President Joe Biden’s cabinet choices most likely to affect the construction industry are moving quickly into place. His pick for transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg, is already on the job, and nominees for federal labor, energy, environmental and commerce agencies appear primed for approval. Full Senate confirmation could come by month’s end.

Candidates have had to defend Biden’s climate-change strategy unveiled last month and will have to help the administration as it gears up to win approval for a $1.9-trillion stimulus plan that passed the Senate on party lines Feb. 5. Buttigieg, confirmed Feb. 2 by the Senate on an 86-13 vote, is expected to have a prominent role in helping to push the recovery plan.

All 13 of the DOT chief’s “no” votes were Republicans. But Buttigieg was approved by 36 GOP senators, a positive sign for the administration’s legislative initiatives in transportation and other sectors. “It’s an encouraging start,” says Steve Hall, American Council of Engineering Cos. senior vice president for advocacy.

In addition to the massive lift with the coronavirus aid package, Buttigieg also will have to deal with a vital surface transportation reauthorization expiring on Sept. 30 and a Highway Trust Fund that faces insolvency, says Sean O’Neill, Portland Cement Association senior vice president for government affairs.

Buttigieg lacks DOT and Capitol Hill experience, but his assembled team “brings deep knowledge of both policy and process that will pay dividends in crafting a visionary and robust infrastructure plan,” said Ray LaHood, the first Obama-era DOT Transportation Secretary.

例如，拜登（Biden）的DOT副秘书提名人Polly Trotterg是纽约市DOT的前专员Polly Trotterg已有七年了，奥巴马的美国DOT政策副部长。她还是多数党领袖参议员查克·舒默（Chuck Schumer）（D-N.Y.）的助手。

亲工党的选择

In his Feb. 4 appearance before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, Marty Walsh, Boston mayor and labor secretary nominee, hewed closely to Biden’s views on a range of labor issues, including raising the minimum wage and a new emergency workplace safety standard related to the pandemic.

沃尔什（Walsh）在波士顿（Walsh）讲述了他的父亲如何加入劳动者联盟的长期劳工工会成员和前建筑贸易委员会主席，他的家人是“进入中产阶级的方式”。

Shortly after the hearing began, Committee Chair Patty Murray (D-Wash.) announced she would reintroduce the Protecting the Right to Organize, or PRO, Act. It calls for a variety of union-backed changes in federal labor law, including ending the prohibition against secondary boycott. Biden supports the bill, and so does Walsh.

In his hearing, Walsh said the PRO Act “is one step towards helping people to organize freely.” He added, “I do believe in the right of organizing. I do believe in the right of people being able to join the union if they want to join the union.”

行业立场在立法上深深地分歧。它具有建筑行业的强烈支持，但面临着相关的建筑商和承包商和美国总承包商的强烈反对。

美国广播公司（ABC）总裁兼首席执行官迈克尔·贝拉曼（Michael Bellaman）在接受采访时说：“我们相信员工有权选择工会，也不会加入工会。”参议员蒂姆·斯科特（Tim Scott）（R-S.C。）抨击了这项职业法国家。”

关于职业安全与健康管理局，沃尔什说，政府和国会应旨在让OSHA成为“有帮助工人并帮助雇主的机构，而不是将两者都放在中间。”

Bellaman added, “The guy’s from the [construction] industry. So he knows the industry, and I think that that is positive.”

参议员比尔·卡西迪(史蒂夫)援引Te的评论amsters’ union General President James P. Hoffa, brought up Biden’s decision to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline, resulting in the loss of about 8,000 union jobs. Walsh said workers who lost jobs at the Keystone project will be able to find new ones in other energy areas through the Build Back Better plan. But Cassidy said the Keystone jobs were lost immediately, adding, “The jobs you’re describing are in the by and by.”

Granholm推动清洁能源

前密歇根州州长詹妮弗·格兰霍尔姆（Jennifer Granholm）在1月27日在参议院能源和自然资源委员会举行的能源秘书确认听证会上，也面临着有关拜登的清洁能源政策战略的问题。

“煤炭和天然气不会消失。怀俄明州参议员约翰·巴拉索（John Barrasso）强调，现在是最高委员会的共和党人。尽管参议员在化石燃料制造州的参议员投票，但格兰霍尔姆于2月3日获得委员会的批准。观察家希望她能赢得全面的参议院确认。

“I am obsessed with creating good-paying jobs in America,” Granholm told the confirmation panel. “In making energy in America, we will make sure no worker gets left behind.” She voiced support for continued LNG export.

Emphasizing her role in diversifying the Michigan economy in the wake of auto-industry plant closures, she noted the state’s push into battery production and other renewable-energy sectors and emphasized the role DOE and its national labs can play in research and funding. Granholm said she was “1,000%” in support of prioritizing clean-energy job growth in areas of the U.S. with major fossil-fuel-sector exposure. She said the strategy would create 10 million new jobs.

格兰霍尔姆（Granholm）指出，美国能源部（DOE）的“高优先事项”将与联邦能源监管委员会（Federal Energy Consulatory Commission）共同努力，以修改和扩展美国电力传输网络以促进清洁能源连接。她还指出，扩大国内稀土生产以提高清洁能源增长的必要性将是一家就业生产者，也是DOE数十亿美元用于技术开发和商业化资金的潜力。

现在，作为商务部长是罗德岛州州长吉娜·雷蒙多（Gina Raimondo），现在也将进行全面的参议院投票，她在2月3日以21-3的批准清除了商业委员会审查。再生能源。该国的第一台离岸风电场建于2017年，其州海岸。她还制定了新的州清洁能源目标，以便到2030年从可再生资源中产生所有权力。

里根促进了弹性

Michael Regan, Biden’s pick to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, also sought to alleviate Republican senators’ concerns about the president’s climate-related policies linked to tension in protecting jobs in the fossil-fuel sector.

“I believe that many of the jobs and the skill sets that people have … can move quickly to [clean energy and rehabilitation] jobs,” said Regan, secretary of North Carolina’s environmental agency since 2017.

在整个2月3日的听证会上，里根强调了“召集利益相关者”的主题，并将科学和数据纳入决策。他还谈到了设计法规，以使州和地方官员在应用规则方面具有灵活性，并指出了碳捕获技术的考虑，可再生燃料标准和清洁空气法规法规规定了燃煤发电厂对污染物排放的规定。

In a marked change from the Trump administration, Regan addressed the human contribution to climate change and extreme weather events, and the job opportunities presented by mitigation and making infrastructure more resilient. “We cannot build the same way we’ve always been,” he said. “We cannot put Humpty Dumpty back together the same way every time.”

The committee sent Regan’s nomination to the Senate floor Feb. 9 in a 14-6 vote. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) said ahead of the vote that she was opposing Regan because she was concerned that former EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy—now in charge of Biden’s domestic climate-change plan—and others would be directing the actions at EPA, rather than Regan himself.