not allowed to do business in the United States. It is illegal for foreign-owned airlines to operate solely within U.S. borders.
“We just don’t think he’s got the objectivity, the fair-mindedness, the ability to work collaboratively with industry,” Krause said Tuesday.
FedEx’s objections to Van Tine arose only tangentially Tuesday during a Senate Commerce Committee hearing on the nomination.
Sen. Trent Lott, D-Miss., told Van Tine that he had been portrayed as reckless and needed to be more diplomatic.
Van Tine replied that, as general counsel, his job was to be an advocate. “Deputy secretary is a different job,” he said, and pledged to be a consensus-builder in his new role.
Transportation Department spokesman Robert Johnson said it was too bad that FedEx had personalized their disagreement.
“Kirk Van Tine is a professional,” Johnson said. “He was good at his job representing the Transportation Department’s interests and issues.”
Van Tine, 55, has the strong backing of the White House and Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta. He was a corporate lawyer in 2000 when he helped candidate George W. Bush win the legal battle over the Florida recount.
The Bush administration then appointed him general counsel to the Transportation Department. He was planning to resign from the post in August to return to the private sector, but the White House nominated him to replace Deputy Transportation Secretary Michael Jackson, who left at about the same time. He is now a special assistant at the department.
