Senate Unanimously Confirms Anthony Foxx as Transportation Secretary
The U.S. Senate on Thursday unanimously confirmed Anthony Foxx to be the new secretary of transportation.
The 100-0 vote came less than a month after a Senate committee hearing on his nomination in which Foxx, the mayor of Charlotte, N.C., said he would focus on safety, increasing productivity and developing infrastructure as secretary.
“Ensuring that our transportation system is the safest in the world will be my top priority,” he told the Senate Commerce Committee. President Obama nominated Foxx in April to succeed Ray LaHood, who was transportation secretary since 2009 .
The Senate did not debate Foxx’s nomination Thursday before voting on it. He still must be sworn in before taking office.
Transportation advocacy groups quickly congratulated Foxx.
“As I said when he was nominated, the challenges of being mayor of a large city like Charlotte are not all that different from those of being a governor, so I’m confident he will be up to the test of providing this country with the first-rate, world-class transportation system our industry and our economy demand,” Bill Graves, president of American Trucking Associations, said in a statement. Graves was governor of Kansas from 1995 to 2003.
“In his confirmation testimony, Mr. Foxx pledged to continue his predecessor's campaign against distracted driving, look for creative ways to fund the nation's highway and transit programs, and encourage the use of innovative technologies,” Bud Wright, executive director of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, said in a statement.
“AASHTO shares these priorities, and we look forward to working with the secretary as he addresses the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead,” Wright said in a statement.
Foxx was also praised by the groups Building America’s Future, Airlines for America, the Transportation Trades Department of the AFL-CIO and the Association of American Railroads.
