Opinion: Pete Buttigieg: DOT Darling or a Supply Chain Nightmare?

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Three years ago…

… Pete Buttigieg was Mayor of South Bend, Indiana, a small midwestern town of 103,000 people – mostly known for being the home of the prestigious Notre Dame University. Today, Secretary Buttigieg leads the Department of Transportation, one of the most powerful and important agencies in Washington DC.   

It's been a rapid ascent punctuated by unprecedented successes, including an impressive presidential run that ultimately led to Buttigieg’s nomination.    

However, his time as Secretary of the DOT has been challenging. Over the last year and a half, several important events have tested Buttigieg. He seems to have struggled to find the proper responses while weighing transportation interests, personal matters, and his growing political ambitions.  

To anticipate how Buttigieg may respond to the challenges ahead, let’s look at how he has responded to the mounting supply-chain crisis, the Infrastructure Bill, the onslaught of trucker protests, the heavy EV push, and the post-pandemic surge in air travel.

Supply-Chain Crisis

Only a few months after Buttigieg was sworn in as Secretary, a massive supply-chain breakdown unfolded across the country. Congestion and bottlenecks overwhelmed the Western shipping ports, led to notable delays, and created additional problems up and down the supply chain. There was a shortage of workers to get cargo off ships and a shortage of truckers to transport the goods. Rail yards were also clogged and backed up for miles outside key facilities across the country. 

All of this led to barren store shelves, escalating inflation, and threatened holiday shipments. 

As supply-chain anxieties increased, Politico declared,

“PETE BUTTIGIEG HAS BEEN MIA.”  

Was Secretary Buttigieg visiting port operators, shaking hands with trucking executives, meeting with container ship captains, and inspecting rail yards and warehouses? After all, a crippling supply chain crisis spotlights the nation’s transportation leader.      

Buttigieg surfaced a week after the Politico story. He told reporters that he and his husband had adopted an infant son and daughter. He was taking time off to support them and he had actually been on paid paternity leave since mid-August.  

Buttigieg’s absence – its length and timing – was unusual. For example, Julian Castro, former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President Obama, took about a week of paid leave after his child was born. After discovering Buttigieg was at home, Joe Concha, a columnist for The Hill, asked who would serve as acting director during the leave.

Evidently, Buttigieg did not appoint anyone. Conservative officials pounced.

Senator Tom Cotton, Arkansas Republican asked,

“Who’s going to save Christmas for Americans? Pete Buttigieg? I mean, please. Pete Buttigieg couldn’t organize a one-car funeral.  He’s not going to organize our nation’s ports and roads and highways and airports.”  

Buttigieg’s disappearance stirred questions about his qualifications. He was just 39-years old and had no experience in Washington DC politics or running a large government bureaucracy. He could not claim distinctive transportation skills. He had been a small-town mayor, whose transportation infrastructure included a modest regional airport, a fleet of 40 buses, a transportation budget of $10 million, and fewer than 100 full-time employees.  The Department of Transportation, by contrast, employs nearly 60,000 people, includes 13 additional agencies, and operates with an 87-billion-dollar budget.

The Infrastructure Bill

The $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, considered by many the crowning achievement of the Biden administration, includes approximately $250 billion to be allocated for freight transportation. Secretary Buttigieg will oversee the investments.   

Buttigieg argues that past federal investments in transportation contributed to racial inequities. Accordingly, in June 2022, Secretary Pete Buttigieg and other senior leaders from USDOT launched a $1 billion Reconnecting Communities program to address systemic racism in highway design.       

Recall the infrastructure bill was sold primarily as a job creator; a remedy for the bottlenecks in the nation’s supply chains and essential to boost America’s global competitiveness. It was not sold as a solution to long-standing social and political problems. While portions of the infrastructure bill targeted equity concerns – including much-needed improvements in water infrastructure and access to internet services – roads, tunnels, bridges, ports, and airports were not advertised as essential for racial healing.

Accordingly, critics have asked Buttigieg, “Is a road really a road?” 

Yes, of course, he said. But “if the road was built in such a way that it removed, destroyed, or divided a community of color, that’s something we’ve gotta deal with.” 

Recently, Buttigieg handed out $1.5 billion across 26 projects nationwide. The big winner (of a whopping $104.6 million) was a plan to dismantle the ‘racially divisive’ Interstate 375, a 1-mile freeway in Detroit, Michigan. Its construction 60-years ago infamously displaced thousands of Black residents.

However, long-time Black residents are concerned about the project, saying it will attract new businesses and housing developments which could, in turn, price them out of their homes. In addition, the proposed boulevard simply replaces one busy roadway for another. Residents say to address racial inequity, affordable housing is needed – not new roads.

Freedom Convoy

In late January 2022, a convoy of truckers headed for Canada’s capital city to protest vaccine requirements. Canada required unvaccinated truckers re-entering Canada from the United States to be tested for COVID-19 and quarantine themselves. The requirements would sideline thousands of Canadian truck drivers and thousands more from the U.S. traveling into Canada. This seemed to be a tipping point for truckers after many years of growing frustrations with government regulations. 

The Convoy set up in downtown Ottawa and would not leave until COVID restrictions were repealed. It also spread across Canada and blocked several important trade routes into the United States. Truckers were able to shut down the Ambassador Bridge - the main commercial route between Windsor, Ontario, and Detroit - for four days. 

