Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg: Infrastructure accomplishments and challenges in the Biden administration
Ford School community - Register hereSpeaker
Transportation Secretary Pete ButtigiegDate & time
How to attend
U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg will join the Ford School community for a conversation on the Biden-Harris Administration’s record in transportation, including implementation of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and its long-term investments in transportation and the built environment and supporting U.S. manufacturing. He also will address the administration’s work to invest in the long-term health of U.S. supply chains, reducing emissions in the transportation sector, emergency preparedness, and road, rail, and airline safety.
The live event is open to the Ford School community. Students, faculty, and staff will have a chance to discuss these and other policy issues with the Secretary. It will be live streamed for the general public.
He will be introduced by Ford School associate professor Robert Hampshire, who has been on leave from the University and serving as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology and Chief Science Officer since 2021.
Speaker bio:
Pete Buttigieg serves as the 19th Secretary of Transportation, having been sworn in on February 3, 2021.
His focus as Secretary is to deliver the world’s leading transportation system for the American people and economy. He has worked to achieve organizational excellence in the department’s operations, and to focus the department on five policy goals: safety, jobs, equity, climate, and innovation. In his first year at the Department, he prioritized supporting the development and passage of President Biden’s signature Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Since the law’s passage, Secretary Buttigieg and his team have focused on effectively delivering the investments provided by this legislation, enabling the most significant improvements in U.S. transportation infrastructure in over half a century.
The Secretary has also focused on intervening to support American supply chains dealing with shockwaves from the pandemic, including measures to help cut in half the long-dwelling container congestion at America’s largest ports. Other major initiatives in his early tenure have included a comprehensive national roadway safety strategy to reduce deaths and serious injuries; delivery of emergency COVID-19 relief funds to transit agencies across America; and awards of over $9.5 billion in discretionary funding to enhance transportation through over 800 projects in communities across America.
The first openly gay person confirmed to serve in a president’s Cabinet, Secretary Buttigieg previously served two terms as mayor of his hometown, South Bend, Indiana, where he worked across the aisle to transform the city’s future. Household income grew, poverty fell, and unemployment was cut in half. His work on transportation as mayor was nationally recognized, including an award for innovative streetscape design from the U.S. Department of Transportation where he now serves.
He also served for seven years as an officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve, taking a leave of absence from the mayor’s office for a deployment to Afghanistan in 2014.
