Duffy started the job just as a major plane disaster occurred near Reagan National Airport when an American Airlines plane and a Black Hawk helicopter collided, killing all 67 people. President Donald Trump suggested that DEI policies could have had something to do with the crash.

Out of the entire Transportation Department, Duffy confirmed on Sunday that the Federal Aviation Administration was the only agency that had an active DEI policy when he took office. The FAA manages the air traffic controllers in every airport across the country.

“So I do know that in the last administration, they were focused on not safety, but they were focused on changing the name from ‘cockpit’ to ‘flight deck.’ Or ‘notice to airmen,’ they wanted to change it to ‘notice to air mission.’ They focused on EVs and sustainability and racist roads, things that don‘t matter in regards to safety,” Duffy said on CNN’s State of the Union. “Our mission since the start has been safety, and they‘ve lost that mission. And we see when you don‘t focus on safety and you focus on social justice or the environment, bad things happen.”

Trump has not explained any evidence that DEI hiring practices caused the crash. Duffy indicated that during the Biden administration, entrance exam scores were lowered to get people into air traffic control.

While every other federal agency has been in a hiring freeze and government employees are mulling over an early retirement incentive, the safety jobs in the FAA are exempted. Duffy confirmed that he has hired air traffic controllers and no safety positions were offered incentives.

Officials have recovered over 40 bodies from the Potomac River so far.