[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 44 (Wednesday, March 8, 2023)]
[House]
[Pages H1156-H1157]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   SECRETARY BUTTIGIEG SHOULD RESIGN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Georgia (Mr. Collins) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. COLLINS. Madam Speaker, I rise today to demand accountability. 
Pete Buttigieg has shown he is unfit to lead the Department of 
Transportation and must resign immediately.
  From his first day in office, he has been more focused on diversity 
training and identity politics than on building and maintaining 
America's transportation system. He has abandoned his Department's 
mission of improving safety, technology, and efficiency of our 
infrastructure in favor of promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion 
initiatives.
  Case in point: The horrific train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. 
Buttigieg took 10 days to acknowledge this incident and 3 weeks to show 
up and support the community.
  As Ohioans fled their homes and worried about their health, the 
Secretary of Transportation was on TV whining about too many White 
people in construction industries. His policies have continuously put 
the wokes before the folks, and we are again seeing the consequences.
  After seeing another Norfolk Southern train derail this weekend, I 
was reminded of the fact that the company wrote to shareholders stating 
that it is focused on DEI. This administration's focus on DEI is 
forcing private companies to rethink their goals, and one has to 
wonder, if Norfolk Southern's DEI policies are directing resources away 
from the important things, like greasing wheel bearings.
  This insanity must stop. Speaking of insanity, it looks like 
Secretary Buttigieg is spending a lot of taxpayer money flying on 
private jets, but he doesn't want the American people to know where he 
is going or why.
  I don't know about you, but I seem to recall a recent Health and 
Human

[[Page H1157]]

Services Secretary being forced to resign over this same exact thing.
  Anyway, why is the DOT refusing to tell the American people how much 
Secretary Buttigieg's 23 flights on private jets have cost them?
  Maybe the Secretary should just come to Capitol Hill and answer these 
questions for himself. It would be a cheap trip, and it wouldn't 
require airfare.
  Either way, it is time for him to resign. That will allow him time to 
promote wokeness and take private jets on his own dime and his own 
time.

                          ____________________