Tag: Trump Transportation Department

Democrats raise ruckus over demoted Transportation watchdog

Mitch Behm will continue in his previous role as deputy inspector general, according to the department

Three high-ranking House Democrats on Tuesday demanded to know why an acting inspector general at the Department of Transportation was abruptly removed in favor of a political appointee.

House Oversight and Reform Chairwoman Carolyn B. Maloney, D-N.Y., House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Peter A. DeFazio, D-Ore., and Oversight and Reform Subcommittee on Government Operations Chairman Gerald E. Connolly, D-Va., demanded in a letter to Secretary of Transportation Elaine L. Chao that acting Inspector General Mitch Behm, who was stripped of his duties May 15, be reinstated immediately.

Behm will continue in his previous role as deputy inspector general, according to the department. Continue reading.

Secretary Chao Under Scrutiny For Grants To Husband McConnell’s Home State

A Government Accountability Office (GAO) examination has raised serious concerns about the process by which Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao determined project grant recipients, finding that it did not treat all applicants with “the assurance of fairness.”

One of the beneficiaries of that process was Boone County, Kentucky — a jurisdiction represented by Chao’s husband, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Politico reported on Tuesday that a $67.4 million grant application for Boone was “initially flagged by professional staff as incomplete.” After the Department of Transportation gave Boone and a minority of the other incomplete applicants a second chance to fix their submission, Chao selected it as among the 26 grant winners from an initial pool of 258 applicants. Continue reading