Elaine Chao

Elaine Lan Chao(born March 26, 1953) is an American businesswoman and former government official who served asUnited States secretary of laborin theadministrationofGeorge W. Bushfrom 2001 to 2009 and asUnited States secretary of transportationin theadministrationofDonald Trumpfrom 2017 to 2021. A member of theRepublican Party, Chao was the firstAsian Americanwoman to serve in apresidential cabinet.She resigned as transportation secretary after theJanuary 6 United States Capitol attack.
Chao was born inTaipei,Taiwan, towaishengrenparents who fled China as a result of theChinese Civil War. She immigrated to the United States when she was eight years old. Her father founded theForemost Group, an American shipping company based in New York. Chao was raised inQueens, New York, and onLong Island, and received degrees fromMount Holyoke CollegeandHarvard Business School. She worked for financial institutions before being appointed to senior positions in theDepartment of Transportationunder PresidentsRonald ReaganandGeorge H. W. Bush, including chair of theFederal Maritime Commission(1988–1989) andDeputy Secretary of Transportation(1989–1991). She served as director of thePeace Corpsfrom 1991 to 1992 and as president of theUnited Way of Americafrom 1993 to 1996.
Chao has served on severalFortune500 and nonprofitboards of directors, including the electric charger network providerChargePointsince 2021.She is married to U.S. senatorMitch McConnell.
Elaine Chao was born inTaipei,Taiwan, on March 26, 1953, and immigrated to the United States when she was eight years old. She is the eldest of six daughters ofRuth Mulan Chu Chao, a historian fromAnhui, andJames S. C. Chao, aShanghainesebusinessman who began his career as amerchant marinerand in 1964 founded the shipping company Foremost Maritime Corporation in New York City, which developed into theForemost Group. In 1961, at the age of 8, Chao came to the United States on a 37-day freight ship journey along with her mother and two younger sisters. Her father had arrived in New York three years earlier and sent money home until the rest of the family could join him in the United States.
Chao described her early life in America as a typical immigrant story, noting that "everything was foreign to us: the culture, people, language, traditions, and even the food."She spoke no English upon her arrival.Her father "worked three jobs" to support the family and the then-five family members lived in a one-bedroom apartment.
Chao attended Tsai Hsing Elementary School in Taiwan forkindergartenand first grade.She attendedSyosset High SchoolinSyosset, New York, inNassau CountyonLong Islandand wasnaturalizedas a U.S. citizen at the age of 19.
Chao received a Bachelor of Arts degree inEconomicsfromMount Holyoke CollegeinSouth Hadley, Massachusetts. In the second semester of her junior year, she studied money and banking atDartmouth College. She received anMBAdegree fromHarvard Business School.
Before being appointed to government work, Chao was a vice president forsyndicationsatBank of AmericaCapital Markets Group in San Francisco, and she was an international banker atCiticorpin New York.She was granted aWhite House Fellowshipduring theReagan Administration.
In 1986, Chao became Deputy Administrator of theMaritime Administrationin theU.S. Department of Transportation. From 1988 to 1989, she served as chairwoman of theFederal Maritime Commission.In 1989, then-president George H.W. Bush nominated Chao to be Deputy Secretary of Transportation; she served from 1989 to 1991.From 1991 to 1992, she was the director of the Peace Corps.She was the firstAsian Pacific Americanto serve in any of these positions. She expanded the Peace Corps' presence in Eastern Europe and Central Asia by establishing the first Peace Corps programs inPoland,Latvia,Lithuania,Estonia, and the newly independent states of the formerSoviet Union, including the first Peace Corps programs in Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia and Russia.
Following her service in President George H.W. Bush's administration, Chao worked from 1992 to 1996 as president and CEO of United Way of America.She was the first Asian Pacific American to hold that role. She is credited with returning credibility and public trust to the organization after a financial mismanagement scandal involving former presidentWilliam Aramony.From 1996 until her appointment as Secretary of Labor, Chao worked at aconservativethink tankinWashington, D.C.She was also a board member of theIndependent Women's Forum.She later returned to think tanks after leaving the government in January 2009.
Chao delivered a speech at the2000 Republican National Convention.
Chao was the only cabinet member in theGeorge W. Bush administrationto serve for the entirety of his eight years.She was also the longest-serving Secretary of Labor sinceFrances Perkins, who served from 1933 to 1945 under PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt.Chao was unanimously confirmed by the Senate for her appointment as Secretary of Labor.Of Chao's staff,Victoria Lipnic, Assistant Secretary for Employment Standards Administration, later became Member, EEOC and acting chair.
In 2004, the department issued revisions of the white-collar overtime regulations under theFair Labor Standards Act.
