The airline industry was in trouble and needed a transportation secretary who understood its problems.
Since then, the two transportation secretaries tried to keep the rocky negotiations going.
As a result, the agency will order deeper cuts, the transportation secretary announced on Wednesday.
Ryan looked down the table at the Secretary of Transportation.
I've been here almost five years - longer than any other Transportation Secretary.
From 1969 to 1973, he was Under Secretary of Transportation.
He left office as the longest-serving Secretary of Transportation in history.
Prior to 2003, the award was authorized by the Secretary of Transportation.
Brinegar was Secretary of Transportation during the 1973 oil crisis.
LaHood plans to step down as transportation secretary at the end of Obama's first term in 2013.