SCOTT DETROW, HOST:

Pete Buttigieg ran for president as soon as and will someday run for president once more. Over the previous 4 years, although, he has held a job that has include loads of potential political liabilities. He has headed the Division of Transportation, which implies the availability chain snags in ports, the persistent airline delays which have swept the nation lately, the collapsing Key Bridge in Baltimore, and the freight rail crash that roiled East Palestine, Ohio – all of these crises fell on his plate. Buttigieg oversaw huge coverage adjustments in lots of these areas and ended up particularly targeted on the airways, attempting to make their insurance policies a bit extra client pleasant. He talked about it in a sit-down with NPR. And I requested him if the airways meltdown with all of these delays and cancellations in the summertime of 2022 was an enormous turning level for him as secretary of transportation.

PETE BUTTIGIEG: Actually, within the first 12 months, the massive query concerning the airways was whether or not they had been going to exit of enterprise. It is simple to neglect simply how drastic their situation was in the course of the worst of COVID. They got here out of that, after which we had the alternative drawback – delays, cancellations, the way in which that passengers had been being handled. And we knew that the previous enforcement practices of this division weren’t sufficient, so we obtained harder on the airways. The airways responded. They grudgingly responded, however on the finish of the day, now we have fewer cancellations, extra passenger protections, higher outcomes. And naturally, we’re doing that on the identical time that we’re additionally bodily enhancing airports across the nation. We have got greater than 1,500 airports the place we’re doing every thing from new safety checkpoints to raised loos, all to make it higher and simpler to be a passenger on this nation. I am pleased with that work, and I hope that that work will take pleasure in bipartisan assist within the years to come back.

DETROW: Nonetheless loads of issues, although – clearly, Boeing (laughter) I am going to simply depart it as the right noun there, move issues. One of many producers on this story had the pleasure of taxiing for 2 hours on the runway at JFK a couple of months in the past. What are the areas that you simply want you had had extra time to get carried out? What are the areas the place you are ready to see what the subsequent administration does relating to airways?

BUTTIGIEG: I actually suppose there’s unfinished enterprise to be carried out relating to compensation of passengers. Now we have launched that regulatory course of, however it would fall to the subsequent administration to make choices about what to do when it comes to precise compensation in your time if you happen to undergo an excessive delay. I do know a few of the airline CEOs have expressed their hope that the subsequent administration might be much less passenger pleasant. I would not be so certain as a result of I feel that that is one thing that actually instructions assist throughout the aisle. And there is much more to be carried out on the FAA. We have lastly obtained the variety of air visitors controllers rising after years of shrinking. However it’s nonetheless not the place it must be. And that is going to be essential to ensure that the limiting issue on our rising air journey is not the capability of our towers.

DETROW: Some of these things obtained signed into regulation. Quite a lot of that is nonetheless laws, although. How anxious are you about the way forward for regulatory coverage given the very clear observe report of the federal courts on that entrance?

BUTTIGIEG: Properly, the automated refunds are a matter of regulation, so it could take an act of Congress to undo them, and I have not met any member of Congress who’s enthusiastic to roll again these protections, a minimum of not one who admits it. In terms of laws, that’s extra topic to what a given administration will do. However once more, I wish to consider that that is one thing that any administration cannot assist as a result of I have not obtained one cellphone name or encountered anyone, apart from the airline CEOs, who desires us to return to having much less passenger rights, the way in which it was just some years in the past.

DETROW: Had been there conversations within the wake of the massive ruling final 12 months overturning the Chevron doctrine about, OK, all of the stuff that we have doing, we will should rethink it? How did that regulate how you’re interested by laws? And what do you suppose meaning going ahead, if that is adopted by two or three extra rulings that actually stroll again the administration’s means to set guidelines?

