WASHINGTON — Former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg drew few hostile questions during his three hours before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee on Thursday, facing instead a panel of senators eager to win cooperation from the former Democratic presidential candidate on their pet transportation projects.
Incoming Chairwoman Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., pushed the importance of the Interstate 5 Columbia River Bridge replacement and other bridges in her state. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., urged Buttigieg to support the $30 billion Gateway Program, a multifaceted infrastructure project on Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor that includes rebuilding the Hudson Tunnel between New York and New Jersey. And Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., urged his support for work on Interstate 11 in her state.
For those projects, and the other legislative proposals, agenda items and wish lists offered by the senators, Buttigieg was amenable, promising to work with the senators and study what they asked him to study. His most common answer during the three-hour hearing was an expressed willingness to work with senators on their concerns.
The strategy worked: “You have put on a clinic on how a nominee should work and act,” said Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont. “You haven’t avoided the questions. You’ve been straightforward, and you know what the hell you’re talking about. And that’s really pretty damn refreshing.”
But at least two Republican senators offered mild pushback on President Joe Biden’s decision to kill the Keystone XL pipeline permit.
Without targeting Buttigieg directly, Sens. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, and Ted Cruz, R-Texas, both criticized the decision, saying it would eliminate thousands of jobs.
Buttigieg defended the decision.
“We are very eager to see those workers continue to be employed in good-paying union jobs, even if they might be different ones,” he said.
Cruz was dissatisfied, arguing that the Keystone XL decision “is the front end of a whole series of regulatory decisions, one after the other after the other, that will be eliminating union jobs, that will be eliminating manufacturing jobs, that will be eliminating energy jobs.”
“I think the answer is that we’re going to create more good-paying union jobs,” Buttigieg replied. “And we can do that while recognizing the fact that when the books are written about our careers, one of the main things we’ll be judged on is whether we did enough to stop the destruction of life and property due to climate change. I’ve got to believe we can do both of those things.”
Even before the hearing ended, Buttigieg had stated support from Sens. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., and Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., who urged the committee “to facilitate a swift confirmation of Mr. Buttigieg so he can immediately get to work on all the things that our colleagues on this committee have asked for for our nation and their states as well.”
Outgoing Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., praised Buttigieg’s “impressive credentials” and said he was “quite certain” that Buttigieg would be confirmed.
If confirmed, Buttigieg could become familiar with the committee quickly. Congress faces an October deadline to reauthorize federal highway programs. Last year, Congress extended the current highway law for a year.
A key part of that debate is how to pay for federal highway and transit programs. The Highway Trust Fund has become less effective in covering the costs of those programs, and the federal government has increasingly been forced to dip into general revenues to supplement the fund.
Several Republican senators asked Buttigieg how he planned to pay for it.
“I think all options need to be on the table,” he said, acknowledging that the current 18.4-cent-a-gallon federal gas tax and 24.4-cent-a-gallon diesel tax has not been increased since 1993, is not pegged to inflation and is increasingly less efficient as cars become more fuel-efficient.
He said there were a variety of models and timelines to consider, including adjusting the gas tax, connecting it to inflation or moving toward a model based on vehicle miles traveled.
“I think there’s a recognition that we don’t have adequate national resources going into roads and highways and that we need to look at any responsible viable revenue mechanism we can all agree on to do something about that,” he said.
Beyond being asked to support senators’ pet programs, Buttigieg received invitations from a handful of lawmakers to see those projects firsthand. Wicker invited Buttigieg to Mississippi, while Sullivan invited him to Alaska. Markey invited Buttigieg to Cape Cod.
Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., who introduced Buttigieg, made a joke of it when it was his turn to question the former South Bend mayor. “Do you think you might visit the state of Indiana?” he asked to laughs in the sparsely populated hearing room.
“It’s safe to say I’ll turn up there from time to time,” Buttigieg replied.
