(The Washington Post published the following story by Don Phillips on its website on July 8.)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Deputy Transportation Secretary Michael P. Jackson, who has been mentioned prominently as the eventual successor to Secretary Norman Y. Mineta, said yesterday he will resign on Aug. 1 and return to the private sector.
Jackson, who basically ran the department while Mineta was out with back problems, said the demands of his high-pressure job had taken too much time from his wife and 8-year-old daughter. Jackson, who came to the post from a vice presidency at Lockheed Martin, also said the transportation post was becoming a financial burden for his family.
He said he regretted leaving Mineta, a friend, and the Department of Transportation because “I just loved this job.”
But, he said, “it’s time to make a change for both family and financial reasons.”
Mineta said in a statement: “Michael has been an invaluable asset to the department and the Bush administration. Over the past few years as my deputy, he has brought to his position the highest possible combination of strategic insight, practical transportation experience and political acumen.”
Federal Aviation Administrator Marion C. Blakey, who gave Jackson his first government job in 1985 at the Education Department, said: “Michael has had a terrific legacy in government. He has served the transportation community in a way that few people have.”
Jackson had several jobs in the first Bush administration, and was chief of staff to then-Transportation Secretary Andrew H. Card Jr. in 1992 and 1993; Card is now White House chief of staff. From 1993 to 1997, Jackson was a senior vice president at the American Trucking Associations. He then went to Lockheed Martin, where he worked with Mineta until Mineta returned to government.Friends said Jackson was exhausted from a hectic schedule that was made more difficult by Mineta’s long hospitalization with back problems. Also, several of President Bush’s appointments to other transportation jobs were delayed in the Senate.
Jackson was the administration’s contact for all the major transportation initiatives of the current Bush administration, from the formation of the Transportation Security Administration to the Amtrak passenger train funding crisis.
The tight deadline for hiring new airport screeners and deployment of baggage screening equipment took much of his energy for more than a year. At the same time, the department was drafting multi-year legislation reauthorizing the aviation, highway, transit and passenger rail systems.