Pete Buttigieg is the 19th secretary of transportation of the United States. He is the first openly gay person to be confirmed for a cabinet position in history, according to Victory Institute. 

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Previously, he was in the United States Navy Reserve from 2009 to 2017 and was the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, from 2012 to 2020. 

In September, Buttigieg and his husband Chasten Buttigieg had a son and daughter named Joseph August and Penelope Rose Buttigieg. He believes that parenting is hard work but joyful work at the same time. As House Democrats plan to move forward on including paid leave, child care initiatives and extending the child tax credit as part of President Joe Biden’s infrastructure package, Buttigieg believes it’s transformative. 

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“We are going to make more steps right now to make raising a child affordable in this country than I think at any other time … probably in recent history,” he said. “I think that good policy is good politics, and that voters really have been demanding for some time that Washington take steps to make their lives better. That’s exactly what this bill represents.” 

President Joe Biden’s “Build Back Better” plan is aimed to make American lives better. People of color are facing numerous issues such as the water crises in Flint and Benton Harbor, Michigan, and they need the money the most. 

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“What happened in Flint is an outrage. Benton Harbor … extremely disturbing,” Buttigieg said. “There are other communities where parents might not even know that their children are being exposed to an unsafe level of lead. This bill commits to get lead out of every pipe in this country just as it commits to get affordable broadband internet to every household in this country.”