InfrastructureUSA.org is a non-profit, online community whose mission is to bring together infrastructure experts, industry leaders, government officials and most especially interested citizens, to participate in vigorous conversation and generate action to address the U.S. infrastructure crisis.

Secretary Norman Y. Mineta founded the Mineta Transportation Institute, which is part of the Lucas Graduate School of Business at San José State University in San José, Calif. He is an internationally recognized expert in transportation policy, with many distinguished accomplishments in transportation and business. Currently he is vice chair of Hill & Knowlton Global Communications Consultancy.

Secretary Mineta was the 14th U.S. Secretary of Transportation, serving under President George W. Bush from 2001-2006. During his tenure, Secretary Mineta was responsible for the US DOT’s $61.6 billion annual budget and nearly 60,000 employees.

He also was U.S. Secretary of Commerce under President Bill Clinton, becoming the first Asian American to serve in the Cabinet. Before joining the Commerce Department, he was vice president for special business initiatives at Lockheed Martin Corporation.

From 1975-1995, he represented California’s Silicon Valley in the U.S. House of Representatives. He also co-founded the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus and served as its first chair. Secretary Mineta is a former Ranking Democratic Member of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Public Works and Transportation, serving for more than 20 years.

During his Congressional career, the Secretary championed investment increases for transportation infrastructure and was a key author of the landmark Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) of 1991. This shifted decisions on highway and mass transit planning to state and local governments, led to major upsurges in mass transit ridership, and provided environmentally friendly transportation elements such as pedestrian and bicycle paths. He also oversaw the airline industry’s deregulation in the 1980s and pressed for more funding for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

Norman Mineta

It’s Time to Go Grassroots

I-35W & former U.S. Representative Jim Oberstar, Chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee

We Discuss; Other Nations Invest

Manufacturers

Download full transcript (PDF): Norman Mineta on The Infra Blog

Tags: FAA, I-35W Bridge, Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act, Jim Oberstar, Mineta Transportation Institute, Norman Mineta, Secretary of Transportation

This entry was posted on Friday, May 11th, 2012 at 10:00 am and is filed under Aging Infrastructure, Bipartisan, Bridges, Democrat, Economic Stimulus, Funding, Global, Guests on The Infra Blog, Highway, National, Policy, Public Transportation, Recovery, Roads, Sustainability, The Infra Blog . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.