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.
I've been here almost five years - longer than any other Transportation Secretary.
LaHood plans to step down as transportation secretary at the end of Obama's first term in 2013.
She noted that she had served as Transportation Secretary for almost five years, longer than anyone else.
So the Transportation Secretary called on the governors to pick up the tab, and the political burden.
On July 14, 2011 Mullan announced that he would step down as transportation secretary before the end of the year.
The experts plan to deliver their recommendations to the new Transportation Secretary soon after his appointment has been confirmed.
But the Transportation Secretary did not seem satisfied with this concession, which was made by the House committee to hold down the bill's total cost.
