REMARKS FOR
THE HONORABLE
NORMAN Y. MINETA
SECRETARY OF
TRANSPORTATION
PANETTA
INSTITUTE CONGRESSIONAL INTERN PROGRAM
WASHINGTON,
D.C.
NOVEMBER 19,
2002
11 AM
Welcome to the Department of Transportation.
I hope you have enjoyed your stay here in Washington, DC, and have even
learned a thing or two about how the federal government works.
A Panetta Institute study found that many young people
today feel disconnected from government. Younger
Americans vote less often than do their elders, show lower levels of social
trust, and have less knowledge of politics. More of them think of government as “the” government,
rather than as “our” government. Those
conclusions trouble me, and they ought to trouble you.
I realize that I’m preaching to the choir.
You’re here in large part because you convinced your university
president of your interest in politics and public service.
All of you understand that political involvement, in one
form or another, provides the primary vehicle for shaping public policy in
American democracy. In the
aftermath of September 11th, political engagement has become an even
more important part of our civic life.
To give you a little background on this Department, we are
responsible for advising the President on transportation policy, for setting
regulations to make transportation more efficient, and as safe as possible.
To carry out our job, the Department of Transportation
currently has a staff of about 135,000 employees and a $65 billion budget, this
includes the new Transportation Security Administration, also known as the TSA.
Last year, Congress passed the Aviation and Transportation
Security Act of 2001, giving this Department direct responsibility for aviation
security. Until that time, the
various airlines had primary authority over airport and aircraft security.
The Act directed the U.S. Department of Transportation to
build a new security agency starting essentially from scratch — an agency with
more people than the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the Border
Patrol combined — and to get it done in the next 365 days.
And so that effort has had our full attention this past year.
The Department already had a number of administrations, or
modes, that handle issues and programs related to aviation, highways, railroads,
public transit, pipelines, maritime transportation and transportation safety.
The
job of keeping our transportation system world class is one that’s never done,
but it’s one that is incredibly fulfilling.
Transportation in this country is facing a lot of challenges.
Of course, that was true before September 11th, but it’s
even more the case today.
The most important of these challenges comes right back to
the qualities of leadership that I talked about a minute ago:
and that is, bringing people together, and giving them the help and
support they need to find solutions, or reach consensus on what those solutions
ought to look like. Answering this challenge requires political involvement.
Earlier this year, we commemorated the 60th anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Within weeks of that attack, my family and I numbered among the 120,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry, two-thirds of us citizens of the United States, declared to be enemy aliens by our own government.
We were forced from our homes, often at gunpoint, and held
in camps, behind barbed wire fences, for the duration of World War II.
When we returned home after the war, our community leaders got together. One of them, Mr. I. K. Ishimatsu, believed that when our fellow Americans said they could not trust us simply because of our race, our community had no political voice to respond.
Mr. Ishimatsu decided to do what he could to change that.
Everyone came out of the camps broke but, nonetheless, he went around to
the families in the area, picking up a dollar here and two dollars there.
He used that money to buy a few tickets to the Republican and Democratic
political dinners in Santa Clara County. He
gave the tickets to young people to represent our community at those dinners.
That is how I first got involved. My involvement in politics eventually led to my being elected
to Congress. As a member of
Congress, I was able to introduce, and help pass, the Civil Liberties Act of
1988, which was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan.
Because of this law, the U.S. Government finally apologized
to Japanese Americans who were imprisoned and offered compensation for the
internment — something that I am very proud of.
How does this relate to my life at DOT?
I have seen both tragedies and triumphs in my life.
And the most important lesson I have learned is that even if something
bad happens to you — keep going, stay focused on your goals.
The same holds true for what we are doing now at DOT.
The job and the work have been made more challenging
because of the tragedies of 9/11. But
working together, we are improving the safety and security of our world-class
transportation system every day.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to talk with you this afternoon. I would be glad to answer any questions.
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