NEWS 28 - President Laylin’s JASA Nominee Karen Bassett, testifies before the Senate Transportation Committee in hopes of becoming the 16th Director of the Jesstopian Aviation Safety Administration early this morning. She was nominated by President Laylin on February 1, 2025.

Senators in both parties have expressed their concerns of her qualifications, while others say she should easily be confirmed to allow her to assume the office, and succeed former President John McCallum's appointment for JASA director, Tara McDaniel. President Laylin said she was "incompetent," and "unworthy to serve in the role of JASA director."

"For the past two to three years, she has been charged with overseeing the investigations into crashes that were not completed, and yet after those three years under the McCallum administration, these investigations haven't yielded any causes," said President Jay Laylin. "I believe Basett will play a key role in getting these investigations completed to bring families and passengers closure that they so well deserve. Basett is strong, smart and will get to work to close out existing investigations."

Basett wasn't available for comment before heading to Congress to testify before the Senate Transportation Committee, the body which will either vote to confirm or reject her nomination. A representative for Basett did issue the following statement.

"Mrs. Basett looks forward to being confirmed, so that she can close out other investigations that are going on to being more than 5+ years old," said her spokesperson. "We still have to get her confirmed before we can get to work. We will provide another statement later on."