Mr. Leader / Madame Secretary

         Loopholes / Potholes

It's no wonder I like Elizabeth so much. I lived in NewYork City for 25 years. Among others, Duties of the Department of  Transportation:

Channel funds to states for highway const.    Movement of hazardous waste. Inspect commercial and private airplanes. Fight illicit drug trade at sea with C. Guard. Issues of drunken driving. Promote commercial development of space.
        

  "One branch of government for which the sky is no limit." Elizabeth Dole

    Among others,
 Mrs. Dole's best known efforts:

 Additional break light (standard in 1986)
    Should eliminate 900,000 crashes / year.

    Use of seat belts
65,290 estimated saved between 1982-94;    1.5 million moderate to critical injuries less.

Air bags

Campaigned for, raised drinking age to 21.
Accidents where one party is an intoxicated young driver have dropped by 60%.

    Mandatory drug testing for public transport workers, both land and air.
 

Inspection of the Airline Industry.
"I was very proud that my final 3 years as
secretary of transportation were the safest
in aviation history."

 Methods of hiring and training personnel were updated, and inspector workforce
was increased 60%.

  Using methods like "truth in scheduling",
 Worked with airlines to achieve better service, timely arrivals, and better baggage handling.

 Formulated a program to advance women and minorities at DOT, where 18.5% of the workforce was female when the department was established in 1967, and was 19% when she became secretary.
 

Sale of Conrail through public offer.

Renovation of Washington Airports.

    Union Station Renovation

Reagan won the 1980 presidential campaign, and appointed Elizabeth  to head the White House office of Public Liaison. Her job was to bring together various people and organizations to meet with the president. She worked twelve hour days, but people described her as cheerful and optimistic.

In 1973, Nixon appointed Elizabeth to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), where she replaced retiring Commissioner Mary Gardner Jones. There was opposition to her nomination due to concerns regarding the Consumer Federation of America  and the National Consumer League. These two groups would see the nomination of a Washington insider as a broken promise. But Elizabeth campaigned, speaking to large groups of interested people. Finally she was confirmed, no easy task, but nothing compared to getting sworn in. ...Driving through the Holland Tunnel in N.J. a drunk driver put Elizabeth in a Georgetown Hospital for a month.

The FTC was chartered in 1914 to probe alleged violations of federal antitrust laws and to issue cease and desist orders against corporations found guilty of engaging in unfair methods of competition. In 1974 Congress passed an act which authorized it to write rules affecting entire industries instead of, for one company, at a time.

As FTC Commissioner, Dole pursued the goals of increased competition and lower consumer prices; She investigated fraud against the consumer; Sought to enforce the Equal Credit Opportunity Act; Investigated senior citizens rest homes complaints;

Elizabeth's next job was for Betty Furness, as deputy assistant for legislative affairs. There's a name people will remember, since she made a series of TV commercials. Mrs. Furness left after Hubert Humphrey lost the election to Richard Nixon. In this new administration, the office became the President's Committee on Consumer Interests, managed by Virginia Knauer. Of her duties there, Elizabeth writes "Each month we forwarded approximately four thousand complaints to agencies like the FTC or the Consumer Product Safety Commission, or directly to the companies involved. The mail contained a depressing litany of deceptive packaging, shoddy workmanship, and warranties not worth the paper they were printed on." Other duties included convincing businesses that responsiveness to consumers yielded rewards.  Among public gains we have unit pricing; dating for freshness; sources of fats and oils; cosmetics list of ingredients; newsletter Consumer News.

Women Named to Presidential Cabinets

Renovation of Washington Airports

Democrat Neil Goldschmidt came to town as the new secretary of transportation in 1979 and declared that National Airport was "a dump" and "a disgrace," echoing opinions held by most anyone who had used it. It was Elizabeth Hanford Dole -- who replaced Lewis and often was compared unfavorably with him -- who actually did something.

The Glass Ceiling Commission is a 2l-member body appointed by the President and Congressional leaders and chaired by the Secretary of Labor. Created as part of the Civil Rights Act of 1991

The Frances Perkins-Elizabeth Hanford Dole National Award for Diversity and Excellence in American Executive Management is an annual Presidential award. It recognizes businesses which have demonstrated substantial effort and achievement to eliminate artificial barriers and to foster the advancement of women and minority men into management and decision making positions.

Bus Safety Awards

The Bus Safety Awards are presented in six competitive divisions, which are based on the service characteristics and operating environment of the transit systems. The classifying variables include weather, population, total number of bus vehicle miles operated and the general traffic conditions of the service area. The six divisions, named after past Secretaries of Transportation, are:
     The Alan S. Boyd Division
     The William T. Coleman Division
     The Elizabeth H. Dole Division
     The Neil E. Goldschmidt Division
     The John A. Volpe Division
     The Samuel K. Skinner Division

Bentley and McGraw-Hill Continue Support for Habitat for Humanity

During the Outlook '99 conference, which took place in Washington D.C., representatives from Bentley and McGraw-Hill presented a check to Wayne Walker, Chairman of the Board of Directors for Habitat for Humanity International. Elizabeth Dole, the keynote speaker for the Outlook '99 conference, also joined the presentation.

...I was running for Boyden High School President in my hometown of Salisbury, North Carolina. The job was pretty much off-limits to women, but my campaign manager was undaunted. "More and more," she contended, "the modern world is giving women a big part to play. Boyden must keep pace in this world."

Forty-six years later, I'm a long way from Salisbury and the innocence of 1950s small-town America. However, we are the sum of our choices, and the experiences I had on the journey from Salisbury to Washington taught me invaluable lessons. The day you forget where you're from is the day you should leave public service. We've taken some giant strides in the quarter century since a few Nixon administration appointees established a support system called Executive Women in Government. Today women have made advancements extending far past the public service arena. Women aren't just joining the work force: they are employing it. Currently, women-owned businesses employ one out of every four workers; that's more than 23 million people. The most important thing the women's movement has given us is a choice; the choice of whether to become a mother or a doctor; a PTA president or a CEO. Those choices are all equally valid. This is perhaps the greatest lesson I have learned: success is not measured by money, power, or mentions in the New York Times. To achieve success is to find something that infuses you with a sense of mission, with a passion for your life's work.

CAMPAIGNING IS EARLIER, CASH IS BIGGER
 

National Review Date: August 12 1996 You can hear their footsteps in the snow. Lamar Alexander. Dan Quayle. Richard Gephardt. Al Gore. Their tracks are everywhere. Bob Kerrey. Bob Smith. Elizabeth Dole. Steve Forbes.  

Secretary of Transportation                                     

the D.C. power couple leaves the White House after Reagan signed the 5-cent gas tax, Jan. 6, 1983.

An Address by Elizabeth Hanford Dole, Commissioner Federal Trade Commission

The National Association of Home Buyers Annual Convention Las Vegas, Nevada January 21, 1979

I recognize, as do you, that most of the homes built in this country are of sound, lasting quality. Yet, for too many Americans, the dream home has turned into a nightmare. You know as well as I do that as families move into their own little Garden of Eden, more and more are finding the apple full of worms. In fact, new home defects now rank among the top consumer problems in this country. The council of Better Business Bureaus reports almost five thousand complaints about new home defects in 1977, up 40% from the year before. A frustrated attorney in the Massachusetts Attorney Generals office stated recently, only partly in exaggeration, "you get more protection buying a toaster than in buying a home!" As a result, some home buyers believe they are being bilked for thousands of dollars, and they are expressing not only anguish but outrage.

Women in Transportation Changing America’s History