Mineta Well-Versed in Transit Issues

Any hard feelings from fellow Democrats should be the least of former Silicon Valley Congressman Norman Y. Mineta’s worries as Transportation secretary.

If, as expected, President-elect George W. Bush’s nominee is confirmed by the Senate, he will take over an air traffic system unable to overcome chronic delays and a road safety agency undermined by its failure to heed warnings about Firestone tires.

But those who know him say Mineta is highly qualified for the job. While serving in Congress for nearly 21 years, where he rose to chair the House Transportation Committee, Mineta built a wide-ranging expertise on matters from modernizing the Federal Aviation Administration to developing mass transit.

“He brings instant credibility,” said Peter Goelz, the former managing director of the National Transportation Safety Board. “There is not going to be any kind of problem in ramping up to the job. He knows this department.”

Mineta, 69, was born in San Jose and has come a long way since his childhood, when he and his family were interned in a Wyoming detention camp for Americans with Japanese ancestry during World War II.

“They took away his baseball bat, because I guess they thought it was some kind of dangerous weapon,” said former GOP Sen. Alan K. Simpson of Wyoming, who lived near the camp and met Mineta when his Boy Scout troop visited its Japanese American counterpart behind the barbed wire and gun towers.

The two Scouts joined in playing tricks on others, once diverting rainwater into a tent. They became lifelong friends.

“Nothing can deter Norm Mineta from the first loyalty of his life, which is to the United States of America,” Simpson said. While in Congress, Mineta led a successful effort to obtain an official apology and an estimated $20,000 in compensation for each survivor of the camps.

Mineta resigned from Congress in 1995, after the Republicans took control of the House. He left to become a senior vice president of Lockheed Martin Corp. but continued to be involved with transportation policy by leading special advisory panels on aviation issues and truck safety.

He came back to government in June, when President Clinton appointed him Commerce secretary, making him the first Asian American named to a Cabinet post.

Unlike the departments of Justice or Education, Transportation is not a battleground for ideological partisans. Even so, Bush took an unusual route in plucking Mineta from the Clinton administration to fulfill his intention of including a Democrat in his Cabinet.

“I am a Democrat, with both a small ‘d’ and a large one,” Mineta said Tuesday with Bush in Austin, Texas. “I am proud of and committed to my party’s principles and its heritage. However, the campaign is over . . . ; the challenge before all of us as Americans, regardless of party affiliation, is to find those areas where we can build bipartisan consensus.”

The Transportation Department has a $59-billion budget and 100,000 employees. Mineta’s nomination was praised by a range of groups representing industry and safety advocates.

The Air Transport Assn. called his expertise “a unique national resource,” while Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety termed his record “solid.”

Joan Claybrook, president of Public Citizen and a former head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said Mineta will assume his new job “when the lessons learned from the Firestone tire tragedy are still fresh in the minds of the public and policymakers.”

In response to revelations that Bridgestone/Firestone Inc. and Ford Motor Co. had recalled problem tires on Ford Explorers overseas without alerting consumers or safety regulators here, Congress passed a series of measures increasing the power of the federal auto safety agency.

“There is a large agenda that needs to be carried out, not set aside for ideological reasons,” Claybrook added.

But the most complicated issues Mineta will face have to do with air travel and safety.

After two summers of record airport delays, the FAA has become a target of sharp criticism from industry, consumers and some lawmakers on Capitol Hill. An often-repeated theme is that FAA managers need to act less like government bureaucrats and more like results-driven private-sector executives.

Mineta has been among the critics. He was appointed to chair an independent panel that in 1997 recommended overhauling FAA management, modernizing the air traffic control system and identifying potential safety problems before they result in accidents.

Although some of the commission recommendations have been adopted, the FAA’s record remains mixed. Mineta is expected to support FAA Administrator Jane Garvey, who is an advocate for change within the agency. Garvey is in the midst of a five-year appointment and has told her staff that she intends to stay on.

It remains to be seen whether Mineta will be able to work well with Democrats in a closely divided Congress after crossing the lines to join Bush following a hard-fought presidential election.

A onetime House Democratic colleague suggested that Mineta may face some resentment. “A lot of my colleagues are not enamored of Norm,” said the colleague.

But Art Torres, chairman of the California Democratic Party, called Bush’s selection of Mineta a “bright and sophisticated move,” adding that he expects it to benefit California.

When asked whether he thought Democrats would be upset by Mineta taking a job in a Republican administration, he responded: “I don’t--and I’m chairman of the party.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Profile:

Norman Y. Mineta

* Born: Nov. 12, 1931

* Education: Undergraduate degree, UC Berkeley, 1953

* Career highlights: Commerce secretary, 2000; Lockheed Martin Corp. senior vp; Democrat in Congress from San Jose, 1975-95; San Jose mayor, 1971-74; San Jose City Council member, 1967-71; Army intelligence officer, 1953-56

* Family: Wife, Danealia; two sons, two stepsons

* Quote: “There are no Democratic or Republican highways . . . no such thing as Republican or Democratic aviation and highway safety.”

Source: Associated Press