WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 The Senate on Tuesday confirmed Pete Buttigieg as transportation secretary, the first openly gay person to take a Cabinet post, tasked with advancing President Joe Biden\u2019s ambitious agenda of rebuilding the nation\u2019s infrastructure and fighting climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Buttigieg, a 39-year-old former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and Biden\u2019s one-time rival during the Democratic presidential primaries, was approved on a 86-13 vote. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Praised by Biden as bringing a \u201cnew voice\u201d to the administration, Buttigieg takes over a Transportation Department with 55,000 employees and a budget of tens of billions dollars. He has pledged to quickly get to work promoting safety and restoring consumer trust in America\u2019s transportation networks as airlines, buses, city subway systems and Amtrak reel from plummeting ridership in the coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He is expected to play an important role in promoting Biden\u2019s sweeping green initiatives, helping to oversee stronger automotive fuel economy standards to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and support the president\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before approval by the full Senate, Buttigieg had cleared the Senate Commerce Committee on a 21-3 vote. Some Republican senators during his hearing signaled likely fights ahead over the cost and scope of updating the nation\u2019s roads and bridges, rails and airports, questioning in particular the administration\u2019s interest in redirecting money for climate initiatives. But they said they would look forward to further discussions with Buttigieg, including on their desired local projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTransportation issues historically have been addressed on a bipartisan basis, and I expect to continue that practice with Mr. Buttigieg,\u201d said Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker, the top Republican on the panel, who praised his \u201cimpressive credentials\u201d and intellect. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Biden hasn\u2019t indicated how he intends to pay for an infrastructure plan, coming on top of the administration\u2019s proposed $1.9 trillion virus relief plan that has met some headwinds in Congress. Buttigieg\u2019s suggestion during his hearing that a gas tax hike might be needed was immediately walked back by his spokesman afterward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe need to build our economy back, better than ever, and the Department of Transportation can play a central role in this,\u201d Buttigieg told his confirmation hearing last week, noting that the transportation sector, particularly car emissions, is the single biggest contributor in the U.S. to global warming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He stressed that creating jobs, tackling the climate crisis and addressing racial and economic inequality will drive funding decisions at the department. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Afghanistan war veteran burst onto the national scene in 2019 after launching a longshot presidential bid, introducing himself to voters as \u201cMayor Pete\u201d and drawing initial skepticism due to his youth and limited government experience. He outperformed expectations after zeroing in on a message of generational change, finishing the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses in a virtual tie with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Buttigieg struggled to appeal to Black voters and dropped out of the race after a crushing loss to Biden in the South Carolina primary. Buttigieg chose to quickly endorse Biden, helping him solidify centrist support against Sanders\u2019 strong liberal challenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Buttigieg, a Harvard graduate and Rhodes scholar, now points to his experience as a mayor and on the campaign trail as valuable to his ground-level approach to improving transportation. He described initiating a \u201csmart streets\u201d program to make South Bend\u2019s downtown more pedestrian- and bicyclist-friendly while spurring hundreds of millions of dollars in economic investment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He\u2019s also expected to be a regular presence on TV, helping to sell the president\u2019s policies as he did during Biden\u2019s campaign. Since he was nominated, Buttigieg has appeared on \u201cThe View,\u201d \u201cThe Tonight Show,\u201d MSNBC\u2019s \u201cMorning Joe,\u201d as well as Fox local affiliates, addressing topics from Donald Trump\u2019s impeachment and the treatment of veterans to his goals of promoting green-friendly travel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Buttigieg brings diversity to the Cabinet. There hasn\u2019t been an openly gay Cabinet secretary before. Under President Donald Trump, Richard Grenell served as acting director of national intelligence and is openly gay, but did not have to face Senate confirmation as an acting director. In the late 1990s, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott blocked a confirmation vote on President Bill Clinton\u2019s pick for ambassador to Luxembourg, James Hormel, over his sexual orientation; Clinton ultimately installed Hormel with a recess appointment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cCongratulations to Secretary Pete Buttigieg on his historic confirmation,\u201d Alphonso David, president of Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ advocacy group, said after the vote. \u201cThis confirmation breaks through a barrier that has existed for too long, where LGBTQ identity served as an impediment to nomination or confirmation at the highest level of government.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Buttigieg, a 39-year-old former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and Biden’s one-time rival during the Democratic presidential primaries, was approved on a 86-13 vote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":53546,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":68,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[106,31,15,68,33],"tags":[],"coauthors":[1860],"class_list":["post-17323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-brief","category-home","category-management","category-leadership","category-newsletters"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"3UNGISKSSNEWNN623D2OEI3QIY","arc_canonical_url":"\/management\/leadership\/2021\/02\/02\/senate-confirms-pete-buttigieg-as-transportation-secretary\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n