There was much activity on Capitol Hill this week. Specifically, two cabinet members with oversight on APGA member activities were confirmed and one more, with a similar impact on public natural gas utilities, was voted out of committee. On Tuesday, Pete Buttigieg, former Mayor of South Bend, Ind., and previous Presidential candidate, was confirmed as the Secretary of Transportation. In this post, he will run the Department of Transportation (DOT), which includes the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA).
Later that day, Alejandro Mayorkas was confirmed as the Secretary of Homeland Security. Mayorkas has experience in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), as a Deputy Secretary under President Barack Obama. Now, as the Secretary, he will manage the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), which oversees pipeline security. As well, Mayorkas will supervise the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and its responsibility to ensure resilient, critical infrastructure that includes APGA member assets. In response to these confirmations, APGA released a statement that can be found
here.
In addition to these nominations being finalized, Jennifer Granholm, the former Governor of Michigan, was voted out of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, meaning she is one step closer to being the Secretary of Energy. The next phase in this confirmation is a full Senate vote, expected very soon.
For questions on this article, please contact Stuart Saulters of APGA staff by phone at 202-544-1334 or by email at
ssaulters@apga.org.