In 2002, a major West Coast ports dispute costing the U.S. economy nearly $1billion daily was resolved when the Bush administration obtained a national emergencyinjunctionagainst both the employers and the union under theTaft–Hartley Actfor the first time since 1971.Led by Chao, in 2003, for the first time in more than 40 years, the department updated the labor union financial disclosure regulations under theLandrum–Griffin Actof 1959, which created more extensive disclosure requirements for union-sponsored pension plans and other trusts to prevent embezzlement or other financial mismanagement.
Following theterrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Chao's Department of Labor disbursed grants to provide temporary jobs to assist in cleanup and restoration efforts in New York, as well as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's monitoring of health and safety ofcleanup workbeing performed at the disaster sites including lower Manhattan. The department also provided unemployment insurance and income support to those who lost their jobs in the aftermath of September 11.
Following the 2005 hurricane season, which included hurricanesKatrina,RitaandWilma, the Labor Department disbursed nearly $380 million in grants to assist with cleanup work and provide benefits and services to those displaced by the storms. The Occupational Health and Safety Administration and other agencies deployed personnel to the region to provide safety training and uphold workers' rights. Chao set up an emergency response hotline dedicated to the Gulf Coast region for people seeking benefits and worker protection information.
After analyzing 70,000 closed case files from 2005 to 2007, theGovernment Accountability Officereported that the Department'sWage and Hour Division(WHD) inadequately investigated complaints from low- andminimum-wageworkers alleging that employers failed to pay thefederal minimum wage, required overtime, and failed to issue a last paycheck.The Department of Labor responded that the GAO investigation focused on individual complaints while the department remained focused on resolving complex and multi-employee complaints; from 1997 to 2007 the annual number of employees receiving back wages as a result of DOL action almost doubled and the dollar amount of back wages paid more than doubled.The Washington Postechoed that Chao's department was criticized by some for "walking away from its regulatory function" but also praised by others for providing "compliance assistance" and "helping companies abide by the law" rather than "punitive enforcement that … stifles economic growth."
A 2008Government Accountability Officereport noted that the Labor Department gave Congress inaccurate numbers which understated the expense of contracting out its employees' work to private firms during Chao's tenure, which may have affected 22 employees at the department.
Chao and the Bush administration proposed quadrupling the fines imposed against mining corporations for mine safety breaches and sued mine operators for failing to maintain safe working conditions.A 2007 report by the department'sOffice of Inspector General(OIG) found that mine safety regulators did not conduct federally required inspections at more than one in seven of the country's 731 underground coal mines in 2006, and that the number of worker deaths in mining accidents more than doubled to 47 in that year.The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) "missed 147 inspections at 107 mines employing a total of 7,500 workers".
Mining disasters in 2006 and 2007 included West Virginia'sSago Mine explosion, which killed 12 in January 2006;West Virginia'sAlma Mine fire, which killed two in January 2006;theDarby Mine No.1 explosionin Kentucky, where five miners died in May 2006;and theCrandall Canyon Mine collapsein Utah, which killed six workers and three rescuers in August 2007.Immediately following the Sago mine disaster, Secretary Chao vowed to "take the necessary steps to ensure that this never happens again".
In 2010, the widows of the two men killed in the Alma Mine fire sued the federal government for wrongful death, citing lack of inspections, failure to act against violations, and conflicts of interest."MSHA's review of the fire acknowledged significant lapses by inspectors, supervisors and district managers" at the mine but the agency did not admit liability for the negligent inspections.In 2013, the appeals court ruled that MSHA can be held liable "when a negligent inspection results in the wrongful death of a coal miner".The suit was settled in 2014; MSHA also agreed to develop a training course on preventing fires in underground mines.
During her tenure, the Department of Labor achieved "record low worker injury, illness and fatality rates; record back wages recovered; [and] record monetary recoveries for workers’ pension plans".A 2009 internal audit appraising anOccupational Safety and Health Administration(OSHA) initiative focusing on problematic workplaces for the past six years stated that employees had failed to gather needed data, conducted uneven inspections and enforcement, and failed to discern repeat fatalities because records misspelled the companies' names or failed to notice when two subsidiaries with the same owner were involved; it also noted that after rules changes in January 2008 the number of targeted companies declined by almost half.
In 2009, Chao resumed her previous role at a think tank,and she contributed toFox Newsand other media outlets.
She also served as a director on a number of corporate and non-profit boards,including theInstitute of PoliticsatHarvard Kennedy School,Wells Fargo,New York–Presbyterian Hospital,News Corp,Dole Food Company,andProtective Life Corporation.According to financial disclosure forms, Chao was slated to receive $1–5million as compensation for her service on the board of Wells Fargo.In June 2011, she was awarded theWoodrow Wilson Awardfor Public Service.
