Trump Transportation Nominee Earns McCaskill Support
Press Release
U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill today voted to confirm Elaine Chao, President Donald Trump's nominee for Secretary of Transportation.
"President Trump was crystal clear in his campaign that making significant investments to rebuild our roads, bridges, and critical infrastructure is one of his top priorities--and I couldn't agree more," said McCaskill. "I'm looking forward to working with Secretary Chao to fix our roads and bridges, get folks back to work, and spur job creation in Missouri and across the country."
McCaskill has been a longtime supporter of investing in American infrastructure, despite elected Republican leaders in Congress blocking previous efforts. McCaskill has led efforts to claw back previously earmarked funds to ensure the money is spent on critical infrastructure needs instead of politician's pet projects. Her efforts allowed the Missouri Department of Transportation to direct $72.6 million of previously unspent funds across Missouri to support local needs. These funds were originally earmarked by Congress for use 10 or more years ago, but because they were duplicates, or the project was scrapped, among other reasons--the funds were never used.
McCaskill has also been a strong advocate for requiring American tax dollars used for infrastructure funding be used to buy American and hire American. Last month, she joined a bipartisan push in the Senate to boost American jobs, demanding that "Buy America' provisions requiring U.S. workers and materials be used in construction projects, be restored to a national water infrastructure bill, after they were removed by U.S. House Republicans.
In 2015, McCaskill worked with Republican Senator Rob Portman of Ohio to pass the Federal Permitting Improvement Act which streamlined and sped up the federal permitting process for the largest and most complex projects. Her work to pass this legislation was cited by Daniel Mehan, President and CEO of the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry as, "a real breath of fresh air for infrastructure around the country."
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