Duffy has quickly emerged as the public face of the federal government’s response to the deadly plane crash at Washington’s Reagan National Airport.

Mr. Duffy, a former congressman who had appeared on track to sail through with little opposition, overcame a last-minute swell of Democratic anger over the White House’s sweeping funding freeze.

Duffy was sworn into the Cabinet position just hours before an American Airlines passenger plane collided with a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter over the Potomac RiverSecretary of Transportation Sean Duffy,