“[Bradbury] is exceptionally well-qualified for this position and will work closely with Secretary Duffy to help keep travelers safe and responsibly invest in the nation’s infrastructure,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said. (Al Drago/Bloomberg News)
WASHINGTON — The Senate on March 11 confirmed Steven Bradbury as deputy secretary of the Department of Transportation.
The Republican-led chamber signed off on Bradbury’s nomination with a party line vote of 51-46 after a successful in-committee process. The deputy secretary will partner with Secretary Sean Duffy to manage an agency tasked with ensuring the safety of the nation’s freight and commuter networks.
Senate transportation leaders applauded his confirmation.
“I’m pleased to see the Senate confirm Mr. Bradbury to be the deputy secretary of transportation. He is exceptionally well-qualified for this position and will work closely with Secretary Duffy to help keep travelers safe and responsibly invest in the nation’s infrastructure,” Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said after the vote on the Senate floor. “He is ready to eliminate Biden administration policies that detracted from the department’s core safety mission and wasted taxpayer money.”
Bradbury
Before his confirmation, Bradbury, formerly a senior official at DOT, told senators that promoting safety would guide his tenure.
“The numbers of fatalities and serious injuries on America’s highways are persistently high and unacceptable,” he said, “and we must drive those numbers down toward zero.”
MORE: Senate Panels OK Bradbury for DOT, Chavez-DeRemer for Labor
“One way to improve highway safety is to ensure that new cars and trucks are affordable so that American families are not stuck driving older used vehicles, which are much less safe in a highway crash,” Bradbury continued. “Another is to focus on better ways to discourage and to punish drunk driving and drugged driving, which are a national scourge on our highways. In addition, automated driving technologies, including autonomous vehicle systems, hold great promise for reducing highway deaths and injuries dramatically.”
DOT is proceeding with an agenda designed to modernize air travel and mobility corridors.
Most recently, Bradbury was a distinguished fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a Washington-based think tank.
Spear
More than two dozen stakeholders endorsed his nomination. In a statement after his confirmation, American Trucking Associations President Chris Spear said: “Steven Bradbury’s previous experience at DOT during President [Donald] Trump’s first term in office makes him uniquely qualified for this important role. His familiarity with the inner workings of the agency ensures that he will be completely prepared to hit the ground running, and his insights and expertise will be invaluable to Secretary Duffy as they address pressing transportation challenges.”
American Public Transportation Association CEO Paul Skoutelas shared a message specific to upcoming federal surface transportation policy legislation: “APTA and its more than 1,600 member organizations representing several million transit workers look forward to working with Deputy Secretary Bradbury and the entire DOT team to advance policies that recognize the critical role public transportation plays in creating good-paying jobs, stimulating economic growth and connecting communities.”
Chavez-DeRemer
A day earlier, the Senate confirmed the nomination of former Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-Ore.) to lead the Labor Department.
By a vote of 67-32, the chamber confirmed the nomination of the official who will oversee the nation’s workforce regulations. Chavez-DeRemer received pushback from key freight stakeholders shortly after her nomination. During a hearing before the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee last month, she modified her positions pertaining to earlier support for certain labor and independent contractor legislation.
After her confirmation, Spear observed: “With the Senate now confirming Lori Chavez-DeRemer as secretary of labor, we look forward to working with her and her team on policies that grow and strengthen trucking’s essential workforce, including fixing the Biden-era rule on independent contractors that deliberately removes the choice made by hundreds of thousands of truckers to work independently as small-business owners.”
