TRANSCRIPT: USDOT Honors 17th Secretary of Transportation Anthony R. Foxx

SECRETARY BUTTIGIEG: Thank you, Polly. And a warm welcome to everyone who is here. We are so proud, Secretary Foxx, to have you back, to welcome you to your family and friends. To Simmie Knox and all of the distinguished guests who are here with us.

Thank you for joining us at such a special occasion. As you might imagine in a season like this, I've been doing a lot of thinking about endings and beginnings and about continuity and change.

And I've been remembering what it was like when I arrived in Washington four years ago. Mask on. Walking through this big atrium. Trying to get my bearings and seeing the portraits along the wall, knowing that I was joining a succession of secretaries, 19 to be precise, as I was informed when I got here. With the awesome and humbling responsibility of looking after the safety of the American traveling public and the condition of our nation's infrastructure.

And in that succession of predecessors, one example stood out. Partly because he was the one Secretary that I had gotten to know personally. Partly because he had that experience of being a mayor, which in my opinion, which is of course admittedly biased, but also definitely correct, is the best possible background for such a position of responsibility and public service. 

Knowing what it is to be accountable for everything from public safety to potholes. Knowing what it's like to lead an Administration and a community at the same time. Knowing what it means to be a walking symbol of what everyone in your diverse and sometimes fractured hometown has in common. Sets you up well for the inevitably massive learning curve that awaits any new member of the President's cabinet.

Secretary Foxx, of course, served as Mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina, before being sworn in as the 17th Secretary of Transportation. He made hometown history the youngest mayor elected to serve the people of Charlotte. He helped that community navigate the Great Recession, putting Charlotte on a path to economic recovery, attracting new businesses, creating jobs, and establishing a pattern of growth that continues to this day. 

He acted to modernize the city's transportation and to make sure that it fulfilled its most basic purpose of connecting people to jobs and to schools and to one another.

And in that impressive work, he quickly impressed another young and highly effective leader: the President of the United States. And when President Obama nominated him for Transportation Secretary in 2013, he was confirmed with 100 votes in the Senate. And he has yet to disclose exactly how it was he pulled that off. We're still waiting to hear what his secret was.

During his time here at the Department he built bipartisan consensus. Moving our transportation systems forward, setting the groundwork to incorporate emerging technology through measures like the Smart City Program.

And as a young mayor in Indiana watching that work, I was particularly surprised and inspired to see that part of his approach to that program was requiring the different competitors trying to get that grant to share their application details with each other. Demonstrating his understanding that the purpose of a competitive grant is not only to make the winner better off, but to lift up the entire practice of American transportation.

And in ways that it had not been seen before he also set out to make our transportation systems more equitable for people in every community. And he did it with the inside of the moral authority that can only come from personal experience.

He spoke eloquently of how growing up in Charlotte he watched his grandmother take that Number 6 bus to Downtown — took it himself to get to his first job and came over time to recognize how the freeways in Charlotte had cut neighborhoods off from one another.

His lived experience propelled him to make transportation more accessible for communities that were previously, and sometimes purposefully excluded from major infrastructure decisions.

And he continued to lead and serve this country even after he left office. Including returning to the Navy Yard at my request to serve as the chair of the reestablished Advisory Committee on Transportation Equity, which was only fitting since he was the one who founded that committee as Secretary.

Personally, I first got to know him when he invited a delegation of mayors to join him in traveling to learn about best practices and safe infrastructure for active transportation.

And later, as Polly mentioned, he offered moral support to a then highly controversial initiative on complete streets that I was leading in my city as mayor. Inviting a number of us from around the country, here to the Navy Yard to receive the Mayor's Challenge Award and putting me and Polly Trottenberg in the same room for the first time.

He also took interest when we approached the Department for funding on a rail project that was important to us. Managing to make me and our city feel enormous appreciation for him and his team even though we didn't get the grant that year.

So, when I found myself in this role, my mind often went to his example. The decency of vision and the kind of enterprising approach to public policy that makes fellow former mayors and future former secretaries proud of his example.

And, while this is one of my last occasions to say so, as Secretary, I know that I will be far from the last Secretary of Transportation to benefit from the example of Anthony Foxx.

So, Mr. Secretary, I'm so honored that I could join you for this celebration as we add your portrait to the gallery. And now, please welcome the 17th Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx. 

SECRETARY FOXX: Thank you. I have so many thank yous. That's really all I have to say. But I will say much more in a few moments. 

Mr. Secretary, thank you for being here today and making this moment happen in your tenure. You have presided over perhaps the most consequential period of the Transportation Department, successfully pushing for bipartisan action to make generational investments in our nation's infrastructure. Beyond that, you have been a model of integrity and public service. I especially appreciate your attention to correcting the mistakes of the past. We will see the fruits of your efforts for many years and decades to come. On behalf of a grateful nation, thank you for your service. 

To Deputy Secretary Trottenberg, my friend of so many years, thank you. I came to Washington from local government. You left our Administration to go to local government. The depth of your experience has been reflected in your service. In fact, I want everyone to know that you got more for your money with Secretary Trottenberg, as she held down her main job while also serving as Acting Federal Aviation Administration for a period of time. Thank you. 

The men who gave us the Pledge of Allegiance served on my security detail. I am so grateful to them. They did their jobs in protecting me and my family, but we also became great friends.  

I admire each of you for your commitment to our nation and their willingness, if necessary, to sacrifice their lives. 