BUTTIGIEG: Properly, it is actually affected us in a variety of methods. We have sought to ensure that what we’re doing has sturdy authorized safety and authority however now must work twice as onerous to ensure that our efforts and our duties to guard everybody from an airline passenger to a railroad employee are being met. And I do suppose that is going to take extra engagement with Congress given the local weather that now we have within the courts. I do know that regulation is a well-liked punching bag. However we should always do not forget that once we get it proper, the outcomes are extraordinary. And instance comes from the aviation sector, the place we’re persevering with to have interaction on issues like holding Boeing accountable for his or her high quality points. But additionally the truth that over the 4 years we have been right here, we have had about 3 1/2 billion individuals get on an airliner, and as of at the moment, the variety of passenger fatalities in a crash of an airliner stands at zero – is just not one thing that simply occurs by itself. It is one of many the explanation why these laws and the authorities behind them actually matter.

DETROW: I wish to return to an interview I did with you nearly precisely a 12 months in the past. We had been speaking about rail security on the anniversary of the East Palestine crash. And we had been speaking about a few of the laws that you simply had been attempting to get into place, and also you made this level.

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BUTTIGIEG: Proper now, the railroad foyer is attempting to ensure that they will have only one particular person on trains that may very well be miles lengthy. Now, a regulation to take care of this was truly initiated by the Obama administration, halted by the Trump administration. We have renewed it beneath the Biden administration, and we’re working to develop that.

DETROW: We’re in a state of affairs now the place there’s going to be one other Trump administration. Whether or not it is this explicit regulation that we had been speaking about having to do with our bodies on freight trains or loads of the opposite stuff, what’s your concern degree? How a lot are you interested by this fixed flip-flop of regulation put in place, regulation scaled again, regulation put in place, scaled again once more? How does that have an effect on rail security? How does that have an effect on governing as a complete?

BUTTIGIEG: Properly, in fact, there’s the chance that the subsequent administration would lower a few of these railroad security laws. They’ve carried out it earlier than. However we had been in a position to finalize that rule about ensuring {that a} practice has sufficient individuals on it to maintain it secure. I feel that is one thing that can stand the take a look at of time. It additionally stays the case that there must be congressional legislative backup for a few of this work.

DETROW: Which did not occur.

BUTTIGIEG: The failure of Congress to move the Railway Security Act is perhaps the most important piece of unfinished enterprise of our time right here relating to railroading in America. And on condition that the cosponsor of that was one Senator JD Vance, I nonetheless hope and consider that that ought to get motion. If it is not occurring proper now, it must occur within the new administration.

DETROW: What do you suppose occurred there? There was a lot speak early on, after which it simply stalled.

BUTTIGIEG: I feel the railroad business foyer obtained its means. They did not need it to occur, and it did not occur, despite the fact that there have been Republicans and Democrats who supported it. I certain supported it, so did President Biden. There isn’t any good purpose that it did not occur. And but right here we’re.

DETROW: Wished to finish by asking the way you modified on the job over time – you had been a mayor earlier than. This can be a huge authorities operation you took cost of. It is an space the place – it is not such as you got here into it as, like, I am a transportation man with years and years of transportation experience. How did you study on the job? How did you strategy it in another way over time? Like, I am questioning, by the point the Key Bridge collapsed, what had been you doing to answer that that you simply may not have thought to do or prioritized in Day 1 on this job?

BUTTIGIEG: Properly, despite the fact that I did loads of transportation work once I was mayor, nothing can put together you for Day 1 of a job like this. And that is very true as a result of we got here by means of the door, and the circumstances of our nationwide transportation system had been dire – the most important set of disruptions we have confronted since 9/11. And the circumstances of our day-to-day work had been weird as a result of I could not even be in a room with my very own group half the time. We realized quite a bit as all people does in a task like this, and it has been astonishing to see the outcomes we have been in a position to get, but in addition a few of the obstacles that we face. A lot of what it’s a must to do in a task like that is navigating the complexity of the totally different our bodies which might be concerned in getting one thing carried out. Take the Baltimore bridge collapse. Greater than 50 totally different businesses had been concerned in clearing out the harbor and getting issues again up and working. And so simply that coordination from extremely technical processes to one thing like me choosing up the cellphone and speaking to the governor in the midst of the night time performed a vital function that I got here to grasp higher and higher the longer I have been on this job.

DETROW: That was Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg. To listen to extra from that dialog, you’ll be able to try our podcast Take into account This.

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