Transportation Department Rejects Ernst’s Request to Review Telework Policies

The Department of Transportation’s (DOT) inspector general declined a request by Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa to look into telework abuses in government agencies, according to a Thursday letter provided to the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Ernst sent a letter to 24 agencies on Aug. 28 requesting that they review their telework policies to determine how taxpayer money was being spent, which Transportation Department Inspector General Eric J. Soskin declined to do, according to the letter. Ernst introduced the Stopping Home Office Work’s Unproductive Problems (SHOW UP) Act on Sept. 13 to address issues with telecommuting as part of a package of legislation to rein in the “administrative state.”

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Granite State Union Says No to Biden Re-Election Bid ‘At This Time’

In breaking with the Big Labor mothership, one of New Hampshire’s largest employee unions has announced it will not endorse President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign — at least not now.

Instead State Employees Association/Service Employees International Union (SEA/SEIU) 1984 says it wants to see competition for the Democratic Party’s nomination. 

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‘Don’t Want to Get in the Way’: Pete Buttigieg Declines to Visit Site of Minnesota Fiery Train Derailment

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said on Thursday that he will not visit a small Minnesota town that was evacuated after a Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) train derailed and caught fire earlier that morning.

Raymond, Minnesota, residents who live within a half mile from the derailment site were evacuated after approximately 22 cars derailed and four caught on fire around 1:00 a.m. CST. The train was carrying mixed freight including ethanol and corn syrup.

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Presidential Candidate Vivek Ramaswamy Blasts DOT Secretary Pete Buttigieg for ‘Tokenizing’ People of Ohio

Ohio resident and newly announced Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy at a campaign stop in Iowa criticized President Joe Biden’s transportation chief for “leadership from behind.” “It’s sort of a token gesture, sort of a cascade of tokenism,” Ramaswamy told The Iowa Star at a campaign stop Thursday in Ankeny.

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‘So Creepy’: Pete Buttigieg Taking Photo of DCNF Reporter Sparks Backlash

Twitter users reacted to a Tuesday evening confrontation between a Daily Caller News Foundation reporter and Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, with some calling Buttigieg out for taking a photo of the reporter.

DCNF investigative reporter Jennie Taer posted a 45-second video on social media of her asking Buttigieg if he had a message for residents of East Palestine, Ohio, the location of a train derailment that resulted in the spilling of toxic chemicals. Buttigieg referred her to comments he made in press interviews, said he was taking “some personal time” and took a photo of Taer at the end of the interaction.

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Pennsylvania Governor Shapiro Was for the Controlled Burn of the Derailed Train Before He Was Against It

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro’s opposition to Norfolk Southern Corp.’s handling of its East Palestine, Ohio train derailment contrasts strongly with his initial satisfaction with the controlled vent and burn of the rail vehicle’s toxic cargo.

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Commentary: The Truth Behind George Santos’ Lies

The uproar over George Santos and his crude fabrications has given official Washington an opportunity to do what it does best: moralize and deflect. It is all a little amusing to watch. Who are these scoundrels to hold forth on truth and transparency? Are we meant to be astonished that a politician lied to secure public office? The freshman congressman from New York is distinguished only by the chutzpah of his act. His dishonesty, in an ironic way, is more truthful than the posturing of the preening hypocrites denouncing him.  

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Buttigieg Warned Before Holidays by Own Party of Looming Airlines Crisis

Like a slow-motion train wreck that wasn’t thwarted, the Christmas holiday travel disaster was forewarned to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg a month ago by members of his own party who pleaded he take more aggressive action to force airlines to address wary consumer concerns about growing flight cancelations, delays and ticket refunds.

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Pete Buttigieg Vacationed in Europe amid Rail Strike Crisis

While the country was facing a possible supply chain crisis due to the looming threat of a massive rail strike earlier this year, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg was vacationing in Portugal.