To the many of the people who helped us move this project forward - Judy Kaleta, Keith Washington, Antanea Mitchell, Kevin Monroe, Howlie Davis and so many others, thank you. Thanks also to the legions of appointees and career officials here at U.S. DOT who served with me — Sandy Snyder. 

Thanks to all of you — friends and family alike — who braved the elements to be here.  

Rituals are so important. They bring us home. They remind us who we are and who we aspire to be. 

Just about a mile away a great man, President Jimmy Carter, is in the process of being laid to rest. In hindsight, it is becoming clearer that the Presidency was one of many vehicles he used to promote his larger objectives of peace, good will and social progress, even as he demonstrated personal humility and an ability to bring warring sides together. In a city that only knows how to celebrate short-term winners, he played the long game - and I believe the outpouring of love for him is evidence that the long ga me is worth playing. The ritual of remembering our Presidents at times like these is but one that binds us in our national life. 

There is a different ritual happening here today. We marking a period time in our nation's and our Department's history, not simply recognizing me. 

I am grateful to the people of Charlotte for electing me four times to roles of great responsibility. I am grateful to President Barack Obama for entrusting me with the responsibility to lead this agency. I am grateful to my family at the Kennedy School of Government and the Center for Public Leadership for supporting me. Our Dean is traveling overseas this week and has sent his regrets. 

But let the record reflect that I never got into this business of politics or public policy to be celebrated. I had a mission here, and that was to elevate transportation beyond a functional agency into one that builds civic fabric. 

We had limited tools - not nearly as much grant-making heft as you, Mr. Secretary. But we put building blocks in place, and I believe that the field of transportation has been unalterably changed - and only more so due to the work of the current Administration. 

What happened during our tenure? 

iPads on planes, driverless car Guidance, the Smart City Challenge, important rulemakings on drones, the FAST ACT, important progress on the Southeast Corridor, the rearview camera rule, updated Title VI guidance, the Ladders of Opportunity Initiative, heavy truck fuel standards. 

Thanks to my mother for educating me about art. Many years ago, President Hicks, she helped raise money for a visual arts building at my alma mater, Davidson College. 

President Hicks, she somehow befriended Nanette Bearden, the widow of the great artist, Romare Bearden. Romare Bearden was from Charlotte. I remember several Sunday afternoon conversations at our home in which I heard stories about the importance of visual art. I believe in the ritual of portraiture as a practice in our government - and I can say so freely because there has not been a dime of federal money expended to curate this painting. As the world becomes ever more digital, we may convince ourselves that these relics can be dispensed with. But what we lose is the ritual, the tradition, the telling of our national story by both subject and artist. 

My children, Hillary and Zachary, who are just a little bigger and a lot more opinionated than they were on July 2, 2013. They loved me so deeply and so completely. I was away so much and often so wiped out when I was home. Maybe there were times when I gave too much of myself away and did not leave enough for you. I can say without reservation that the every minute of time I have had the privilege of spending with you has been worth more than anything I could measure. Nothing I have done here in this building is as important an achievement as being your Dad — and, along with your mom, I have tried my best to give you a good life and leave you a good name. I hope I have done so. 

And, of course, my amazing wife, Samara. Thank you. When she met me driving an old Toyota Camry with a moldy smell leftover from Hurricane Floyd, she had no idea what was in store. You have endured so much - public service, managing a busy household, being the chief raiser of children, managing your own career on top of it all, and then, of course, me. Whew, that's a lot. 

It has truly been a journey. Each of you, Samara, Hillary and Zachary, have given so much to serve your country, too, by giving me to space to have done this job. Thank you. 

And to the Ryder and Diggs families. Thanks for welcoming me into you family and your unyielding support.

Like most African Americans, I can only trace my family back so far, down my grandmother's line to Carthage, North Carolina and down my grandfather's line to Lowell, North Carolina. These people were humble people. They were given no breaks. My grandfather lost his father at an early age, just before the Great Depression, leaving his mother to raise a brood of seven children on her own. She worked for many years for her local district of the American Legion. Inspired by Golda Meir, she even ran for Mayor of her small town, the first woman of any color to do so. 

My grandmother's father drove a truck and her mother was a midwife. Can you imagine what my Great- Grandfather, the truck driver, or any of them would have thought, about their Great- Grandson becoming the Chief regulatory of trucks? That truck driver and that midwife sent all of their 13 children to college, even though they had barely a middle school education between them. This is a familiar story in America, perhaps animated by the starts and stops of racial progress in our country, but if you look back far enough into your own families, that story is likely rings true for you. 

With Samara's great support, we made a decision about this painting - an unusual one. If we had asked Simmie to draw our family - it might have given the impression that we started this way. Instead this painting tells the story of inheritance. It isn't about what I did. It is more about what foundation was laid for what I did. 

Hillary and Zachary, when you bring your children to this building to see this portrait, you can remind them that we did not become great in 2013. There have been great people all down the line - sometimes facing greater friction in the task of achieving all of which they were capable but always striving for themselves and generations to come. That's your inheritance and your responsibility. This work is not solely the work of my family or yours. It is the collective work of the larger family of America. 

Finally, I want to ask Simmie Knox, the artist, to say a few words. I met Simmie almost 30 years ago as a law clerk when painted the portrait of my judge, The Honorable Nathaniel R. Jones. I found the leave of detail in his portraits fascinating, and I have a lot of company in commissioning him. He has painted the official portraits of Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, President Bill Clinton, Attorney General Eric Holder and so many others. He is a gifted artist, great raconteur and gentle spirit. Please welcome Simmie Knox.

Thank you. 

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