Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy is expected to face a grilling when he appears on Capitol Hill on Tuesday afternoon amid questions about whether he violated ethics standards while filming a YouTube series featuring his family taking an all-expenses-paid road trip.
The Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing is the first of two Mr. Duffy has scheduled for this week. It is intended to go over the Transportation Department’s proposed budget for the next fiscal year, and to review progress on initiatives such as Mr. Duffy’s pledge to modernize air traffic control.
But scrutiny of the Duffy family’s forthcoming “Great American Road Trip” series, which was paid for by a new nonprofit funded by hefty contributions from companies regulated by the Transportation Department, has become a major issue for the cabinet secretary.
Several Democrats have raised concerns about the funding of the reality-show-style series, which begins to air in June. Toyota, Boeing, United and Shell are among the companies that have donated to a nonprofit that is underwriting the project, which the Transportation Department has said is part of its official efforts to mark the 250th anniversary of the United States’ founding. The nonprofit is not required to disclose its donors, and a government watchdog called on the department’s inspector general to look into the matter.
So far, Republicans have not joined the pile-on.
Mr. Duffy and his representatives say the project was cleared by the department’s ethics and budget officials. In a memorandum of agreement, the nonprofit and the department stated that the private funds — which covered the Duffys’ gas, car rentals, hotels and other production costs — would be treated as a gift to the department.
The memo said the nonprofit would receive no preferential treatment from the department on regulatory matters in exchange for its participation. But those terms do not apply to the nonprofit’s corporate donors, who are not signatories. Nor did it explain how the funds that covered the expenses accrued by Mr. Duffy’s wife, Rachel Campos-Duffy, a Fox News anchor, and their nine children counted as official department business.
Mr. Duffy may face similar questions about other areas in which his actions have blended the line between his official and personal — or corporate — ventures, particularly around the national 250th birthday.
Mr. Duffy may also face questions over how the department has addressed staffing shortages in air traffic control, a long-running crisis that came into sharp focus after a 2025 midair collision outside Ronald Reagan National Airport near Washington that killed 67.
Mr. Duffy has made efforts to improve flying safety a centerpiece of his department leadership. But last week, the Federal Aviation Administration — an agency housed in the Transportation Department — revised down estimates of how many controllers the system needed to be fully staffed, arguing that it could close gaps with more efficient scheduling. On Monday, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association said the change was based on a flawed study.
Mr. Duffy may also be challenged about his department’s efforts to stop states from issuing trucking licenses to immigrants for terms longer than their federal work permits. It has said it will withhold highway funds from these states.
Karoun Demirjian is a breaking news reporter for The Times.
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