And that culture is the wrong one. In my first month as Secretary, I submitted a budget to Congress that, overall, cut the Department's expenses, but it would allow the FAA to hire more air traffic controllers, more flight standards and certification personnel, more maintenance technicians, and more security staff. In the era of smaller government, our FAA safety workforce will have grown by 2,300 people from 1995 to 1998. Then I submitted a proposal to increase highway and transit funding by 11 percent over the next six years, but I asked for 25 percent more for safety programs on our highways. Last week, at the White House, I set a goal to get drivers in the 21st century buckled up.
Airplanes don t take off until everyone is wearing seat belts.
Yet, after three decades of trying, we still only have 7 of 10 drivers buckling seat belts. I want Congress to require states to enact primary seat belt laws. With these, police can ticket drivers or passengers for simply not buckling up. And one other thing we did last month was to start a new safety site on the Internet. I was blessed to come into a Department that has already made tremendous progress in safety.