Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said during an interview on Sunday that the Biden administration is in active conversations with the CDC about whether it will require American citizens to have a negative coronavirus test before they are allowed to fly to another U.S. state.
Buttigieg made the remark when asked during an Axios interview what he thought “of requiring a COVID test before someone flies even domestically?”
“Well, there’s an active conversation with the CDC right now, what I can tell you is this going to be guided by data, by science, by medicine, and by the input of the people are actually going to have to carry this out,” Buttigieg responded. “But here’s the thing, the safer we can make air travel in terms of perception as well as reality, the more people are going to be ready to get back in the air.”
Buttigieg also said that he thought that the traditional American’s work schedule would be permanently changed to some extent as a result of the pandemic. Buttigieg said that he wanted to start paying more attention to “bikes, scooters, wheelchairs” because “roads aren’t only for vehicles.”
Buttigieg defended President Joe Biden’s decision to kill the Keystone XL Pipeline during his Senate confirmation hearing last month.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) asked Buttigieg: “So for those workers, the answer is somebody else will get a job?”
“The answer is we are very eager to see those workers continue to be employed in good-paying union jobs, even if they might be different ones,” Buttigieg responded.
WATCH:
Full transcript of the exchange:
MIKE ALLEN, AXIOS: What’s the biggest way that transportation has been permanently changed by the pandemic?
PETE BUTTIGIEG, SECRETARY OF THE DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION: It’s too soon to know for sure. But I think it’s safe to say that our old patterns of life, the nine to five, Monday through Friday, commuting patterns are not going to be exactly the same.
ALLEN: Yeah. And so how might that change what your stuff does?
BUTTIGIEG: You know, we think trains, planes and automobiles, but what about bikes, scooters, wheelchairs, for that matter?
ALLEN: Those are things you plan to pay more attention to?
BUTTIGIEG: Absolutely, yeah, look, roads aren’t only for vehicles. We got to make sure that pedestrians and individuals and bicyclists and businesses can all coexist on the same roadway.
ALLEN: What do you think of requiring a COVID test before someone flies even domestically?
BUTTIGIEG: Well, there’s an active conversation with the CDC right now, what I can tell you is this going to be guided by data, by science, by medicine, and by the input of the people are actually going to have to carry this out. But here’s the thing, the safer we can make air travel in terms of perception as well as reality, the more people are going to be ready to get back in the air.