WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden’s nominee for Secretary of TransportationPete Buttigieg looked like a smooth path to rapid confirmation, pledging to senators on Thursday to help implement the government’s ambitious agenda to rebuild the country’s infrastructure.
During his hearing with his nearby husband, Buttigieg pointed to a “generational opportunity” to create new jobs, fight economic inequality and end climate change. He promised more talks with Congress on programs requiring significant investment in the coming months.
“We need to rebuild our economy, better than ever, and the Department of Transportation can play a central role in this,” the 39-year-old former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, told the Senate Commerce Committee. He pointed to opportunities in updating auto emissions regulations that President Donald Trump had relaxed and built a network of electric vehicle charging stations.
Buttigieg did not specify where money could come from for major infrastructure investments, but did not rule out a tax increase and showed the possibility of a major change in the way highways are funded.
Buttigieg, a former Democratic presidential candidate, was one of the few contenders for 2020 to propose the switch from the current Highway Trust Fund, which is paid through the gas tax, to an alternative to ‘miles traveled’ that would tax drivers based on their mileage.
“All options are on the table,” Buttigieg said Thursday.
Republican Senator Roger Wicker, who chaired Thursday’s hearing for the last time as the Senate finalized the handover of power to the Democrats, signaled likely challenges in finding ways to pay for a costly infrastructure repair, but said he was looking forward to working with Buttigieg. to work.
“I’m pretty sure it will be confirmed,” Wicker told the hearing.
Buttigieg is said to be the first openly gay person to be confirmed at a cabinet post by the Senate. He was among the first group of cabinet selections to receive hearings this week, while Biden is urging the Senate, where Democrats have a narrow majority, to quickly confirm his nominees.
Buttigieg would take over at a critical time for transportation, charged with implementing Biden’s proposals to spend billions of dollars on making major infrastructure improvements and on renewal initiatives that could help the US fight climate change.
The pandemic of the coronavirus has devastated many modes of transport, with airlines, urban metro systems and Amtrak seeking federal help to keep it afloat.
“Good transportation policies can play no less of a role than enabling the American Dream by getting people and goods where they need to be,” said Buttigieg. “But I also recognize that at worst, misguided policies and missed opportunities in transportation can amplify racial and economic inequality, dividing or isolating neighborhoods and undermining the fundamental role of government in enabling Americans to thrive. “
“There is so much at stake today,” he said.
Biden also wants to immediately mandate the wearing of masks on planes and public transport to slow the spread of the coronavirus, and Buttigieg made it clear that this would be a first priority in the department.
“We need to make sure that all of our transportation systems – from aviation to public transportation, to our railways, roads, ports, waterways and pipelines – are safely managed during this critical time as we work to beat the virus,” said he.
Still, it’s Biden’s infrastructure plan, full details of which are expected to be released next month, that is likely to attract a lot of attention and pose the biggest challenges. Biden has yet to specify how he plans to pay for new infrastructure expenditures.
In addition to standard transportation solutions, which are easier to promise than get through Congress, Biden aims to rejuvenate the post-coronavirus pandemic economy and create thousands of green jobs by making environmentally friendly modifications and improvements to public works.
In his prepared remarks to the committee, Buttigieg pointed to his past experience as a veteran of the war in Afghanistan and as mayor of the city as being valuable in improving ground floor transportation. He described initiating a ‘smart streets’ program to make downtown South Bend more pedestrian and cyclist friendly while boosting hundreds of millions of dollars in economic investment.
“I worked with regional and state partners – and down the aisle – to support improvements to our intercity train system and our now international airport, and we pioneered public-private partnerships,” he said. “We have achieved results by bringing in people, engaging stakeholders and residents, effectively prioritizing limited resources and freeing up new resources to solve problems.”
“That’s how I will approach the Department of Transportation, once I confirm this,” Buttigieg said.
During Trump’s four years at the White House, his administration often held Infrastructure Week events and praised transportation improvements. But it failed to push Congress to pass a blanket plan to update the country’s roads and bridges, rails, and airports.
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The Associated Press writers, Tom Krisher in Detroit and David Koenig in Dallas, contributed to this report.