Buttigieg blunders: Three times Pete has crashed as transportation secretary
Jack Birle
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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has had a tumultuous two-year tenure, with his handling of the Ohio trail derailment being the latest incident under intense scrutiny.
The former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, now faces calls from several people, including Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), to step down amid “serious and persistent problems” at the Department of Transportation. Here is a look at three times Buttigieg has come under fire for his handling of transportation issues.
OHIO TRAIN DERAILMENT: RUBIO DEMANDS BIDEN FIRE BUTTIGIEG
Ohio train derailment: February 2023
The derailment on the evening of Feb. 3 in East Palestine, Ohio, involved a train that was carrying 20 cars of hazardous materials, with 11 of those derailing, causing environmental and safety concerns to the surrounding area. The National Transportation Safety Board said 38 train cars came off the tracks, with a fire damaging an additional 12 train cars. Shortly after the derailment, the area was evacuated due to concerns about the materials on the train, including vinyl chloride, phosgene, and hydrogen chloride.
Buttigieg stayed silent on the matter for 10 days and was widely criticized for discussing equity in construction jobs before addressing the disaster.
In the secretary’s first tweets about the disaster, on Feb. 13, he said he continued “to be concerned about the impacts” the derailment was having on the rural Ohio town and that the NTSB was investigating the incident. The preliminary report is expected within the next two weeks.
FAA NOTAM Outage: January 2023
An outage to the Federal Aviation Administration’s Notice to Air Missions system on Jan. 11, 2023, caused flight problems nationwide. The multiple-hour outage was reportedly caused by incompetence on the part of some personnel.
The Notice to Air Missions differs from other methods of communication to pilots, as NOTAM notifies pilots of hazardous conditions that could harm the flight. Air traffic control, a commonly known form of pilot communication, coordinates where the planes are and keeps them at a safe distance from each other.
The January NOTAM outage caused delays and flight cancellations nationwide, with more than 7,500 flights being delayed in the United States, per FlightAware.
Absence during supply chain crisis: October 2021
One of the most well-known controversies during Buttigieg’s time as transportation secretary came in October 2021, when it was discovered he had been on paternity leave in the middle of a crisis involving the country’s supply chains.
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The Department of Transportation said that he was available during his leave for “emergencies and matters that urgently required his attention” but denied Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) a meeting during his leave period. During the crisis, shipments of materials and products at ports were clogged, leading to shortages of several products.
Buttigieg’s various missteps have led to questions on whether the secretary is a liability for the Biden administration, with further questions about whether his political future is in jeopardy after his tenure. He ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, but he eventually lost to his future boss, President Joe Biden.