FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, March 14, 2001
Contact: Bill Mosley
Tel.: (202) 366-5571
DOT 25-01
Secretary
Mineta Names Lunner To Head DOT Public Affairs
U.S. Transportation Secretary Norm Mineta today announced his intent to appoint Chet Lunner, chief of staff to Rep. Amo Houghton of New York, to serve as assistant to the secretary and director of public affairs for the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT).
Lunner, a former reporter and newspaper editor, has been Rep. Houghton's press secretary since 1994 and his principal aide and staff director since 1999. His congressional career has included several assignments planning and staffing bipartisan initiatives, including the bipartisan congressional retreats at Hershey, Pa., and the recently concluded Greenbrier retreat.
“Chet Lunner brings with him a solid background in both government and journalism that will serve the department well in his new position,” Secretary Mineta said. “His experience will be invaluable in keeping the media and public informed as we face the transportation challenges that lie ahead. I welcome him to my team.”
"I'm going to miss Chet,” said Rep. Houghton. “He was everything one could hope for in a chief of staff and as a friend. He'll be a star working as assistant to the Secretary of Transportation and my good friend, Norm Mineta."
Lunner
has also been a volunteer coordinator for the non-profit Faith and Politics
Institute, its Congressional Conversations on Race and Congressional Civil
Rights Pilgrimage projects.
His new post involves news media relations and public affairs oversight at DOT and the agencies which report to Secretary Mineta. These include the Federal Aviation Administration, the U.S. Coast Guard, the Federal Highway Administration, the Federal Railroad Administration and others.
Lunner,
a native of Elmira, N.Y., began his journalism career in local radio, then
became a reporter at the Jamestown (N.Y.) Post-Journal. He has also worked as a
reporter at the Elmira Star-Gazette and at several radio stations in New York
state. He later served as an editor and newsroom executive at newspapers in
Biddeford, Portland and Augusta, Maine, before returning to writing at Florida
TODAY near Cape Canaveral, Fla., and as a national correspondent for Gannett
News Service in Washington.
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