Obama nominates interim FAA chief for full term

Interim Federal Aviation Administration chief Michael Huerta was appointed to a full five-year term atop the aviation agency by President Obama Tuesday.

Huerta assumed the helm of the FAA in December when Obama's first aviation chief Randy Babbitt resigned after a drunk driving arrest. Babbitt, who was arrested in Fairfax, Va. after a police officer spotted him driving on the wrong side of the road, was in the middle of a five-year term of his own at the time of Huerta’s interim  appointment.

The White House said Wednesday evening that President Obama was appointing Huerta to a full term in his own right.

Huerta served as assistant FAA administrator under Babbitt, but he did not come to the agency with an aviation background. Prior to being appointed to the FAA in 2010, Huerta worked at a technology company called Affiliated Computer Services. He served as commissioner of New York City's Department of Ports, International Trade and Commerce in the 1980s and was executive director of the Port of San Francisco from 1989 to 1993.

Huerta also served in the Transportation Department under former President Clinton and was managing director of the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City, where he worked under 2012 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

Huerta’s nomination to a full-term leading the FAA will require Senate confirmation. His appointed was among four sent to the Senate by President Obama Tuesday.

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