AASHTO Journal - Former Congressman Duffy Tapped for USDOT Secretary

President-elect Donald Trump recently nominated former Congressman Sean Duffy (above) for secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation.

[Above photo from U.S. Congressional archive]

A member of the Republican Party, Duffy – a former prosecutor who served as Wisconsin’s Ashland County District Attorney from 2002 until 2010 – is the former U.S. representative for Wisconsin’s 7th congressional district from 2011 to 2019.

Sean Duffy. Photo via Congressional archives.

As a member of the House of Representatives, Duffy served on the Committee on Financial Services and as chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. He also served on Subcommittee on Capital Markets and Government-Sponsored Enterprises; Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit; and the Subcommittee on Insurance, Housing, and Community Opportunity.

The 10th of 11 children, Duffy was most recently co-host of “The Bottom Line” program for the Fox Business cable television program, as well as a contributor to Fox News. He has a marketing degree from St. Mary’s University and a juris doctor from the William Mitchell College of Law.

Jim Tymon, executive director of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, said Duffy’s time on Capitol Hill will be valuable in his role as the nation’s transportation secretary-designee.

“As a former member of Congress, Sean Duffy understands how to navigate the political landscape in Washington to get things done, something that we will need in the next leader of the USDOT as we begin the process of reauthorizing the federal surface transportation programs,” Tymon noted in a statement.

“Every state department of transportation in the country is currently hard at work improving safety and quality of life in their communities’ one project at a time,” he added. “This is made possible through the federal-state partnership that has existed for over 100 years. We look forward to working with the secretary-designee as well as the Trump administration to ensure the continued delivery of a safe, efficient, multimodal transportation system for all.”