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Corrupt Government Title: Bush nominates Mary Peters as new transportation secretary For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. WASHINGTON – President George W. Bush has chosen Mary Peters to replace Norman Y. Mineta as the secretary of transportation it was announced Sept. 5. Mineta stepped down from the post in July after serving for six years. Peters formerly served as chief of the Federal Highway Administration from 2001 to 2005. She resigned from that position to join an engineering firm. She previously served as transportation director in her home state of Arizona. If confirmed by the Senate, she would take over the 60,000-person department as it tries to end gridlock in the skies, ports and on the ground, according to Bloomberg reports. As highway administrator, Peters sought more private investment in U.S. roads and bridges, according to DOT. She also promoted highway safety. Many in the industry spoke out in favor of her nomination the same day it was made public. "Her skill and charisma inspire confidence in her leadership inside and outside the federal government," Mineta told Forbes. "On behalf of the American Trucking Associations (ATA), I want to congratulate President George Bush on his decision to nominate Mary Peters to be the next secretary of transportation," said ATA Chairman Pat Quinn. "I have had the pleasure of serving with Mary Peters on the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission and have been impressed with her insights into the challenges we face with maintaining and improving our nation's infrastructure. I hope for an early Senate confirmation process so we can all benefit from her strong leadership of our nation's transportation programs." Statement of Lt. Col. Jim Champagne, Chairman of the Governors Highway Safety Association: "The Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) is pleased to learn that President Bush plans to nominate Mary Peters as the next secretary of transportation. During her tenure as administrator of the Federal Highway Administration, she consistently demonstrated a commitment to highway safety. She was responsible for the administration's proposal to double safety infrastructure funding and she led the effort to allow this funding to be authorized as a separate program. Both actions were subsequently incorporated into the final highway bill that was signed into law in 2005. As a former Arizona Director of Transportation, Ms. Peters also brings a strong understanding of the needs of states and state priorities. GHSA urges the Senate to quickly confirm Mary Peters." Also making an appeal for Peters' quick confirmation was the Reason Foundation. "This appointment is a home run for all Americans hoping for better transportation," stated Founder and Director of Transportation at the Reason Foundation Robert Poole. "Mary Peters was the best Federal Highway Administrator this country ever had. She challenged a rather staid and conservative industry of contractors and state transportation officials to think outside the box, looking at what their customers want and need, and at new ways to meet those needs. She challenged the status quo of fuel taxes, talking at length about expanded roles for tolls and value-pricing. She challenged the status quo of the state as monopoly highway provider and championed new roles for public-private partnerships. Her fingerprints are all over the innovative pricing, funding, and contracting provisions of last year's surface transportation reauthorization, SAFETEA-LU. She was my clear first choice for secretary of transportation." Mineta was the longest serving transportation secretary in the 39 years that the job has existed. He was the only Democrat in Bush's Cabinet and joined during Bush's first term. Peters would be only the second woman to head the agency on a permanent basis. Elizabeth Dole ran the transportation department from February 1983 to September 1987. Peters is a member of the National Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission, which was created by Congress to study the future of U.S. surface transportation, according to Bloomberg. Peters not a typical bureaucrat By Garin Groff President Bush's pick for transportation secretary is an Arizonan who knows the nation's roads from a nonbureaucratic perspective – she tooled across the country for a decade on Harley-Davidson motorcycles. It's not the only thing unconventional about Mary Peters, on track to join Bush's Cabinet. Her improbable career path includes running a day care in her home, preparing taxes for farmers and butchering cows at an Indiana slaughterhouse. She landed a job as a secretary at the Arizona Department of Transportation and rose to direct the agency. Peters is credited with accelerating the Valley's then lagging freeway building plan by seven years. Peters could again help Arizona speed up highway projects by getting more federal money to the state, ADOT director Victor Mendez said. Though she wouldn't control how much federal funds Arizona gets, she would have influence with Bush, Congress and a bureaucracy that doesn't always understand the strain of growth on Arizona's highways, Mendez said. At a White House announcement Tuesday, Peters said she wants to tackle congestion by modernizing transportation systems. That could include toll roads. Peters said toll roads need a closer look because the federal program that pays for highways will run out of money by the end of the decade without significant changes or a new source of income. Peters can't change policies by herself, but her political clout could continue a nationwide trend toward greater use of toll roads, said Eric Anderson, transportation director for the Maricopa Association of Governments. Arizona gets about 91 cents for every dollar of gas tax the state contributes to the federal government, Mendez said. That will rise to 92 cents in a few years – which Mendez said is inadequate to build as many roads as are needed. Peters had a key role in speeding up the Valley's sluggish freeway construction program in the late 1990s, Anderson said. Maricopa County's share of highway dollars had shrunk to just 10 percent of state funding, Anderson said, though the population should have given the region about 40 percent. Anderson said Peters' leadership skills helped officials to OK the change. Without it, the Valley's freeway system wouldn't be done until 2014. Now it's on track to be completed in 2007, except for a Loop 202 Red Mountain Freeway leg that will open in 2008. Peters is a fourthgeneration Arizonan who spent 10 years touring the country by motorcycle with her husband, Terry. The couple moved to Indiana, where Peters worked for Wilson Food Corp. She left an office job after having her second child, then ran a day care at home. She went back to Wilson as a butcher. Peters and her husband returned to Phoenix in 1985. She became a secretary at ADOT and moved up the ladder. Her 16-year career included three years as director. In 2001, Peters became administrator for the Federal Highway Administration. In 2005, she left to be a transportation policy consultant in a Phoenix office of HDR Engineering. Peters considered running for governor last year but dropped the effort after another Republican questioned her eligibility. The Arizona Constitution requires candidates to be citizens of the state five years before the election, but she had become a Virginia resident while serving in Bush's first term. Peters would replace outgoing Norman Mineta. - The Associated Press contributed to this report. "Of all forms of tyranny the least attractive and the most vulgar is the tyranny of mere wealth, the tyranny of plutocracy." ~ Theodore Roosevelt Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 9.
#3. To: Willie Green (#0)
I would love to see her significantly cut back the size and scope of the monstrosity that has become the Federal Trasportation budget...but I'm sure that's too much to ask.
She's much worse than that, MUD. "Fascism should more appropriately be called corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power." -- Benito Mussolini
Problem is, I think she's more of a symptom than the disease. The only way we're gonna get any fiscal discipline is to institute it at the MACRO-level. Why can't the conservatives insist on spending LESS next year then they are spending this year? Sure, it's almost unthinkable these days when a GOP-led Congress and POTUS keeps growing spending at record levels. Seiously, though, if they Pubbies want to put a stake in the heart of those who claim there ain't a nickel's worth of difference between the parties, they need to attack the spending issue, imho. Regards...MUD BTW...then again, maybe there ain't a nickel's worth of difference between the parties...LOL!!
#10. To: Mudboy Slim (#9)
Than...than...than.
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