Mineta to Select Safety Commission

Former congressman Norm Mineta has agreed to form and head a blue ribbon commission to examine motor carrier safety and its enforcement at the federal level.

Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater asked Mineta to fill the panel with broad representation.

“What I’d like is to get a good cross-section of people who have a ‘stakeholder’s interest’ so we can have a free and open exchange and obtain useful input,” Mineta said Feb. 18 in a telephone interview.

He said he would seek participation from trucking, the passenger bus industry, public safety advocates, professional safety people and state inspectors and other law enforcement officers.

Mineta said the commission would not get involved in the debate over moving the Federal Highway Administration’s trucking office, now known as the Motor Carrier and Highway Safety business unit, to a different umbrella agency. He said he feels it is more important to study “what we are doing to improve motor carrier safety” than what should be “located in which organizational box.” He said the panel would seek consensus on the issues, but “we won’t make recommendations.” Federal restrictions place barriers between advisory committees and the functions of government agencies.

As a member and later chairman of the House Transportation Committee, Mineta was closely involved with trucking issues during his 22 years in the House. He resigned his seat at the end of 1994. He is now a senior vice president of Lockheed Martin IMS.