{"id":1502780,"date":"2022-06-03T15:49:49","date_gmt":"2022-06-03T19:49:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1502780"},"modified":"2022-06-03T15:49:54","modified_gmt":"2022-06-03T19:49:54","slug":"americans-deserve-to-know-who-ran-transportation-department-when-buttigieg-took-paternity-leave-demands-watchdog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/americans-deserve-to-know-who-ran-transportation-department-when-buttigieg-took-paternity-leave-demands-watchdog\/","title":{"rendered":"Americans \u2018Deserve To Know\u2019 Who Ran Transportation Department When Buttigieg Took Paternity Leave, Demands Watchdog"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">30<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Famericans-deserve-to-know-who-ran-transportation-department-when-buttigieg-took-paternity-leave-demands-watchdog%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1502780&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><\/div>\n<p>The Department of Transportation (DOT) is being sued by a federal watchdog after Pete Buttigieg, its secretary, took paternity leave in 2021 without a White House announcement amid an escalating supply chain crisis.<\/p>\n<p>Protect the Public\u2019s Trust, a group probing ethics issues in the government, announced a transparency <a href=\"https:\/\/protectpublicstrust.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/ECF-1-Complaint-PPT-v-DOT-22-cv-01563.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">lawsuit<\/a> Thursday seeking to obtain information concerning who was in charge of the DOT when Buttigieg took time off. The Transportation Secretary <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2021\/10\/15\/pete-buttigieg-democrats-paternity-leave-duckworth-psaki\/\">left<\/a> in mid-August 2021 for a little over a month, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/newsletters\/west-wing-playbook\/2021\/10\/14\/can-pete-buttigieg-have-it-all-494710\">Politico<\/a> reported. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2022\/04\/29\/ludicrous-buttigieg-watches-as-manchin-throws-cold-water-on-bidens-ev-dreams\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">(RELATED: \u2018Ludicrous\u2019: Buttigieg Watches As Manchin Throws Cold Water On Biden\u2019s EV Dreams)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cPlaintiff deeply respects Secretary Buttigieg\u2019s commitment to his family and understands his desire to spend time with his new children,\u201d the lawsuit stated. \u201cHowever, he is still the Presidentially appointed, Senate confirmed head of a cabinet-level agency that has wide ranging responsibilities and an annual budget of over $80 billion.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAccordingly, the American people deserve to know if someone else was acting as the primary decision maker for any period of time or if the Department was operating at a reduced capacity while the Secretary was on leave,\u201d it also stated.<\/p>\n<p>The DOT declined a request for comment, pointing The Daily Caller News Foundation to Buttigieg\u2019s remarks on CNN in October 2021 on the situation. Buttigieg <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/videos\/politics\/2021\/10\/17\/secretary-of-transportation-pete-buttigieg.cnn\">said<\/a> he was \u201cproud\u201d of taking paternity leave and \u201cthankful for the phenomenal work\u201d of his colleagues.<\/p>\n<p>Buttigieg\u2019s paternity leave came shortly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/cea\/written-materials\/2021\/06\/17\/why-the-pandemic-has-disrupted-supply-chains\/\">after<\/a> economists Susan Helper and Evan Soltas wrote a blog post for the White House discussing how businesses with \u201ccomplex supply chains\u201d are nearly \u201crunning out of stock.\u201d Prior to this, Ford\u2019s Chief Financial Officer John Lawler announced that more than 60,000 vehicles were <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2021\/07\/28\/federal-reserve-jerome-powell-inflation-consumer-prices\/?filter_by=featured&#038;p=372&#038;page=2&#038;ref=hexometer&#038;jwsource=cl\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">unfinished<\/a> due to the semiconductor chip shortage.<\/p>\n<p>The lawsuit comes after the watchdog group filed a Freedom of Information Act request in December 2021. Protect the Public\u2019s Trust asked for records relating to \u201cthe delegation of authority\u201d from Buttigieg to other officials and how decisions were made without the secretary\u2019s input, according to the lawsuit.<\/p>\n<p>The DOT acknowledged receipt of the records request the day it was filed, the lawsuit says, and in February denied a request for expedited processing. While the DOT said it would \u201crespond within the next 5 to 7 weeks,\u201d the watchdog says it \u201chas received no further updates from the Department.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs a parent myself I recognize that raising children is the most important job in the world,\u201d said Michael Chamberlain, director of Protect the Public\u2019s Trust, in a statement. \u201cHowever, regardless of any individual\u2019s circumstances, it is incumbent upon the leadership of an agency with an $80 billion budget and tens of thousands of employees, to ensure that the work on behalf of the American public continues to be performed and that the decisions affecting their daily lives continue to be made.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Democrats Defend Buttigieg\u2019s Secret Paternity Leave <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/icbj571O6H\">https:\/\/t.co\/icbj571O6H<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DailyCaller\/status\/1449182054596423683?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 16, 2021<\/a> <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The White House did not respond to TheDCNF\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n<p>Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact <a href=\"mailto:licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org\">licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Department of Transportation (DOT) is being sued by a federal watchdog after Pete Buttigieg, its secretary, took paternity leave in 2021 without a White House announcement amid an escalating<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":381,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1502780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1502780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/381"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1502780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1502780\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1502780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1502780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1502780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}