Chao’s Senate confirmation hearing expected to be light on political drama

Given the scrutiny and spotlights being focused on nearly all Cabinet nominees made by President-elect Donald Trump, one nominee that will likely skate through her confirmation scheduled for tomorrow figures to be Trump’s pick for Secretary of Transportation, Elaine Chao.

One primary reason for that is that Chao appears to be, perhaps by far, the least controversial of the Cabinet nominees for various reasons.

That was the sentiment offered up to me by Katie Thomson, Katie Thomson, head of the Transportation Industry Group at Washington, D.C.-based law firm Morrison & Foerster, and former general counsel at the U.S. Department of Transportation and chief counsel at the Federal Aviation Administration.

“She is the least controversial of any of the Cabinet selections and is a known quantity, obviously with her husband (Senator Mitch McConnell, R-KY) being the Senate majority leader,” Thomson said. “I don’t think she is in for any significant hard questions. Senators will mostly want to question her about her general positions on transportation issues like infrastructure investment and how she envisions the DOT will manage some emerging technologies like intelligent transportation systems and autonomous vehicles. There will probably also be some questions about transit and whether she is committed to funding it as aggressively as highways for instance.”

And on the freight side, Thomson said there are likely to be questions about programs like the TIGER and FASTLANE grants and what her vision will be to make the transportation system work more efficiently.

Whatever Chao’s specific views may be in regards to what the incoming administration has in store, effective January 20, specifically the often-mentioned trillion dollar national infrastructure plan cited by Trump, Thomson said it is unlikely Chao will be able to provide a deep dive on that, as Trump is not officially in office yet.

“I suspect we will hear her acknowledge the importance of investing in infrastructure and ensuring we have a safe and efficient transportation network, but she will probably pivot to say ‘I look forward to working with the new President and all of you as we explore ways to make that happen’ and be more equivocal in that respect,” said Thomson. “She just won’t be able to commit to any particular course, nor would she want to at this point.”

While it stands to reason that Chao’s confirmation hearing will be light on the drama side, Thomson said in a previous interview that it remains to be seen if Chao is definitely the right person for the job.

The reason for that, she said, is that Chao has not really done any significant work in the transportation sector for more than 25 years, back to when she served as Deputy Transportation Secretary under President George H.W. Bush.

“The transportation system is much different now than it was then, and each of the users of the system are very different, as are the economics of the country,” she explained. “It is hard to have somebody who has not been fairly immersed in transportation issues to come in and grapple with some of those issues. The other thing I think is fairly important for DOT is to have someone who is a forceful visionary that can drive change in the administration and in Congress, and Elaine Chao, based on her most recent government experience as Labor Secretary for eight years, was not known for that visionary, deep-drive leadership in bringing people together to forge solutions and push Congress. I suspect that she is not the kind of person, even as smart and as talented as she is, that is really going to drive the long-term solutions that are needed.”

Whether or not that turns out to be the case, we will at least get an initial glimpse of what may be in store based on Chao’s comments at tomorrow’s hearing.