In January 2015, she resigned from the board ofBloomberg Philanthropies, which she had joined in 2012,because of its plans to significantly increase support for theSierra Club's "Beyond Coal" initiative.
In February 2017, theAssociated Pressreported that Chao was paid by a speaker's bureau to give a speech regarding women's empowerment to an organization later found to be linked to thePeople's Mujahedin of Iran(aka Mojahedin-e Khalq or MEK), a group exiled from Iran after actions in the 1970s against the Shah of Iran and the Ayatollah Khomeini.  Similar speeches were delivered by former Joint Chiefs of Staff GeneralHugh Shelton, Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps GeneralJames T. Conway, former National Security Advisor GeneralJames L. Jones, former CIA DirectorsPorter GossandJames Woolsey, former FBI DirectorLouis Freeh, formerNYCMayorRudy Giuliani, and former GovernorsHoward Deanof Vermont andEd Rendellof Pennsylvania.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump announced on November 29, 2016, that he would nominate Chao to be Secretary of Transportation.The U.S. Senate confirmed Chao on January 31, 2017, by a vote of 93–6, with her husband, then-Senate majority leaderMitch McConnell, abstaining.
As Secretary of Transportation, Chao led the presidential delegation to the enthronement ceremony forJapanese emperor Naruhito.She led the U.S. delegation to the inauguration of Indonesia's PresidentJoko Widodo.
On January 7, 2021, the day after theJanuary 6 United States Capitol attack, Chao submitted her resignation effective January 11, 2021. She was then the highest-ranking member of the administration to resign due to the riots and the first cabinet officer to do so; her resignation cited the "traumatic and entirely avoidable" violence and stated that it "deeply troubled" her.
In 2017, Chao announced the establishment of a pilot program to test and evaluate the integration of civil and public drone operations into the airspace system.In 2018 ten applicants were selected to participate in the project.In 2019, theFederal Aviation Administration(FAA) issued an air carrier and operator certificate toUPS Flight Forwardfor drone deliveries to a hospital campus in Raleigh, North Carolina.In December 2019, after multiple reports in Colorado and Nebraska of unidentified objects flying in formation at night over several remote rural counties, the FAA proposed a new rule that would require drones to be remotely identifiable.
Jeffrey A. Rosenchaired Chao's New and Emerging Technologies Council (NETT)Chao and Rosen led DOTs efforts to safely enable the use of drones in the airspace, including in FAA's drone pilot program.The DOT under Chao issued updated guidelines on automated or "self-driving" cars and trucks.He also helped with FAA's successful efforts to reform its regulations and restore the US lead in enabling the largest number of private commercial space launches.
Under Chao, Rosen served as Chair of DOT's Regulatory Reform Task Force.He and Chao focused on improving the infrastructure permitting process, and reforming the regulatory system to reduce costs.
In May 2020, following the start of theCOVID-19 outbreakand related changes to travel, Chao sternly warned airlines to follow their published ticket refund procedures, as well as DOT regulations, in light of high demand for travel changes.She demanded airlines provide cash refunds (as opposed to vouchers) when required by law, and urged them to provide cash refunds as broadly as possible.
Chao later announced the disbursement of $1.2 billion in grants to airports to maintain readiness for when passenger travel returned. The funds were distributed to 405 airports for infrastructure and safety improvements, such as improved runway lighting.Eight tribal governments were also awarded separate transportation funds to maintain infrastructure during COVID.
Chao also worked to permit truckers to deliver essential goods to New York City, which had been attempting to impose a 14-day quarantine on out-of-state truckers bringing goods into the city. The city dropped the requirement following federal government pressure.Her department also worked with state governments to maintain access to highway rest areas, including permitting food trucks to provide hot food to truckers and travelers.
The CARES Act enabled the Department of Transportation to make $114 billion of federal aid available for the transportation sector.  The largest allocation was $25 billion to support local public transit systems, of which $22.7 billion was dedicated to large and small urban areas and the remaining $2.2 billion for rural areas. The Act also made available $10 billion for grants to commercial and general aviation airports for capital expenditures, operating expenses such as payroll and utilities, and debt payments; and a $1.02 billion allocation for grants to Amtrak to cover lost revenues, buy fuel and construction materials, and maintain its route network. The CARES Act also enabled the department to provide assistance to the aviation sector through loans and loan guarantees and grants for worker and contractor pay and benefits.