On February 14th, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau authorized the Canadian government to remove the truckers and disperse protestors. He ordered banks to freeze the personal and corporate accounts of protesters and suspend insurance for protesting truckers. The actions quickly put an end to the demonstrations. 

Republican political figures and conservative media cheered the protesters and criticized Trudeau’s heavy-handed measures. For his part, Secretary Buttigieg urged his Canadian counterparts to utilize their police powers to suppress the protests and end the Ambassador bridge blockades.   

Buttigieg did not identify with truckers –  an important working class constituency and central to DOT’s own initiative, the Trucking Action Plan, to recruit more truck drivers and improve the quality of transportation careers. He did not recognize truckers’ essential work, in both Canada and the United States, during the pandemic. 

Rather, Buttigieg aligned with the ATA, Teamsters, and OOIDA. He framed trucker protests as impediments to economic efficiency. Buttigieg and industry insiders denounced the protests and claimed that truckers disrupted public safety and compromised economic and national security.

Flight Delays and Cancellations

Over the spring and summer, airlines struggled to meet the post-pandemic surge in air travel. Carriers sold tickets for flights knowing they could not properly staff them. Those flights were then often cancelled or delayed. Some airlines offered credits for future flights, but few offered cash refunds as required by law. Customers quickly felt abandoned and frustrated.      

In turn, Buttigieg was slow to respond. 

In June, Buttigieg sat down with airlines executives to make sure the busy Fourth of July holiday ran smoothly. He received many assurances, but he also received an alert on his phone that his flight had been cancelled. 

He rented a car to return home.

Later, as Labor Day approached, Buttigieg announced that DOT would publish a new online dashboard where passengers could find information to compare what the airlines offered for delays and cancellations. While the Secretary believes the dashboard’s transparency compels accountability, the airlines shrugged. Most think the dashboard just describes policies that were already in place. As one transportation analyst observed, “The airlines are mocking DOT policy, and Buttigieg is letting them get away with it.”   

So, what happens if the airlines do not provide what’s on the dashboard?    

Nearly 40 state attorneys generals sent a letter to Congress charging the airline industry failed its customers- including not “providing required credits to those who lost travel opportunities during the pandemic.” Moreover, they called for DOT to be stripped of its ability to regulate aviation, citing that because the DOT had failed so miserably to protect consumers, congressional action was needed.    

Joe M. Formella of New Hampshire, among those that signed the letter, zeroed in on Buttigieg: 

“Will the new dashboard give paying air customers a timeline of when the Transportation Secretary and his colleagues will start to enforce the law and provide them some basic consumer protections?”

Electric Vehicles

Buttigieg is an enthusiastic advocate of electric vehicles. They fit well with his beliefs regarding climate change, global warming, and his vision for clean transportation. 

The Secretary also thinks EVs will bring substantial cost savings to the average American. He regularly touts government subsidies and claimed on MSNBC that families who own electric vehicles would see “a $12,500 discount” in transportation costs.       

Testifying before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Buttigieg declared,

“The more pain we are all experiencing from the high price of gas, the more benefit there is for those who can access electric vehicles.”       

And here is where Buttigieg’s fervor exposes his privilege. Americans realize rising gas prices penalize drivers of gasoline vehicles. After all, they drive gasoline vehicles every day. What Americans hear Buttigieg saying is that the wealthy save on gas… because they can afford electric.        

Consider the average price paid for a new electric vehicle is now over $66,000. The average for the broader car market is $48,043. Both figures surpass the median household income in South Bend, Indiana of $42,657. Over a fifth of South Bend residents are classified as persons in poverty.

Mayor Buttigieg would undoubtedly remind Secretary Buttigieg about the economic realities facing average Americans.

Political Ambition

In 2020, Buttigieg was a long-shot, outsider presidential candidate. Now, he is an insider - well-known across the country, with a real chance to seize the 2024 Democrat nomination. Pete Buttigieg is the public face of the Infrastructure Bill, which allows him to move across the country, doling out millions to important Democrat constituencies. He can spread the federal pork in key primary states and connect with voters to improve visibility.   

Buttigieg checks nearly every box. While his performance as Secretary raises questions, Buttigieg receives rave reviews among Democrats. His decision to take paternity leave during the supply chain crisis is considered courageous and widely admired by his party.  Likewise, his stiff-arm of trucker protestors, and his embrace of EVs, plays well with the educated classes that make up an increasingly large share of the Democrat coalition. 

In addition, Democrats view Buttigieg as a leading voice criticizing the airlines. During a time of major delays and cancellations, Mayor Pete voiced the concerns of the American people and produced an on-line database, a dashboard of real-time information to hold the major airlines accountable. 

Nevertheless, Buttigieg knows progressive Democrats see him differently. During the pandemic-shortened primary season, progressives fell in line and supported Biden. Now, women and people of color are waiting… and Buttigieg represents a threat.    

Can a moderate white man win the Democrat primary? Again? Recall, Buttigieg’s biggest problem in 2020 was his failure to connect with minorities, including Black voters. This weakness may help explain DOT’s priority to address systemic racism.

Perhaps, Buttigieg is vying for a VP selection under Harris?  

Whatever the case, Buttigieg will not be secretary for long. Most secretaries do not finish a 4-year term and the longest serving secretary completed only 5 and a half years. Given his ambitions, Buttigieg will likely resign next fall and announce another run. Until that time, expect him to attract significant media attention and become a favorite target of Republicans.

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