After laying low following a series of national transportation flubs, President Biden’s openly gay and politically divisive Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is in Alaska this week to tout the president’s massive infrastructure spending spree.
Buttigieg, who regularly uses his high profile status to advocate for a host of radical left-leaning issues, suffered withering criticism earlier this year when a series of transportation mishaps sparked questions about his competency to run the country’s massive transportation apparatus.
As pointed out by 19fortyfive.com, it all started as thousands of travelers were stranded during peak holiday travel when Southwest Airlines cancelled myriad flights.
This week, however, Buttigieg has an easy task – traveling Alaska with U.S. Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan for a three-day blitz to talk up Biden’s transportation spending agenda.
“The situation reflected poorly on the DOT, simply because it was a major blunder relating to travel,” 19fortyfive.com noted. “But when it became clear that Buttigieg was pressured to impose fines on airlines who cancelled flights, in an effort to curb the behavior (Southwest’s mass cancellations) that created the holiday fiasco, but decline – Buttigieg himself began the focus of intense criticism.”
Then, in February, a Norfolk Southern train with hazardous chemicals derailed in Ohio.
“The disaster, which came just months after a series of embarrassing air travel issues that snarled plans for millions of Americans, is prompting renewed scrutiny of [Buttigieg’s] tenure atop the department,” The Hill reported.
As perhaps the most high-profile DOT head ever, Buttigieg has been a darling of the media for his openly gay marriage and recent adoption of two babies. Following a failed bid for the White House in 2020, he ultimately landed a cabinet post in the Biden administration. While mainstream media regularly portrays him as a moderate, he has advocated for an overhaul of the U.S. Supreme Court, the ditching of the Electoral College and implementation of automatic voter registration. He’s also on board with radical climate change initiatives, stricter gun control laws, a national single-payer health care and the Green New Deal.
This week, however, Buttigieg has a fairly easy task – traveling Alaska with U.S. Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan for a three-day blitz to talk up Biden’s transportation spending agenda.
On Monday, he’s in Kotzebue with Sullivan and local tribal leaders for a special lunch and various tours with air carriers to discuss transportation.
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On Tuesday, Aug. 15, he spends the day in Anchorage, visiting the Port of Alaska to see the implementation of the $68.7 million investment from Biden’s infrastructure bill.
Buttigieg will then meet with the Alaska Federation of Natives and Alyeska Pipeline for a roundtable and luncheon to discuss transportation needs in tribal communities, and will also hear from leaders of the FAA’s Alaska Aviation Safety Initiative. To close out his Anchorage excursion, Buttigieg will head to the Ted Stevens International Airport for a hangar tour and discussion of Medivac operations, before stopping at the Alaska Airlines Cargo Facility to discuss airport operations.
On Aug. 16, Buttigieg joins Murkowski to hear from local operators of Alaska Seaplanes in Haines. They will then tour Haines and stop at the Lutak Dock, the site of a $20 million investment from Biden’s infrastructure bill. Buttigieg and Murkowski will meet with local leaders who were instrumental in securing the federal money.
His trip ends by meeting with Alaska Marine Highway System employees while taking one of the system’s ferries to Skagway. In Skagway, he will peruse the ferry infrastructure and consort with community leaders. Before departing Alaska, he will board a seaplane to Juneau to discuss infrastructure needs at the Juneau airport.