In March 2019, Chao announced the formation of the Non-Traditional and Emerging Transportation Technology (NETT) Council, an internal Department of Transportation group for identifying "jurisdictional and regulatory gaps" when considering new transportation technologies.In April 2019, the FAA released proposed new regulations to modernize the rules for commercial space flight launches and reentries. At a congressional hearing in July 2019, the president of theCommercial Spaceflight Federationcriticized the proposal as not delivering on its stated goals.
In October 2019, Chao launched the Rural Opportunities to Use Transportation for Economic Success (ROUTES) initiative, intended to improve rural transportation infrastructure.  It sought to achieve this goal by developing tools and information, aggregating DOT resources, and providing technical assistance. The program is intended to consider the unique needs of rural transportation networks to meet national goals of safety, mobility, and economic competitiveness.
The US Department of Transportation reportedly sought to cut funding and loan guarantees for domestic American shipping companies, shipyards, and shipbuilders. These proposed budget cuts were rejected by Congress.Chao's Department also sought for three years to prevent funding for a program that supports the viability of small domestic US shipyards, and a separate program that issues loan guarantees for the construction or reconstruction of ships with American registration.
In 2013, liberal SuperPAC Progress Kentucky tweeted about Mitch McConnell's "Chinese wife" and alleged that she is why "your job moved to China." The tweets were removed following an investigation by NPR that noted Chao was a U.S. citizen, was born in Taiwan, and that the PAC had failed to file required disclosures.A similar message by a Kentucky Democrat in 2014 claimed that Chao "isn't from KY [Kentucky], she is Asian." An apology was issued by the Kentucky Democratic Party.In 2021 Chao spoke publicly against incidents of anti-Asian harassment.
Critics have claimed that her family's shipping company,Foremost Grouphas ties to China.From January 2018 to April 2019, 72% of the total tonnage of chartered cargo shipped by Foremost was shipped to and from China.During Mitch McConnell's reelection campaign in 2020, his Democratic opponent Amy McGrath accused McConnell of making "millions from China."The Washington Postcalled these claims "spurious" and rated them "three Pinocchios" out of a possible four.
As Secretary of Transportation, Chao appeared in at least a dozen interviews with her 96-year-old father, James, the founder of her family's shipping company. Some media outlets said the appearances raised ethical concerns, as public officials are prohibited from using their office to profit others or themselves.The Transportation Department's inspector general cited numerous instances where Chao's office helped promote her family's shipping business.The inspector general asked the Trump administration's Justice Department in December 2020 to consider a criminal investigation into Chao, but the DOJ denied the request.Federal disclosures cited byThe New York Timesrevealed a gift to Chao and her husband from Chao's father valued between $5million and $25million.
Chao pledged in 2017 to divest into cash the "deferred stock units" (non-transferrable stock equivalents) she had earned while she was on the board of directors ofVulcan Materialsby April 2018.After the Wall Street Journal and other major news outlets reported in late May 2019 that she was still holding the stock, worth $250,000 to $500,000, she sold it on June 3, 2019,for a gain of $50,000 since April 2018; a report by the Inspector General did "not identify any evidence of a financial conflict of interest."
An October 2018 Politico analysis found that Chao had more than 290 hours of appointments which were labelled as "private" during working hours on working days in the first 14 months of her tenure as Secretary of Transportation, which former Department of Transportation officials described as unusual. DoT officials stated that the "private" labeling existed to help ensure Chao's security.
In June 2019,Politicoreported that in 2017 Chao had designated her aide Todd Inman as a special liaison "to help with grant applications and other priorities" for Transportation Department projects in the state ofKentucky, the only state to have such a liaison. Inman was to act as an intermediary between the department, local Kentucky officials, and Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell, who is Chao's husband. This resulted in grants of at least $78million for projects in Mitch McConnell strongholdsBoone CountyandOwensboro. Inman had worked on the 2008 and 2014 re-election campaigns of McConnell; McConnell and local officials brought up the grants when he announced in Owensboro in December 2018 that he was running for re-election in 2020. Inman later became Chao's chief of staff. However, the Inspector General "did not find any irregularities" with respect to grants benefitting Kentucky and saw awards to Kentucky that were "consistent with other States' results" and "did not find evidence of steering" and concluded that the investigation "did not uncover evidence that Mr. Inman influenced grant awards benefiting Kentucky or gave Kentucky applicants an improper advantage."
In May 2020, the Trump administration removed the acting Inspector General of the Transportation Department, Mitch Behm. Behm, who was not a political appointee, was conducting an investigation into whether Secretary Elaine Chao was giving preferential treatment to projects in Kentucky. Her husband, Mitch McConnell, is the Senator of Kentucky and faced a re-election bid at the time.Trump appointed Howard "Skip" Elliott as interim Inspector General of the Transportation Department to replace Behm. However, at the same time, Elliott served in a dual role where Chao was his boss. Thus, Elliott was head of an office that was investigating his own actions and those of Chao.
