The secretary is a statutory member of the Cabinet of the United States, and is fourteenth in the presidential line of succession.

The post was created on October 15, 1966, by the Department of Transportation Act, signed into law by President Lyndon B.

[6] In April 2008, Mary Peters launched the official blog of the secretary of transportation called The Fast Lane.

[7] On January 23, 2009, the 16th secretary, Ray LaHood, took office, serving under the administration of Democrat Barack Obama; he had previously been a Republican congressman from Illinois for fourteen years.

Elaine Chao, who served as the secretary of labor under President George W. Bush, was nominated by Donald Trump on November 29, 2016.