The Senate is poised to approve Pete Buttigieg to be transportation secretary, the first openly gay person ever confirmed to a Cabinet post, tasked with advancing President Joe Biden’s wide-ranging agenda of rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure and fighting climate change. Buttigieg’s nomination was set for a final vote Tuesday in the full Senate, after the 39-year-old former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and Biden’s one-time rival in the Democratic presidential primaries received bipartisan praise at his confirmation hearing last week. “Mr. Buttigieg is an impressive public servant who has already earned the respect and confidence of both sides,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., in floor remarks on Monday. “I look forward to confirming his nomination.” Praised by Biden as bringing a “new voice” to the administration, Buttigieg would take over a Transportation Department with 55,000 employees and a budget of tens of billions of […]