A Taiwan-born back in the U.S. government | Elaine Chao’s record suggests skepticism on new safety regs

Former Labor Secretary Elaine Chao

Elaine Chao’s record as secretary of labor suggests she’d have a light hand when it comes to safety regulation as head of the Transportation Department and would seek to shift responsibility from the federal government to states where possible.

President-elect Donald Trump announced yesterday [Macau time] that Chao was his choice for the Cabinet post. “Secretary Chao’s extensive record of strong leadership and her expertise are invaluable assets in our mission to rebuild our infrastructure in a fiscally responsible manner,” Trump said in a statement released by his campaign.

Chao said Trump “has outlined a clear vision to transform our country’s infrastructure, accelerate economic growth and productivity, and create good paying jobs across the country.”

Chao, 63, was labor secretary under President George W. Bush and the first Asian-American woman to serve in a president’s Cabinet. She also is the wife of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, which might be of some help if Trump is to fulfill his promise of generating USD1 trillion in infrastructure spending.

Chao’s record suggests she’d be skeptical of new safety regulations and may attempt to roll back existing regulations. Under Chao, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration at Labor didn’t issue a single significant new safety regulation for four years, and the department’s mine safety inspectors were cut and inspections reduced, said Thomas McGarity, a University of Texas law professor and author of “Freedom to Harm,” a book about the Labor Department that includes Chao’s tenure there.

Among the pressing issues facing the next transportation secretary will be how to boost the nation’s aging infrastructure so that it can accommodate population growth and not become a drag on the economy, modernizing the nation’s air traffic control system, ensuring that new transportation technologies are adopted in a safe manner and responding to a surge in traffic fatalities.

Whether it’s integrating drones into the national airspace, deploying self-driving cars or “some other new technology, she’s not going to be especially inclined to second-guess the industry when they say that this will be safe,” McGarity said.

As labor secretary, Chao’s job was to protect the nation’s workforce, including setting safety standards and addressing issues related to wages and retirement. She updated overtime regulations for “white-collar” workers and rules intended to force unions to disclose more details on their financial condition to members.

Chao is “a strong advocate of letting the markets function as they will, not intervening into private sector arrangements,” McGarity said.

Mitch Bainwol, president of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, applauded Trump’s selection of Chao as “a superb choice.”

“Big issues await,” he said. “The traditional regulatory approach is increasingly challenged to keep pace with the rapid rate of innovation in our sector.”

More recently, Chao had been on the board of directors for Bloomberg Philanthropies, run by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. She resigned last year after learning the organization planned to expand an environmental initiative to shutter coal-fired power plants. Almost 90 percent of Kentucky’s electricity comes from coal, and her ties to the organization were used against McConnell in his Senate race.

Chao came to the United States from Taiwan with her family at age 8. Her family settled in New York, where her father, James Si-Cheng Chao, became a wealthy shipping magnate.

Chao received her undergraduate degree from Mount Holyoke College and a Master of Business Administration from Harvard. She went on to become head of the Peace Corps and deputy secretary at the Transportation Department. She was head of the United Way of America and worked at the Heritage Foundation, a Washington think tank, before becoming labor secretary.  Joan Lowy & Jonathan Lemire, New York, AP