Buttigieg finds himself in the spotlight for better or worse

WASHINGTON — The nation’s transportation secretary usually holds one of the most public-facing roles in any presidential administration. A core aspect of the Cabinet job is to travel the country, doling out millions of public dollars and attending ribbon-cutting ceremonies for new bridges, overpasses and ports.

Manuel Balce Ceneta, Associated Press

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg speaks Jan. 11 to the Transportation Research Board gathering in Washington.

Even by those standards, Pete Buttigieg has spent an inordinate amount of time in the national spotlight delivering the largesse of the big infrastructure and domestic spending bills. But at the same time, the 2020 Democratic presidential candidate and onetime mayor of South Bend, Indiana, also has been the public face of a string of transportation-related crises, all amid steady speculation about his future political prospects.

During the 40-year-old Buttigieg’s tenure, there have been widespread global supply chain issues and logjams at major ports, multiple instances of mass flight cancellations by airlines and a narrowly avoided nationwide strike by railroad workers that was only averted by an eleventh-hour intervention from Congress.

The latest transportation mishap was the most high-profile yet.

A malfunction in an obscure and apparently obsolete internal system called the Notice to Air Missions, or NOTAM, forced the temporary grounding of all air traffic in the United States on Jan. 11. That touched off a cascading snarl that resulted in the cancellation of more than 1,300 flights and delay of 9,000 more.

Buttigieg appeared to lean in to his role as the face of the beleaguered American transportation network. Appearing the same day at a Transportation Research Board conference, he called it “another challenging day for U.S. aviation” and said his department was “pivoting to understanding the cause of the issue.”

“We’re gonna own it,” Buttigieg later told reporters.

Earlier that day, during an interview with CNN, Buttigieg offered a positive spin, saying, “part of what you saw this morning was an act of caution.”

But he also acknowledged the mishap exposed a desperate need to modernize crucial and antiquated systems.

“We need to design a system that does not have these kinds of vulnerabilities,” he said.

Buttigieg’s challenges earn a special kind of sympathy from those who have sat in the same seat.

Ray LaHood, a former Republican congressman from Illinois who served as transportation secretary for four years under President Barack Obama, said he met with Buttigieg for 90 minutes shortly after Buttigieg was nominated by President Joe Biden.

“I told him, ‘When you walk in the door and turn the lights on, there’s going to be a crisis. And every day there’ll be one or more,'” LaHood said. “When something goes wrong, you become the face of it.”

Buttigieg repeatedly has criticized U.S. airlines for chronic cancellations and shoddy customer service — making the most recent debacle particularly awkward. It highlighted the fact that the Federal Aviation Administration has been without a Senate-confirmed leader for nearly a year.

Jose Luis Magana, Associated Press

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg speaks to a metro worker Nov. 15, 2022, during the opening of new Silver Line Extension at Washington Dulles International Airport in Chantilly, Va.

Stephen Dickson, a former Delta Airlines executive and appointee of President Donald Trump, resigned last March, midway through his five-year term. Biden’s nominee, Denver International Airport CEO Phillip Washington, seemingly stalled in the Senate, despite Democratic control of the chamber, over questions about his qualifications and involvement in a corruption investigation in California.

Similarly, another major part of Buttigieg’s department, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, has been without a Senate-confirmed leader since last fall, when Steven Cliff resigned just three months after his confirmation to run the California Air Resources Board.

Robert Mann, an independent aviation industry consultant and former executive at American and Pan Am, said the vulnerabilities highlighted by the transportation issues far predate Buttigieg’s tenure and run deep in the institutional fabric of the department.

Stefan Jeremiah, Associated Press

Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and N.J. Gov. Phil Murphy speak to the media Aug. 1, 2022, after at a groundbreaking ceremony  in Kearny, N.J., for the New Portal North Bridge project.

“We’ve had pipeline problems, we’ve had maritime problems. How much does the secretary actually control? None,” Mann said. 

But Republican politicians have been quick to pile on Buttigieg, perhaps seeking to damage the prospects of a young Democratic star who has already run for president once.

In the wake of the mass flight groundings, Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz — himself a former presidential candidate — led the public charge.

“The FAA’s inability to keep an important safety system up and running is completely unacceptable and just the latest example of dysfunction within the Department of Transportation,” said Cruz, one of 13 senators who voted against confirming Buttigieg. “This incident also highlights why the public needs a competent, proven leader with substantive aviation experience leading the FAA.”

Cruz is expected to assume the role of the top Republican on the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, which has jurisdiction over aviation.

Rep. Sam Graves, the new chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said he expected a “prompt update on DOT’s efforts to do right by the passengers it has wronged” and a full accounting of what happened.