U.S. DOT HQ Named for Coleman, Mineta

President Joseph Biden has signed legislation to name the U.S. Department of Transportation’s headquarters in Washington the “William T. Coleman, Jr. and Norman Y. Mineta Federal Building.”

The naming honors two former secretaries of transportation. The building is located at 1200 New Jersey Ave., SE

Coleman served between 1975 and 1977 and was the first first African American to run the agency. He died on March 31, 2017.

Mineta, who served between 2001 and 2006, was the first Asian American to head USDOT. He died on May 3 shortly before Biden signed the bill.

Former Transportation Secretary Mineta Dies

Former U.S. Secretary of Transportation Norman Y. Mineta died of heart failure on Tuesday at his home in Maryland. He was 90.

A former congressman from California and the mayor of San Jose, California, Mineta was appointed as secretary of commerce during the final month of the Clinton administration.

After the election of George W. Bush as president, Mineta was named secretary of transportation and was the only Democrat to serve in Bush’s cabinet.

He went on to become the longest serving secretary of transportation in the history of the position. When he stepped down in 2006, he had served as secretary of transportation for five and a half years.

During his time as head of the U.S. Department of Transportation, Mineta promoted private investment in roads and bridges, and pushed for passage of a $286 billion highway spending plan after almost two years of wrangling with Congress.

During his time at USDOT, Mineta supervised the launch of the Transportation Security Administration, which in 2003 was moved to the Department of Homeland Security.

The first Japanese-American to serve in a federal cabinet position, Mineta during his time in Congress was a co-founder of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus.

He also helped to win passage of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, which required the U.S. government to apologize to and compensate the 120,000 Japanese Americans forced to live in wartime internment camps. Mineta himself spent two years of his childhood in one of those camps.

Bush awarded Mineta the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.

DOT Building May be Named for 2 Leaders

The U.S. Department of Transportation headquarters building in Washington may be named for two former transportation secretaries.

The U.S. Senate on April 6 passed a bill calling for the naming of the DOT building the “William T. Coleman, Jr. and Norman Y. Mineta Federal Building.”

The legislation has been sent to President Joesph Biden for his consideration. The DOT headquarters is located at 1200 New Jersey Ave., SE

Coleman served as secretary of transportation between 1975 and 19877 and was the first African American to hold the position.

Mineta was transportation secretary between 2001 and 2006 and was first Asian American to serve in the post.

The bill had bipartisan support from the chairs and ranking members of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation; and the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.

Coleman, who died on March 31, 2017, at one time served as legal counsel for the cities of Cincinnati and Philadelphia, and as a special counsel for Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority.

Mineta, a Democrat from California who served in the U.S. House from 1975 to 1995, was the longest-serving leader in USDOT history and the first cabinet member to switch directly from a Democratic Cabinet (as Secretary of Commerce under President Bill Clinton) to a Republican Cabinet (as Secretary of Transportation under President George W. Bush).