Mary Peters (politician)

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Mary Peters
Mary Peters (politician)

Incumbent
Assumed office 
September 30, 2006
President George W. Bush
Preceded by Norman Mineta

Born December 4, 1948 (1948-12-04) (age 59)
Phoenix, Arizona
Political party Republican

Mary E. Peters (b. December 4, 1948) is the United States Secretary of Transportation. She is the second woman and first Arizonan to hold the position.

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Mary Peters was born in Phoenix, Arizona, and earned her bachelor's degree in management from University of Phoenix in Phoenix, Arizona.

Mary Peters joined the Arizona Department of Transportation in 1985,and was appointed by Gov. Jane Dee Hull to serve as its director from 1998 to 2001. After George W. Bush was elected president, she left for Washington and started to work for the Federal Government as the Administrator of the Federal Highway Administration. She worked in that capacity until 2005. In 2006, President Bush appointed Peters as the Co-Vice Chairwoman of the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission.[1]

In 2005, there was speculation that Peters, who has said repeatedly that she always intended to be a candidate for governor, would run for that office in 2006. At the time she said that, while she believed she would have been a strong candidate, and was eligible to run despite having lived and registered to vote in Virginia, the issue would have been a distraction from the race.[2][3]

From November, 2005 until her confirmation as Transportation Secretary, Peters served as the Senior Vice President and National Director of Transportation Policy and Consulting in the Phoenix office of HDR, Inc., an Omaha, Nebraska-based architectural, engineering, and consulting firm.

Peters, who is leading the rebuilding of Minnesota's I-35W Mississippi River bridge, with Hennepin County sheriff Richard W. Stanek (right), August 2007
Peters, who is leading the rebuilding of Minnesota's I-35W Mississippi River bridge, with Hennepin County sheriff Richard W. Stanek (right), August 2007

On September 5, 2006, Bush nominated Peters to replace Norman Mineta as Secretary of Transportation. The nomination came as Congress returned from its recess and nearly two months after Mineta's July 7, 2006 resignation, since which time Maria Cino acted in the office.[4] Peters was confirmed on September 29, 2006 by the United States Senate.[5],[6]

Peters is an advocate of private investment in U.S. public roads and of user fees for building new highways. In an interview, Peters said that the National Highway System will run out of money by decade's end without substantial changes and, rather than raise taxes, some states are turning to toll roads already to fill gaps. In an interview with PBS on August 15, 2007, she said that riding a bike is not a form of transportation.[7]

"You just can't depend on the federal government to bring the money in that was around when the interstate system was first built," Peters said.[8]

Mary Peters was born on December 4, 1948, in Phoenix, Arizona. Her grandmother was the chief clerk of the Arizona House of Representatives for 27 years, and her grandfather was a rancher and miner.

She married Terry Peters (an ex-Marine) in July 1966, and have three adult children and five grandchildren.[5] In 1968, they moved to his home state of Indiana, where she worked as a variety of jobs, including a day care, meat packing facility, and tax preparation service. The family moved back to Arizona in 1984 to be near their aging parents. [9]

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Preceded by
Norman Mineta
United States Secretary of Transportation
Served Under: George W. Bush

2006 – present
Succeeded by
Incumbent
Preceded by
Alphonso Jackson
United States Presidential Line of Succession
11th in line
Succeeded by
Samuel Bodman
Preceded by
Alphonso Jackson
United States order of precedence
as of 2007
Succeeded by
Samuel Bodman


Persondata
NAME Peters, Mary E.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION 15th United States Secretary of Transportation
DATE OF BIRTH
PLACE OF BIRTH Arizona, United States
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH
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