Watch Live: Pete Buttigieg testifies at confirmation hearing for Biden’s transportation secretary

Pete Buttigieg, President Joe Biden’s nominee to head the Transportation Department, said he will work to ensure transportation systems are safe during the pandemic.

Buttigieg said keeping sectors from “aviation to public transit, to our railways, roads, ports, waterways, and pipelines” safe, according to his prepared remarks ahead of his confirmation hearing Thursday before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

The 39-year-old former presidential candidate and former mayor of South Bend, Ind. will face a country roiled by Covid-19, particularly airlines struggling to stem billions in losses as the virus keeps many customers off of airplanes.

Biden is scheduled to sign an executive order on Thursday that would require masks on interstate transportation, including airplanes, a step airline labor unions have urged since early in the pandemic but one the Trump administration declined to take.