Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs Washington — Rep. Sean Duffy sailed through his Senate confirmation vote to be transportation secretary, just before some of President Trump’s more controversial nominees will be facing their confirmation hearings this week. In a 77 to 22 vote, the Senate confirmed Duffy. The 53-year-old, represented Wisconsin in the Senate from 2011 to 2019 and previously served as the district attorney of Ashland County, Wisconsin. He joined Fox News as a contributor and co-hosted a show on Fox Business after leaving Congress, until President Trump announced his selection for transportation secretary. He and his wife, whom he met on a reality television show, have nine children. The Senate voted unanimously to advance Duffy Monday night, after he appeared before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee earlier this month. At the hearing, he was introduced by the two Wisconsin senators — Republican Ron Johnson and Democrat Tammy Baldwin.”I am confident that Sean is the right person for this job in this upcoming administration,” Baldwin said, adding that Duffy will work with “both sides of the aisle to improve our infrastructure and address the challenges that arise in the years ahead.”
Sean Duffy, President Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Transportation, testifies before the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee during his confirmation hearing in the Russell Senate Office Building on January 15, 2025 in Washington, DC. Duffy,
Samuel Corum / Getty Images
Duffy said in his opening statement that “transportation impacts every aspect of life,” pledging that with Mr. Trump and support from Congress, “I would hope to usher in a golden age of transportation and travel.”
“President Trump, he’s a builder. He wants to invest in rebuilding our nation’s crumbling infrastructure,” Duffy said, adding that Trump asked him to focus on the “big, the durable projects that connect our country and connect our people.”Duffy said he would work to reduce red tape that slows critical infrastructure projects. And he pledged to prioritize road safety and keep safety as a top priority in aviation. He urged that the nation needs to modernize its systems, pledging to work to restore global confidence in Boeing and “ensure that our skies are safe.” “Transportation is an extraordinary new era we’re entering in,” Duffy said. “We’re in a global race to out-innovate and out-compete the rest of the world. If confirmed, we will craft clear regulations which balance safety, innovation and cutting edge technology, but always focused on safety.”‘Duffy received significant bipartisan support for his confirmation. Senate Majority Leader John Thune praised Duffy Monday as a five-term congressman and a co-chair of the Great Lakes task force, whom he said “worked with Republicans and Democrats in the House and the Senate on a number of infrastructure projects.”
“Mr. Duffy brings valuable experience that will help him in managing our nation’s sprawling transportation system,” Thune said. “And he has some important work ahead of him.”With Duffy’s confirmation in hand, Thune teed up votes on a handful of other nominations in the coming days, including on Lee Zeldin to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, Doug Burgum to be Secretary of the Interior, Christopher Wright for energy secretary and Doug Collins for Veterans Affairs secretary. Meanwhile, some of the most controversial nominees — Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for secretary of Health and Human Services and Kash Patel for FBI director — are set to come before Senate committees for confirmation hearings this week.
More from CBS News
Kaia Hubbard
Kaia Hubbard is a politics reporter for CBS News Digital, based in Washington, D.C.
