THE WHITE HOUSE

                      Office of the Press Secretary
                         (Little Rock, Arkansas)
________________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release                                 September 25, 1997

          PRESIDENT CLINTON NAMES JAMES E. HALL AS MEMBER OF THE 
                   NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD

President Clinton today announced his intent to nominate James E. Hall as a Member of the National Transportation Safety Board.

Mr. Hall, of Tennessee, has been a Member of the NTSB since his appointment in October, 1993. The following year he was appointed Vice Chairman of the Board. In 1994, he was confirmed as Chairman of the Board upon nomination by the President. Prior to serving on the NTSB, Mr. Hall was Chief of Staff to Senator Harlan Matthews, and served for six years as Executive Assistant to Tennessee Governor Ned McWherter. He also served on the staff of Senators Albert Gore, Sr. and Edmund Muskie and was General Counsel to the Intergovernmental Relations Subcommittee. He received a J.D. from the University of Tennessee College of Law, and is a recipient of the Bronze Star for meritorious service during his two years of active duty in the U.S. Army.

The National Transportation Safety Board is an independent agency that determines the probable cause of transportation accidents and promotes transportation safety throughout the nation. The NTSB conducts safety studies, evaluates the effectiveness of government agencies' transportation safety programs, and reviews appeals of adverse actions by the U.S. Department of Transportation regarding pilot and mariner certificate licenses. The NTSB is presently engaged in several major aviation investigations including ValuJet (Miami), TWA 800 (Long Island), and Korean Airlines 801 (Guam). The NTSB is a bipartisan, five-member Board.

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