Pete Buttigieg

Built World

Left office in January 2025 with the change of administration

Japan opened its first bullet train in 1964. Sixty years later, the United States has yet to operate a single line that meets the international threshold for high-speed rail. On April 22, 2024, Brightline West broke ground in Las Vegas on a 218-mile route designed to change that, with electric trains running up to 200 miles per hour between the Strip and the Los Angeles suburbs.

Updated Apr 27

Built World

Oversaw IIJA implementation; left office with mixed results

China just front-loaded $42 billion in infrastructure spending for early 2026—281 projects approved before the calendar even flipped. New airports, cross-sea ferries, reservoirs, and power grids are breaking ground now. Meanwhile, the U.S. Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, passed with $1.2 trillion in 2021, has spent just 21% of its funds as of December 2024. The law expires September 2026, and Trump's May 2025 budget proposal seeks to cancel $15.2 billion in unobligated IIJA funding for renewable energy and clean tech. China builds 50,000 kilometers of high-speed rail in 17 years. America debates one line in California.

Updated Jan 11