According to the Washington Free Beacon, Buttigieg was in Porto, Portugal in September, a tourist destination over 3,500 miles away from Washington, D.C., that is best known for its wineries. He began his vacation on August 29th, just one week before Amtrak started canceling long-distance trips ahead of a likely strike due to failed attempts to negotiate a deal that satisfied the rail workers’ unions.

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Phoenix to Receive $25 Million Grant to Construct Pedestrian Bridge

Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego revealed that the city will receive a $25 million grant to construct the long-proposed Rio Salado Bike/Pedestrian Bridge.

She joined Pete Buttigieg, U.S. secretary of transportation, and other community officials at the Rio Salado Audubon Center, according to a news release from the city. The funding comes from a Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) grant.

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Commentary: Buttigieg Missing in Action on Supply Chain Disasters

Pete Buttigieg is the United States Transportation Secretary elevated from his role as a failed presidential candidate and a marginally competent mayor of South Bend, Indiana. During his tenure, our nation has suffered from unprecedented supply chain disruptions ranging from on-going back-ups at the Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, where forty percent of our nation’s imports arrive, to airline pilot shortages which are causing thousands of flights to be cancelled during high volume travel days. 

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Commentary: Democrats’ Radical Green Policies Don’t Help, They Hurt

Joe Biden

Last week, Michigan Democrat Sen. Debbie Stabenow bragged that on her way to Washington, D.C. she drove past “every single gas station” in her brand-new electric vehicle “and it didn’t matter how high [gas] was.” Apparently, Stabenow’s message to Americans struggling to afford their commute to work and school is to buy an expensive electric vehicle. For Americans – and especially Michiganders like me – Stabenow’s comment is as unhelpful as it is condescending. But Stabenow isn’t the only Democrat embracing a “let them eat cake” attitude. Climate activists are hurting Americans with their green agenda.

The Biden administration has made EVs a pillar of its anti-U.S. energy agenda. Last year, Joe Biden set a goal that by 2030, half of the vehicles sold in the country would be EVs. More recently, Biden pledged to use taxpayer dollars to build EV charging stations across America. And just a few weeks ago, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg suggested that families anxious about rising gas prices should just buy an EV, which have an average price tag of more than $60,000. Meanwhile, in more than a dozen states and the District of Columbia, drivers are paying more than $5 for a gallon of gas. Painfully high fuel prices aren’t an accident. They’re the momentum driving Biden’s energy “transition.”

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Newt Gingrich Commentary: Biden Helping Dictators and Harming Americans

When the Biden administration appeals to Iran, Venezuela, and Saudi Arabia for oil but rejects American and Canadian oil and gas production, there is something profoundly wrong.

Why does Joe Biden think dictators are better than Americans? Why send money to Iran instead of Oklahoma – or to Venezuela instead of Texas? If he wants to send money outside the United States, why not send money to Canada rather than Saudi Arabia?

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Majority of Americans Say Pete Buttigieg Is Failing to Deal With Supply Chain Crisis: Poll

A majority of Americans say Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is failing to handle the ongoing supply chain crisis, according to a new poll.

Roughly 55% of likely voters rated Buttigieg’s handling of the supply chain crisis as “poor,” according to the results of a Trafalgar Group/Convention of States Action poll released Monday, while around 30% said Buttigieg’s job performance on the crisis is “good” or “excellent.”

Republican voters particularly disapproved of Buttigieg’s job performance, with over 80% saying Buttigieg was doing a poor job handling the crisis. Democrats were more favorable to the secretary, with roughly one-third rating Buttigieg’s performance as poor.

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Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg to Visit Arizona on Thursday

Pete Buttigieg

U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary Pete Buttigieg will visit Phoenix on Thursday to discuss the Biden Administration’s $1.2 trillion infrastructure plan. The Arizona Sun Times inquired with the DOT for further details of Buttigieg’s visit. They didn’t respond by press time.

Buttigieg is scheduled to host a press conference at 10 am MST. During the press conference, Buttigieg is expected to address the infrastructure plan’s impact on tribal communities. In April, Buttigieg promised that tribal communities would benefit from the infrastructure plan’s investments into roads, broadband, water, higher education, and transportation.

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