Elaine Chao, a former top U.S. labor official, was sworn in on Tuesday to lead the U.S. Transportation Department, which overseas aviation, vehicle, train and pipeline safety. Chao, a former U.S. labor secretary and deputy transportation secretary, took office hours after the U.S. Senate voted 93 to 6 to confirm her.
She will be a key player in President Donald Trump's Cabinet if his administration pushes ahead with a major infrastructure spending program.
The Transportation Department has a $75 billion annual budget and about 60,000 employees. It includes the Federal Aviation Administration, which handles air traffic control.
Chao is the wife of Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and the first Asian-American woman to hold a Cabinet position.
At her confirmation hearing this month, Chao declined to take positions on a number of issues, including whether air traffic control jobs should be privatized, concerns over the safety of shipments of crude oil by rail, foreign airlines' push to move into the U.S. market and regulation of developing technologies.