Legislative Update: Welcome to Washington
By Rachel Roberts, WTS-DC
U.S. Department of Transportation
2021 has brought changes to Washington, as it always does with a new administration at the helm. On February 3, Pete Buttigieg was sworn in as the 19th U.S. Secretary of Transportation. Prior to joining the Biden-Harris Administration, he served two terms as Mayor of South Bend, Indiana and ran a campaign for president in 2019. Among his accomplishments as mayor, he launched a smart streets initiative to improve street design and a public private partnership benefits program designed to improve worker’s transportation experience.
Secretary Buttigieg has already shown strong enthusiasm for getting out in the transportation community and helping to advocate Biden Administration priorities such as green transportation, infrastructure, and COVID recovery.
Follow Secretary Buttigieg on Facebook and @SecretaryPete on Twitter and Instagram!
Along with Secretary Buttigieg, the Biden Administration has also already placed many women in high-level positions within the U.S. DOT including, former New York City Commissioner of Transportation Polly Trottenberg nominated as Deputy Secretary of Transportation and acting administrators Stephanie Pollack at FHWA, Meera Joshi at FMCSA, Nuria Fernandez at FTA, and Lucinda Lessley at MARAD. WTS-DC is looking forward to working with all the new staff at DOT.
117th Congress
With the new Congress (and with the 50/50 spilt in the Senate) comes the reshuffling of committees. In the Senate, each committee will have equal numbers of Democrats and Republicans. Among the committee assignments, Maria Cantwell (D-WA) became the first woman to chair the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation in its history. They will have a lot on their plate in the upcoming Congress, from transportation packages to broadband and helping women in STEM careers.
On the other side of Capitol Hill, the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee Chair, Peter DeFazio (D-OR) and Ranking Member Sam Graves (R-MO) have been speaking on the importance of U.S. infrastructure, which we know will be a focus of the Biden Administration as well. WTS-DC will be watching this closely, as we are expecting more movement on an infrastructure package soon after passage of the most recent COVID relief bill.