Sen. Ted Cruz said the U.S. should ground the Boeing 737 MAX 8 as a "prudent" measure until the FAA can confirm the fleet's safety. | Alex Brandon/AP Photo Transportation Boeing’s congressional base frays under pressure The company's huge lobbying presence isn't stopping a surge in lawmakers calling for regulators to ground a 737 model involved in two deadly crashes.

Boeing is one of the most powerful companies in Washington, a lobbying force with defenders throughout Congress, a former executive in President Donald Trump’s Cabinet and the clout that comes with being one of the United States’ biggest manufacturers.

But on Tuesday, what had been a solid front from congressional backers with ties to the company or its airline customers began to crater amid growing global pressure for the U.S. to follow much of the world by grounding a Boeing plane involved in two deadly air disasters. Those included a Sunday accident involving an Ethiopian Airlines 737 Max 8 that crashed minutes after takeoff in clear weather, killing 157 people, including eight Americans.


Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) became the most visible defector Tuesday, saying the U.S. should ground the aircraft as a “prudent” measure until the Federal Aviation Administration can confirm its safety.

“Further investigation may reveal that mechanical issues were not the cause, but until that time, our first priority must be the safety of the flying public,” said Cruz, whose home state is home to Southwest Airlines and American Airlines, both of which fly dozens of the planes from the same Boeing model that was involved in the Ethiopia crash and another one in Indonesia in October.

Boeing’s influence in Washington is mammoth. The company employs two dozen in-house lobbyists and nearly 20 lobbying firms and spent more than $15 million on Washington lobbying last year, according to disclosure filings — more than any other U.S. company except for Google and AT&T.

Morning Transportation newsletter A daily speed read on transportation and infrastructure — in your inbox. Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

It also has a direct line to the White House: CEO Dennis Muilenburg spoke to Trump by phone Tuesday and assured him that the Max 8 is safe to fly.

The company’s 153,000 employees include thousands in states such as Washington, Missouri, California and South Carolina.

Several lawmakers with a significant Boeing presence in their backyard — whether a plant or the company’s headquarters — were much more cautious than Cruz on the question of grounding the fleet, which would cause major flight disruptions throughout the country and probably send Boeing’s stock plummeting even further.

Rep. Rick Larsen (D-Wash.), who chairs the subcommittee in charge of aviation in the House and represents a district that is home to a major Boeing facility, pointed out that the FAA has not called for the jets to be taken out of service.

“Right now, the important thing is that relevant agencies are allowed to conduct a thorough and careful investigation,” Larsen said during a hearing Tuesday.

South Carolina Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott, whose state is home to a facility that makes Boeing 787s, likewise deferred to the FAA.

“I trust the FAA to make that” decision, Graham said. He added: “I want to do what’s best for the traveling public.”

Some Republicans went a step further. Sen. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, a private pilot who according to the Center for Responsive Politics counts American Airlines as one of his top donors over the course of his career, said he doesn’t think the FAA has any reason to take the planes out of the sky.

“Right now, I don’t think there’s justification for grounding,” he told reporters. “People will make a decision, if they don’t want to ride on it, they don’t have to.”





The powerful airline and aircraft-manufacturing industries, which contribute billions to the economy and support millions of jobs, have long had close allies on Capitol Hill. That’s doubly true for Boeing, whose lobbyists include a former chief of staff to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and a top fundraiser for Trump’s campaigns.

Boeing also has a presence in the Cabinet: Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan spent 31 years at Boeing and has faced internal accusations that he frequently praises the company and trashes competitors during meetings at the Pentagon.

But the 737 Max crisis is having an effect. In a sign of the turmoil roiling the company’s Washington office, Boeing canceled its weekly morning conference call with its Washington consultants, according to a lobbyist with knowledge of the call.

The company and the FAA are both under increasing pressure to ground the Max 8 fleet as more countries, beginning with China, have barred the plane from operating in their skies. The actions represent a stunning rebuke of the FAA, which for decades has led the way in decisions on the safety of U.S.-made aircraft.

Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Mitt Romney (R-Utah), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) have all called to take the plane out of service immediately until the public’s safety can be ensured.

Feinstein said she was puzzled that the agency hadn’t yet taken any action amid questions about Sunday’s crash in Ethiopia and the October disaster in Indonesia.

“I don’t understand,” she said. “They’ve always been quite wonderful, and when you have two similar accidents, with 300 people, it seems to me that you want to err on the cautious side with a temporary grounding.”

Trump, who owns his own fleet of aircraft, also appeared to weigh in on the crash with a pair of tweets Tuesday.

“Airplanes are becoming far too complex to fly. Pilots are no longer needed, but rather computer scientists from MIT… All of this for great cost yet very little gain,” Trump wrote. “I don’t know about you, but I don’t want Albert Einstein to be my pilot. I want great flying professionals that are allowed to easily and quickly take control of a plane!”

But the administration had taken no further action as of Tuesday evening.

The investigation into the Indonesia crash has raised questions about a technology on the plane that was intended to keep it from stalling by pitching down the nose, but which may have had the effect of forcing the plane into a deadly plunge. Investigators have not said whether they see evidence of a similar problem in Sunday’s crash in Ethiopia, which, like the Indonesia accident, involved a plane that fell to earth shortly after takeoff.

Boeing and the FAA have said they’re working together on a software update intended to remedy the issue, but it isn’t expected to be implemented until April.

In the meantime, the crash is likely to get some attention among the congressional committees that have jurisdiction over the issue.

Cruz and Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) said a hearing is being planned on the crashes.

And Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), chairman of the House Transportation Committee, said he has asked the FAA for a briefing. He suggested that regulators will still need to take corrective actions, even if it’s determined that the Ethiopia crash was due to pilot error.

“They are not there to protect a manufacturer or an airline,” DeFazio said. “They are there to protect the flying public.”

Theodoric Meyer, Sam Mintz and Andrew Desiderio contributed to this report.

