Nomination of Norman Y. Mineta, to Be Secretary of the Department of Transportation
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S. HRG. 107–1047 NOMINATION OF NORMAN Y. MINETA, TO BE SECRETARY OF THE DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION HEARING BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION UNITED STATES SENATE ONE HUNDRED SEVENTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION JANUARY 24, 2001 Printed for the use of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation ( U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 92–791 PDF WASHINGTON : 2004 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512–1800; DC area (202) 512–1800 Fax: (202) 512–2250 Mail: Stop SSOP, Washington, DC 20402–0001 VerDate 03-FEB-2003 10:44 May 12, 2004 Jkt 092791 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 5011 Sfmt 5011 D:\DOCS\92791.TXT SSC1 PsN: SSC1 SENATE COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION ONE HUNDRED SEVENTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION JOHN MCCAIN, Arizona, Chairman TED STEVENS, Alaska ERNEST F. HOLLINGS, South Carolina CONRAD BURNS, Montana DANIEL K. INOUYE, Hawaii TRENT LOTT, Mississippi JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER IV, West Virginia KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON, Texas JOHN F. KERRY, Massachusetts OLYMPIA J. SNOWE, Maine JOHN B. BREAUX, Louisiana SAM BROWNBACK, Kansas BYRON L. DORGAN, North Dakota GORDON SMITH, Oregon RON WYDEN, Oregon PETER G. FITZGERALD, Illinois MAX CLELAND, Georgia JOHN ENSIGN, Nevada BARBARA BOXER, California GEORGE ALLEN, Virginia JOHN EDWARDS, North Carolina JEAN CARNAHAN, Missouri MARK BUSE, Republican Staff Director ANN CHOINIERE, Republican General Counsel KEVIN D. KAYES, Democratic Staff Director MOSES BOYD, Democratic Chief Counsel (II) VerDate 03-FEB-2003 10:44 May 12, 2004 Jkt 092791 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 D:\DOCS\92791.TXT SSC1 PsN: SSC1 C O N T E N T S Page Hearing held on January 24, 2001 ......................................................................... 1 Statement of Senator Allen ..................................................................................... 42 Statement of Senator Boxer .................................................................................... 10 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 11 Statement of Senator Breaux ................................................................................. 52 Statement of Senator Brownback ........................................................................... 8 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 9 Statement of Senator Carnahan ............................................................................. 57 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 57 Statement of Senator Cleland ................................................................................. 67 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 69 Statement of Senator Dorgan ................................................................................. 62 Statement of Senator Edwards ............................................................................... 73 Statement of Senator Ensign .................................................................................. 47 Statement of Senator Fitzgerald ............................................................................ 54 Statement of Senator Hollings ............................................................................... 3 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 4 Statement of Senator Hutchison ............................................................................ 7 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 7 Statement of Senator Inouye .................................................................................. 8 Prepared Statement ......................................................................................... 8 Statement of Senator Kerry .................................................................................... 40 Statement of Senator McCain ................................................................................. 1 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 3 Statement of Senator Rockefeller ........................................................................... 48 Statement of Senator Smith ................................................................................... 61 Statement of Senator Snowe ................................................................................... 55 Statement of Senator Stevens ................................................................................ 36 Statement of Senator Wyden .................................................................................. 65 WITNESSES Dreier, Hon. David, U.S. Representative from California .................................... 11 Mineta, Norman, Y., Secretary-Designate, Department of Transportation ........ 12 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 16 Biographical Information ................................................................................. 20 APPENDIX Burns, Hon. Conrad, U.S. Senator from Montana ................................................ 77 Feinstein, Hon. Dianne, U.S. Senator from California ......................................... 78 The Air Crash Victims Families Group, prepared statement submitted by A. Frank Carven III and Hans Ephraimson-Abt ............................................... 111 Responses by Norman Y. Mineta to written questions submitted by: Hon. Sam Brownback ....................................................................................... 106 Hon. Max Cleland ............................................................................................. 111 Hon. John Edwards .......................................................................................... 108 Hon. Daniel K. Inouye ...................................................................................... 107 Hon. Trent Lott ................................................................................................. 104 Hon. John McCain ............................................................................................ 79 Hon. Ron Wyden ............................................................................................... 111 (III) VerDate 03-FEB-2003 10:44 May 12, 2004 Jkt 092791 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 D:\DOCS\92791.TXT SSC1 PsN: SSC1 VerDate 03-FEB-2003 10:44 May 12, 2004 Jkt 092791 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 D:\DOCS\92791.TXT SSC1 PsN: SSC1 NOMINATION OF NORMAN Y. MINETA, TO BE SECRETARY OF THE DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 24, 2001 U.S. SENATE, COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION, Washington, DC. The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 9:30 a.m. in room SR–253, Russell Senate Office Building, Hon. John McCain, Chairman of the Committee, presiding. OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN MCCAIN, U.S. SENATOR FROM ARIZONA The CHAIRMAN. Good morning. I want to first of all thank Sen- ator Hollings for his generosity during the 17 day reign of terror while the Democrats were in charge of this Committee. [Laughter.] The CHAIRMAN. I want to welcome our new Committee members as we meet today to consider Norman Mineta’s nomination to be United States Secretary of Transportation. For the benefit of the members, we have a formality to go through, but we can’t do it until our Republican members are here. So perhaps at some point, we may interrupt in order to move for- ward. Senator STEVENS. Can I just make the motion now and we’ll dis- tribute the ballots as they come in? The CHAIRMAN. If that’s agreeable to the members. Senator STEVENS. Mr. Chairman, I move that John McCain be the Chairman of the Commerce Committee for this Congress. Senator BROWNBACK. Second. The CHAIRMAN. I thank the members and we’ll distribute ballots when they come in. I thank the members. Senator HOLLINGS. Mr. Chairman, let me recommend for consid- eration, and you can take it up with the members, but now that we’ve grown to 22 members, you know, in the Appropriations Com- mittee if we waited for opening statements for all 22, the poor wit- ness would never get to testify. So if we can just forego those or the Chairman or Ranking Member or whatever or if some Senator’s got a particular interest, we always yield to exceptions. What we try to do is convenience the entire Committee, of course, and main- ly the witnesses. Many of them travel from afar and everything else. And then they sit for an hour and a half and listen, you know what I mean? So I just suggest that to you. (1) VerDate 03-FEB-2003 10:44 May 12, 2004 Jkt 092791 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 D:\DOCS\92791.TXT SSC1 PsN: SSC1 2 The CHAIRMAN. Well, Mr. Chairman, I would like for the mem- bers to consider that recommendation. I would like to if it’s agree- able to you sort of adopt it informally. Because as you mentioned, there are some times where it’s a burning issue for a witness or of a particular interest to members of the Committee. But perhaps we could informally adopt a general rule that we do as they do on the far more dictatorial Appropriations Committee that we restrict the opening statements to the Chairman and Ranking Member, ex- cept for those who might