File photo of Pete Buttigieg

WASHINGTON, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Senate voted on Tuesday to approve Pete Buttigieg as President Joe Biden's transportation secretary.

The 86-13 vote has made Buttigieg the first openly gay individual confirmed to lead a Cabinet department in U.S. history.

During his confirmation hearing last month, Buttigieg said the Department of Transportation "can play a central role" in rebuilding the U.S. economy, which has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Buttigieg, 39, is expected to be part of the Biden administration's push for a bipartisan infrastructure package.

Former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, Buttigieg was a top contender for the 2020 Democratic presidential nominee but dropped out to endorse Biden early in the primaries.

In 2014, Buttigieg, a Harvard graduate and Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, was deployed for six months to Afghanistan as a U.S. intelligence officer.

The U.S. Senate will vote later in the day confirming Alejandro Mayorkas as Biden's homeland security secretary.

The upper chamber has previously approved Biden's Cabinet nominees for secretaries of state, treasury, and defense, as well as director of national intelligence.