In September 2019, the Democratic-controlled House of RepresentativesCommittee on Oversight and Reformbegan an investigation into whether she used political office to benefit her family's business interests.A September 16 letter from the Oversight committee to Chao documented allegations that the Department of Transportation was forced to cancel a trip to China in 2017 that Chao had planned to take because State Department ethics officials challenged her attempts to include her family members in official meetings with the Chinese government. The trip was canceled due to scheduling issues and no ethics charges were sustained.
On March 4, 2021, the Inspector General released their report regarding numerous ethics violations,including using department resources for personal errands and for promoting her father's biography.It also stated that it had referred its investigation to the Justice Department and the U.S. Attorney's Office in Washington D.C. for criminal prosecution in December 2020. Both declined to open criminal investigations into Chao.
After her resignation in January 2021 in protest over theJanuary 6 United States Capitol attack, President Trump referred to Chao using a racial slur and labeled the Taiwan-born US citizen as a "China lover."The slur was immediately condemned by Republican, Democratic, Asian-American and other community leaders including the CEO of the Anti-Defamation League.Trump also referred to Chao as "crazy."
In August 2021, Chao was elected to the board of directors of theKrogersupermarket chain.In 2021, Chao also joined the Board of Trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
Chao holds 38honorary doctorates,including an honoraryDoctor of Humane Lettersfrom GeorgetownMcDonough School of Businessin 2015.She was initiated intoOmicron Delta Kappaat SUNY Plattsburgh as anhonoris causainitiate in 1996.In 2006, inaugural class of winner of theGreat Immigrants Awardnamed byCarnegie Corporation of New York.
In 1993, Chao marriedMitch McConnell,U.S. Senator from Kentucky.
TheUniversity of Louisville's Ekstrom Library opened the "McConnell-Chao Archives" in November 2009. It is a major component of the university'sMcConnell Center.
From July 2022 onward, Trump had criticized McConnell's leadership on social media and directed attacks at Chao, including calling her "Coco Chow". In a statement toPoliticoin January 2023, Chao said that people had "deliberately misspelled or mispronounced my name. Asian Americans have worked hard to change that experience for the next generation. He doesn’t seem to understand that, which says a whole lot more about him than it will ever say about Asian Americans."
In the two years leading up to the2014 U.S. Senate elections, during which time Chao was not in public office, Chao "headlined fifty of her own events and attended hundreds more with and on behalf of" her husband and was seen as "a driving force of his reelection campaign" and eventual victory overDemocraticcandidateAlison Lundergan Grimes, who had portrayed McConnell as "anti-woman".After winning the election, McConnell said, "The biggest asset I have by far is the only Kentucky woman who served in apresident's cabinet, my wife, Elaine Chao."
She has been described by Jan Karzen, a longtime friend of McConnell's, as adding "a softer touch" to McConnell's style by speaking of him "in a feminine, wifely way".She has also been described as "the campaign hugger".The New York Timesdescribed Chao as "unapologetically ambitious".
Chao's father has donated "millions of dollars" to the Chao-McConnell family.Chao's extended family has given more than a million dollars to McConnell's campaigns.The extended family is also a top contributor to theRepublican Party of Kentucky, giving it approximately $525,000 over two decades.
Chao has five younger sisters, includingAngela, former CEO of the Foremost Group.In February 2024, Angela died after backing her car into a pond.
Chao's sister Grace is married toGordon Hartogensiswho served as director of thePension Benefit Guaranty Corporation(PBGC), a part of the Labor Department, in May 2019.Hartogensis co-founded forecasting-software company Petrolsoft in 1989, which was purchased for $60million by Aspen Technology in 2000.He founded and led application software company Auric Technology LLC until it was sold to a company based in Mexico in 2011 and then helped govern the Hartogensis Family Trust.
In April 2008, Chao's father gave Chao and McConnell between $5million and $25million.
In 2012, the Chao family donated $40million toHarvard Business Schoolfor scholarships to students of Chinese heritage and for the Ruth Mulan Chu Chao Center, anexecutive educationbuilding named for Chao's late mother.It is the first Harvard Business School building named after a womanand the first building named after an American of Asian ancestry.Ruth Mulan Chu Chaoreturned to school at age 51 to earn a master's degree inAsian literatureandhistoryfromSt. John's Universityin theQueensboroughof New York City.
Elaine Chao along with the Chao family are Christians.