The Senate confirmed Pete Buttigieg as President Biden’s Transport Secretary on Tuesday in a bipartisan manner, but not entirely without the Republican Party’s dissent.
Buttigieg was confirmed for 87-13, but the Republican complaints focused on Buttigieg’s lack of experience and progressive ideas. Buttigieg will now be responsible for carrying out a $ 2 trillion infrastructure and climate plan.
Here are the 13 Republican senators who voted against Buttigieg’s confirmation:
Marsha Blackburn, Tenn.
Bill Cassidy, Louisiana.
Tom Cotton, Ark.
Ted Cruz, Texas
Bill Hagerty, Tenn.
Josh Hawley, Mo.
Jim Lankford, Okla.
Roger Marshall, Kan.
Marco Rubio, Fla.
Tim Scott, SC
Rick Scott, Florida.
Richard Shelby, Ala.
Tommy Tuberville, Ala.
In appointing the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, President Biden said Buttigieg, 39, reminds him of his late son, Beau, and praised his former Democratic rival in 2020 as “a new voice with new ideas”.
A spokesman for Cruz told Fox News that the Texas Republican voted against Buttigieg because he was “in line” with Biden’s “radical energy policy”.
“As Senator Cruz told Buttigieg at his confirmation hearing, this agenda is totally out of step with what the American people want. This – along with Buttigieg’s lack of experience in most transportation issues – is the reason why which Senator Cruz was opposed to him confirming, “said the spokesman.
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Cruz, Senator Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., And Senator Rick Scott, R-Fla., Were the only three to oppose Buttigieg’s vote outside the Senate Trade Committee last week.
Blackburn said in the Senate plenary on Tuesday that Buttigieg had signaled during committee hearings that he “would put the government’s environmental goals ahead of some basic changes in federal policy that would ease the regulatory burden on county and city mayors trying to launch transportation projects. ”
During his confirmation hearing, Buttigieg left the door open to raise the federal gas tax to pay for repairs on America’s dilapidated roads, pledged to help implement new federal automotive fuel economy standards to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. greenhouse, and defended Biden for revoking the Keystone XL pipeline license, saying that job losses will be offset by the creation of new green jobs.
Scott tweeted on Tuesday that he could not support Buttigieg because he was willing to raise the gas tax “to support unnecessary government spending”.
“It is no secret that the United States needs significant investments in infrastructure projects, especially for our rural roads, bridges and broadband internet,” Tuberville, who also voted against the new head of transportation, told Fox News in a statement. “I am concerned that Buttigieg prioritizes urban areas over the real needs of our rural communities, and his insistence on just promoting ‘green’ initiatives will put Alabama and Americans in the energy sector unemployed.”
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Biden made rebuilding the United States’ infrastructure in an environmentally friendly manner one of his government’s top priorities. Biden’s climate and infrastructure plan focuses on rebuilding roads and bridges and expanding mass transit with zero emissions, while boosting electric vehicle infrastructure, including the construction of 500,000 charging stations in the next decade .
Buttigieg said he wants to work with lawmakers on a bipartisan basis to initiate new plans to update the country’s roads, bridges, tracks and airports.
Before becoming Mayor of South Bend at the age of 29, Buttigieg graduated from Harvard College and Oxford University and was an intelligence officer in the United States Navy Reserve.
Senator Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., The next chairman of the Senate Trade Committee, said Buttigieg demonstrated a deep understanding of transportation issues at her hearing.
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“As someone who served our country, as a reservist for the United States Navy, including deployment in Afghanistan, he also, as a Rhodes fellow, demonstrated an impressive understanding of the future of our transportation policies and the major changes they are going through,” she said.
Fox News’s Marisa Schultz contributed to this report.