Chao Pitches Private Infrastructure Investment in Confirmation Hearing
Elaine Chao at her Jan. 11 confirmation hearing. Looking on is her husband, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Screenshot via Senate Commerce Committee
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Elaine Chao at her Jan. 11 confirmation hearing. Looking on is her husband, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Screenshot via Senate Commerce Committee
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During her Senate confirmation hearing on Jan. 11, Elaine Chao unequivocally signaled her willingness to cooperate with Congress to enact the trillion-dollar infrastructure investment plan floated by President-elect Trump if she is indeed confirmed as the next secretary of transportation.
In her written testimony and in reply to questions posed by Senators from both sides of the aisle, Secretary Chao advocated strongly for “unleashing the potential for private investment in our nation’s infrastructure.”
Chao also affirmed that safety would remain DOT’s “primary objective” on her watch and asserted that, in her view, regularity decisions should be “based on sound science with solid underlying data.”
From start to finish of her three-and-a-half hour appearance before the Senate Commerce Committee, Chao was poised and certain in her remarks, as might be expected from someone who has already held Cabinet rank. Chao served as secretary of labor throughout both terms of President George W. Bush; she received her first major executive appointment as deputy secretary of transportation under President George H.W. Bush.
Members from both side of the aisle on the committee, which is known for its bipartisan bonhomie, lobbed little more than softballs at Chao and were largely satisfied with her oft-repeated response to one concern or another that she would “look forward to working with you on that if I am confirmed as secretary.”
Early in the hearing, Chao said she would form a task force to implement the “Trump vision for infrastructure.” She had no details to share on the Trump infrastructure plan. However, Chao stressed that she would seek to have DOT work with Congress to “develop the details” of that still nebulous plan.
More significantly, Chao emphasized the “significant difference between …Read the rest of this story
