The Senate on Tuesday confirmed former Rep. Sean Duffy (R-Wis.) to be the subsequent Transportation secretary, placing him in place to steer a sprawling company that oversees air journey, highways, pipelines and railroads.
President Trump’s Cupboard nominee acquired bipartisan backing and was confirmed Tuesday with a 77-22 vote.
Duffy was anticipated to simply clear the voting threshold. He was unanimously superior out of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee with a 28-0 vote final week and in a unanimous procedural vote on the Senate ground Monday night.
The previous five-term congressman will take over an company that has greater than 55,000 workers and a price range of greater than $100 billion.
He advised senators throughout his affirmation listening to earlier this month that he would give attention to bettering aviation and freeway security.
Duffy, a former lobbyist, additionally stated he’ll work to sort out the air site visitors controllers scarcity and to assist restore belief in Boeing among the many public because the aircraft manufacturing behemoth has handled a number of security incidents in 2024.
As the top of DOT, the previous actuality tv persona would have oversight of the Nationwide Freeway Site visitors Security Administration (NHTSA), the company that’s investigating Tesla, a serious electrical automobile producer led by tech billionaire and Trump ally Elon Musk.
Duffy, when requested through the listening to by Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), pledged to permit the NHTSA to “follow the evidence and operate objectively” in its probe of Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) software program following a recall from October final yr.
“Yes, I commit to this committee and to you that I will let NHTSA do their investigation,” he advised Markey. “I think I also mentioned to you that a lot of the players in these spaces, I haven’t met any of them.”
