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President-elect George W Bush has named Norman Y
Mineta as his choice for Secretary of Transportation. Mineta's taking over
the Department of Transportation will be dependent on his conformation by the
Senate, which seems likely. Mineta is respected by both Democrats and
Republicans and has some transportation background.
The ATA has endorsed Mineta's nomination and believes he will make a good
Secretary of Transportation. Mineta was a a Representative in the House for 21
years, representing California. He served 2 years as chairman of the House
Public Works and Transportation Committee and was recently President Clinton's
Secretary of Commerce. While in Congress Mineta was a leader in the passing of
the 1991 ISTEA bill. (Intermodel Surface Transportation Efficiency Act)
Although most in the trucking industry see Mineta's appointment as positive,
we will reserve our judgment until after Mr Mineta has taken the reins and
clearly signaled his agency's direction.
In 1999 Mineta chaired an ad hoc trucking safety panel set up by Secretary of
Transportation Rodney Slater. Although there were no trucking industry
representatives on the panel, they concluded that in order to improve trucking
safety the federal government must take stronger enforcement against the
industry, collect better data and adopt crash avoidance technology.
Although the need for better data is an absolute necessity, the simplistic
conclusion that stronger enforcement or crash avoidance technology will in any
way improve commercial motor vehicle safety is nothing more than preposterous.
The fact that a man of Mr Mineta's stature would endorse such a conclusion and
the fact that he did not included anyone from the trucking industry in his
panel, is very troubling. Maybe he will surprise us all by bringing commercial
motor vehicle safety into the 21st century.
We wish him well.........................................
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