President-elect Donald Trump is set to select former Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao to serve as Transportation Secretary under his administration, the New York Times reported.
An official announcement is expected later Tuesday.
The selection, which comes just one week after Trump met with Chao in New York, must be confirmed by the Senate.
Chao, who is the wife of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, has significant experience working in the nation's capital, where she served as the 24th U.S. Secretary of Labor under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2009.
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Prior to that, Chao spent several years in the role of Deputy Secretary of Transportation under President George H. W. Bush in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Assuming Chao, who was the first Asian-American woman to serve in a Cabinet position, is in fact Trump's selection and is ultimately confirmed by Congress, she's likely to find herself in a critical role as Trump made revamping the nation's infrastructure a priority on the campaign trail.
According to the Times, the President-elect hopes to spend as much as $1 trillion on repairing America's roads, bridges, airports and other vital travel systems. As the head of the Department of Transporation, Chao would be tasked with helping to get an infrastructure spending bill passed through Congress.
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