Mineta, Norman Yoshio, 1931-2022

Norman Yoshio Mineta (November 12, 1931 – May 3, 2022) is an American politician. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as a member of the San Jose, California city council, as Mayor of San Jose, as the U.S. Representative from California's 13th and 15th districts, as Secretary of Commerce in the last months of the Clinton administration and as Secretary of Transportation for five and a half years in the George W. Bush administration.

Born in San Jose, Mineta's family was interned for several years in the Heart Mountain internment camp near Cody, Wyoming, along with thousands of other Japanese immigrants and Japanese Americans. He attended public schools in San Jose, in Heart Mountain, and in Evanston, Illinois, graduating from San Jose High School before earning a B.S. from the University of California at Berkeley. After graduating, Mineta joined his father’s insurance firm and began exploring a possible entry into local politics. From 1962 to 1964, Mineta served on San Jose’s human relations commission, and from 1966 to 1967, he sat on the board of directors of the city’s housing authority. That year he jumped to the city council, where he served double duty as vice mayor from 1968 to 1971. In 1971, Mineta was elected Mayor of San Jose. As mayor, Mineta clamped down on San Jose’s runaway development. He worked to funnel growth back toward the city’s center, tightening zoning requirements and passing a “pay-as-you-grow” tax to cover the cost of additional public services.

In 1974, Mineta ran for the United States House of Representatives in what was then California's 13th congressional district. During his time in Congress, Mineta co-founded the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus and served as its first chair. Mineta served as chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure between 1992 and 1994. He chaired the committee's aviation subcommittee between 1981 and 1988, and chaired its Surface Transportation Subcommittee from 1989 to 1991. He resigned his seat mid-term to accept a position with Lockheed Martin in 1995. After serving as vice president of Lockheed Martin Corporation, he was appointed in 2000 by President Clinton as the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, making him the first Asian American to hold a presidential cabinet post. He was appointed United States Secretary of Transportation by President George W. Bush in 2001, a post he was originally offered eight years previously by Bill Clinton. He was the only Democrat to have served in Bush's cabinet and the first Secretary of Transportation to have previously served in a cabinet position.

Mineta joined Hill & Knowlton Strategies as vice chairman, resigning as Secretary of Transportation shortly thereafter. On August 10, 2010, he was named as Vice Chairman of L&L Energy, which is headquartered in Seattle and operates coal mines and other facilities related to coal production in China.