Report: Buttigieg Handed Out $80 Billion on DEI Grants

Report: Buttigieg Handed Out $80 Billion on DEI Grants

Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg decided to allocate $ 80 billion in DEI grants and put off any air-traffic control upgrades, according to a New York Post report.

Apparently, Buttigieg also worried more about his TV appearances early in his term than his actual job.

One person claimed that Buttigieg asked industry executives why it would interest them to upgrade air-traffic controls, as it would just allow them to fly more planes.

Uh…because it’s your job and would help the consumer? Derp.

No, DEI took precedence over anything, and blame the airline industry:

What his department was really interested in was handing out hundreds of diversity, equity and inclusion grants totaling more than $80 billion over four years — at least half of the DOT’s entire budget for a typical fiscal year, records show.

“He was definitely pushing an agenda,” an air-industry official said, noting the transportation secretary had “little to no interest” and took “definitely zero action” toward air traffic control modernization.

Buttigieg spent his time in Biden’s cabinet blaming the airlines for their delays and “vilifying” the industry as a whole while denying his department’s DEI agenda led to any air-traffic-control staffing shortages or was maintaining an ailing safety system that hasn’t been updated since the Carter administration, sources told The Post.

The flying public paid the price, insiders said.

“At first, [the Department of Transportation] and he were reluctant to say there was an air-traffic-controller shortage or that the shortage had anything to do with flight delays or flight cancellations,” the air-industry official said.

Sure, delays aren’t just the DOT’s problem. The planes caused 34.7% of the delays during Buttigieg’s term while the National Aviation System caused 10.6% delays.

Weather caused the majority of delays.

However, the DOT did contribute to some of the delays, meaning it isn’t blameless.

Buttigieg’s spokesperson, Chris Meagher, tried to defend his boss, but notice what he doesn’t say:

Former President Joe Biden’s infrastructure law also provided $5 billion to improve air-traffic facilities’ towers and power systems, he noted.

“Suggesting that Secretary Buttigieg chose not to pursue air traffic control modernization is absurd,” said Meagher, adding that Biden’s budget request for fiscal year 2025 included another $8 billion in funding that congressional Republicans blocked.

That monster bill awarded the DOT with $5 billion.

Did you notice what Meagher didn’t say?

The spokesperson didn’t disclose the amount the DOT spent.

Don’t worry. Current Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy let us know back in May.

Duffy revealed that former President Joe Biden’s DOT received $5 billion to rebuild air traffic control but only spent $1 billion.

Duffy also confirmed Buttigieg’s obsession with DEI, concentrating on racist roads and worrying about the word cockpit.

DEI all the way:

In an urgent letter to Buttigieg’s DOT in April 2024, air-industry trade association officials warned that at the current rate of hiring, it could take as many as 90 years for the FAA to reach its targeted staffing levels in some of the critical New York air-traffic-control centers.

At the same time, the focus of the department under Buttigieg also shifted, with roughly 400 DEI-related grants approved, according to a review of federal spending between 2021 and 2024.

Just 60 grants for diversity, equity or inclusion initiatives were approved during the previous administration, totaling no more than a few billion dollars.

Programs such as “Justice40” ended up shelling out 55% of around $150 billion in infrastructure investments to “disadvantaged communities,” pursuant to an executive order Biden signed to “advance equitable outcomes.”

Biden’s $1.2 trillion infrastructure law in 2021 provided much of the funding, but some Democrats were critical of the outcomes — including a $5 billion equity effort to build 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations that resulted in just seven being built by June 2024.

“Internal White House polling showed that airline issues and airline consumer issues were” key polling successes, an industry official said. “At this point that White House didn’t have a lot to sink their teeth into from a PR standpoint.”

Meagher also tried to defend Buttigieg’s actions, arguing that a person “can walk and chew gum at the same time.”

Oh, honey.

We know these people have a lot on their plates.

We don’t want our tax money to pay for DEI or stupid green energy ideas.

We also know Buttigieg didn’t do much, thanks to Duffy. The former secretary’s DOT left behind $43 billion worth of projects.

Yes, many of them had “green and social justice requirements.”

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