Pete Buttigieg Confirmed As Transportation Secretary

This week, the former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg was confirmed by an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote of 86-13 in the Senate to lead the U.S. Department of Transportation where he will be responsible for advancing President Joe Biden’s ambitious agenda to rebuild the nation’s infrastructure.

“I’m honored and humbled by today’s vote in the Senate—and ready to get to work,” Buttigieg tweeted following his confirmation.

“We look forward to working closely with Secretary Buttigieg, a South Bend Indiana native just down the road from the center of the RV industry in Elkhart,” said RV Industry Association Vice President of Government Affairs Jay Landers. “Infrastructure is a bipartisan issue that is important not just for the RVers on our nation’s highways but also for the critical infrastructure on our public lands, including access to campgrounds.”

According to the Washington Post, Transportation secretary has not traditionally been a high-profile Cabinet role, but Buttigieg has brought his own following and celebrity since being nominated in December. Supporters of his presidential campaign have hailed his new role online, decking out social media with emoji for buses, planes and trains, and seeking to educate themselves about the department’s duties.

As many of them have discovered, the department is sprawling in its scope and carries out highly technical work.

Praised by Biden as bringing a “new voice” to the administration, Buttigieg takes over a Transportation Department with 55,000 employees and a budget of tens of billions of dollars. He has pledged to quickly get to work promoting safety and restoring consumer trust in America’s transportation networks as airlines, buses, city subway systems and Amtrak reel from plummeting ridership in the coronavirus pandemic.

He is expected to play an important role in promoting Biden’s sweeping green initiatives, helping to reinstate previously agreed to automotive fuel economy standards and support the president’s push later this year on a $2 trillion climate and infrastructure plan. That plan will be focused on rebuilding roads and bridges and expanding zero-emission mass transit while boosting electric vehicle infrastructure, including building 500,000 charging stations over the next decade.