As Biden signed the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill into law on Monday, Pete Buttigieg finds himself overseeing $210 billion in discretionary grants, making him the most powerful transportation secretary ever.
Here's what's happening. 👇
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For the next few years, he'll dole out those funds to projects across the country, including megaprojects like the Brent Spence Bridge connecting Kentucky and Ohio, a key reason why Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell voted for the bill.
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Now, Buttigieg's Department of Transportation will get to pick and choose which projects to back.
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Buttigieg's rise from Midwestern mayor to presiding over administering hundreds of billions of dollars in a historic infrastructure package illustrates his dramatic political arc.
He's now one of Biden's go-to Cabinet members on messaging.
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Buttigieg's childhood pal and presidential campaign manager, Mike Schmuhl, said the infrastructure bill represents Buttigieg's grounding belief that politics should, at core, address the mundane issues of everyday life.
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The bill also marks a new phase of Buttigieg's political career and his most significant accomplishment in public life so far.
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He personally lobbied lawmakers on both sides, notching 300 calls and meetings until the final hours before the bill's passage, according to an adviser.
He logged more than 125 local news hits, and 300 press interviews selling the package.
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The final bipartisan infrastructure deal wasn't everything Buttigieg and Biden wanted.
Buttigieg spent his earliest days in office talking up transportation projects that could improve racial equity, including in an early interview with Insider.
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Still, the dollar amounts attached to the bipartisan infrastructure deal are so significant they have become a matter of consternation among Congressional Republicans.
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Criticism aside, a White House official told Insider that Buttigieg would be instrumental in selling the plan alongside other Cabinet officials nationwide in events "aimed at touting what we've secured for working people with these historic investments."
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That means taking on a job as transportation secretary that is typically handled by presidents, or in some cases even ex-presidents.
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