Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s husband, Chasten, came to the couple’s defense last week over criticism of the department chief’s prolonged absence during a critical time for the federal agency.
In the fall of 2021, as Congress was putting together a trillion-dollar infrastructure package, a bottleneck supply-chain crisis on the West Coast threatened to spoil the holiday season. During that time, Secretary Buttigieg took an eight-week parental leave. Though 9 out of 10 new dads typically take leave, an overwhelming majority of them (70 percent) take 10 days or less.
Internal records made public by a Freedom of Information
