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REMARKS FOR
THE HONORABLE NORMAN Y. MINETA
SECRETARY OF TRANSPORTATION
AASHTO 89th ANNUAL BOARD MEETING
MINNEAPOLIS, MN
SEPTEMBER 7, 2003
Good afternoon. Thank you, Jim, for the kind
introduction.
President Codell, and members of the Board thank you
for the invitation to join you for AASHTO’s 89th Annual Board
Meeting. And, as I look around the room, it is great to be among friends.
Jim, you’ve done a superb job at AASHTO’s helm.
And, I want to personally thank you for advancing our Department’s number one
goal of safety at your Safety Summit. We will continue to work closely with
your successor, John Njord, to improve the safety, mobility, and economic growth
of our industry. Congratulations, John.
Before I begin, let me also acknowledge the
presence of my Federal Highway Administrator, Mary Peters, who does a tremendous
job ensuring that transportation continues to improve our quality of life
and remains a strong engine driving our nation's economy. She comes from
your ranks, she knows your problems, she knows Title 29, she knows the process
and is not one to start with a “no” to a question and is a great team player in
a ONE DOT. Thank you, Mary, for all of your great work.
AASHTO is a key transportation partner with the Department. You have a proud
history of working with federal, state, and local partners to ensure a safe,
efficient, reliable and now, secure, transportation infrastructure for America.
President Bush has the same commitment and it is reflected in his SAFETEA
proposal, which calls for a record Federal investment in surface transportation
– with more than $200 billion for highway and safety programs, and nearly $46
billion for public transportation programs – from fiscal year 2004 through
fiscal year 2009. This investment is greater than what was in ISTEA and TEA-21.
As
you know, there have been discussions around Washington that Congress and some
groups want to take the easy road and enact a short-term extension of TEA-21.
As a former Mayor, I
know that enacting anything less than a full six-year reauthorization bill will
greatly endanger the ability of our Nation’s mayors, governors, and state and
local transportation leaders to make important long-term planning and investment
decisions for their communities.
They and all of you deserve a six - year
bill – and nothing less. Therefore, I call on the Congress to do its part and
pass this vital transportation legislation in full and enact
passage before the September 30th deadline.
SAFETEA also puts us on a course in creating a safer, simpler, smarter national transportation system.
Safer, by placing greater emphasis on saving lives and reducing crashes.
Simpler, by consolidating and streamlining programs and improving project delivery.
Smarter, by improving system performance and enhancing program accountability.
Last year alone, motor-vehicle crashes resulted in almost 3 million injuries and nearly 43,000 fatalities. This is completely unacceptable.
The human costs are incalculable, but the economic costs are not. Annually, these preventable crashes cost our Nation $230 billion – that’s Billion with a B.
That is why SAFETEA doubles the amount of funding for safety over TEA-21 levels. It would invest about $14 billion to reduce highway fatalities, prevent injuries and encourage safe driving – including funding for grants to address drunk driving and promote safety belt use.
I recently called an
“All Hands” meeting of surface transportation modes within the Department of
Transportation. I challenged the staff to continue to be safety advocates
– to summon the same energy, commitment, and passion used to improve
transportation security – and raise the bar on safety and save lives.
So far we’re rising to that challenge. We
recently announced that over the course of one year safety belt use increased
nationally from 75 percent to 79 percent. This increase will save an additional
1,000 lives.
We are making great progress in protecting our youngest children. Fatalities among children up to age 7 continue to decline, and last year went below 500 for the first time.
But we must do more.
Our goal is to reduce preventable deaths to no more than one fatality per one hundred million vehicle miles traveled by 2008, which translates to a one-third reduction in the fatality rate. I am proud that AASHTO joins us in that safety challenge. And I want to thank Mary Peters and Dr. Runge of NHTSA for making that case to you and for Jim Codell and all of you for adopting it at your Safety Summit.
In SAFETEA, we are proposing a $600 million incentive program to be shared by states that either achieve a 90 percent use rate or pass a primary safety belt law. This funding can be used for any safety program – including road construction.
Our emphasis in the highway safety programs of SAFETEA is on aligning state and national goals, providing rewards and incentives for reaching reasonable scientifically-determined goals, especially in two critical areas: safety belt use and alcohol-related fatality reduction.
Our data show that about two-thirds of the total lives that can be saved today on our roadways could come from addressing just these two issues.
SAFETEA also promotes common sense transit solutions. Instead of trying to match projects to specific pots of money, we want States and localities to base their transit decisions on maximizing mobility and creating seamless community transportation networks.
That same principle of flexibility to address local problems with local solutions led us to create a program called Highways for LIFE, L-I-F-E, which stands for - Long Lasting, Innovative, Fast Construction, Efficient and Safe.
Highways for LIFE is an effort to fundamentally change the way we do business and serve our customers. We propose to dedicate a small portion of our overall Federal surface transportation program to motivate States to embrace innovation and creativity.
Very soon, I will formally propose this important new initiative to the Congress. I am pleased to note that AASHTO has embraced Highways for LIFE and is proposing a policy resolution in support of this new concept.
Let me turn for a moment to environmental stewardship – a priority for the Bush Administration. SAFETEA contains important provisions consistent with President Bush’s Executive Order on environmental streamlining.
That order fosters cooperation among a multitude of federal agencies, all working together to move the environmental review process forward in a timely manner.
We have made great progress advancing projects without harming the environment. These success stories include I-80 in Nebraska, the selection of a new route in Riverside County, California, two bridges over the Ohio River, and a new by-pass in Vermont.
These examples prove that preserving the environment and advancing vital transportation infrastructure are not mutually exclusive. While on the subject of environmental stewardship, let me reaffirm our support for the Transportation Enhancements Program. I put it in ISTEA, and it has been successful in improving and increasing support for many transportation projects.
In addition to being stewards of the environment, we are also stewards of the taxpayer’s dollars.
One of the critical challenges facing the Department – in fact, facing State DOTs as well – is the ability to stretch existing Federal dollars to satisfy the increasing demands for transportation improvements.
Therefore, effective stewardship of these vital investments is critical. My view on waste, fraud, and abuse is simple: it will not be tolerated. If we pay for a ten-sack concrete job on a project, we are going to be sure that we get a ten-sack job and not a seven-sack job.
The Department is committed to improving system performance and enhancing program accountability. But we cannot do it alone.
You at the State level are the taxpayers’ first line of defense in preventing and detecting fraud. State DOTs must expand internal audit and investigative capabilities. Provisions in SAFETEA call for the sharing of any monetary recoveries with States from a successful fraud prosecution to help you achieve this goal.
Our commitment to the American people is that transportation projects are delivered on time, on budget, and free from waste, fraud, and abuse.
In closing, let me reiterate that the Department of Transportation is committed to working with Congress to ensure timely passage of a six – year reauthorization bill and the continuation of these important surface transportation programs.
And I, as well as our entire Department, are committed to working with AASHTO on our mutual interests and goals and look forward to working with John Njord in his new term.
May God bless each one of you, and may God continue to bless the United States of America. Thank you very much.
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