Anthony Foxx, President Obama’s nominee to head the Dept. of Transportation, has advanced a step toward confirmation, with the Senate commerce committee’s unanimous vote June 10 to move his nomination to the full Senate.

The committee’s top Republican, John Thune of South Dakota, said at Foxx’s May 22 confirmation hearing that he wouldn’t vote the nomination out of committee until DOT responded to his request for information about how it implemented budget sequester cuts to Federal Aviation Administration programs. Those cuts resulted in furloughs of air traffic controllers, which led to an increase in flight delays.

After voting to approve Foxx, Thune told reporters that DOT had provided "a pretty good response to a lot of issues and questions that we had raised."

Thune said that he was not aware of any Republican opposition to Foxx, the mayor of Charlotte, N.C., and added,  “I don’t anticipate any problems on the floor.” Thune said the nomination “should go pretty smoothly.”

The committee also unanimously approved Chicago businesswoman Penny Pritzker, Obama’s choice to be Commerce Secretary.

Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) called Foxx and Pritzker “two excellent nominees,” and added, “I urge my colleagues to act quickly now to schedule votes on their nominations.”