[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 909 Introduced in House (IH)]






109th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 909

 To provide for the establishment of a hazardous materials cooperative 
                           research program.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           February 17, 2005

 Mr. Cummings introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
       Committee on Science, and in addition to the Committee on 
  Transportation and Infrastructure, for a period to be subsequently 
   determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such 
 provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To provide for the establishment of a hazardous materials cooperative 
                           research program.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Hazardous Materials Cooperative 
Research Act of 2005''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES.

     Congress finds the following:
            (1) There are more than 1,000,000 shipments per day in the 
        United States of materials identified as hazardous by the 
        United States Department of Transportation. These shipments are 
        estimated to total 2,100,000,000 tons of hazardous cargo per 
        year and to comprise more than 18 percent of the total freight 
        tonnage moved in the United States annually.
            (2) Hazardous materials are shipped by all transportation 
        modes and it is estimated that there are currently 400,000 
        large trucks, 115,000 railroad tank cars, and 3,000 tank barges 
        dedicated to the shipment of hazardous materials.
            (3) More than a dozen Federal agencies have regulatory, 
        enforcement, and operational responsibilities for ensuring the 
        safety and security of hazardous materials shipments. In 
        addition, a variety of State and local agencies have 
        responsibility for developing and enforcing State-level 
        regulations and for responding to incidents involving hazardous 
        materials.
            (4) Decisions regarding the packaging and routing of 
        hazardous materials shipments, the development and 
        implementation of procedures to ensure both the safety and 
        security of such shipments, and the regulation of hazardous 
        materials shipments are made by industry groups and government 
        entities at a variety of levels and in all modal 
        administrations of the Department of Transportation on a daily 
        basis.
            (5) The Federal agencies involved in the regulation and 
        oversight of hazardous materials shipments as well as State and 
        local governments, carriers, shippers, and other groups conduct 
        on-going research on the transportation of hazardous materials. 
        However, much of this research is program or mode-specific and 
        as such is focused on addressing only the regulatory, 
        inspection, enforcement, or operational needs of the group 
        undertaking the research.
            (6) There is a documented need for the establishment of a 
        cooperative research program that will engage all modes and 
        actors, both public and private, involved in the transportation 
        of hazardous materials in conducting cross-cutting assessments 
        of hazardous materials transportation issues that are national 
        and multi-modal in scope and application.

SEC. 3. HAZARDOUS MATERIALS COOPERATIVE RESEARCH PROGRAM.

    (a) In General.--From the amounts made available under section 5127 
of title 49, United States Code, the Secretary of Transportation may 
obligate not to exceed $2,000,000 per fiscal year to develop and 
administer a hazardous materials cooperative research program.
    (b) Governance.--The Secretary of Transportation shall establish an 
independent governing board to select projects and studies to be 
carried out under the hazardous materials cooperative research program. 
The Board shall be comprised of one voting representative from the 
following:
            (1) The Federal Aviation Administration.
            (2) The Federal Motor Carrier Administration.
            (3) The Federal Transit Administration.
            (4) The Federal Railroad Administration.
            (5) The Maritime Administration.
            (6) The Research and Innovative Technology Administration.
            (7) The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety 
        Administration.
            (8) The Department of Homeland Security.
            (9) The Department of Energy.
            (10) The Environmental Protection Agency.
            (11) A State department of transportation.
            (12) A State emergency management agency.
            (13) A nonprofit organization representing emergency 
        responders.
            (14) A hazmat employer.
            (15) A nonprofit organization representing hazmat 
        employees.
            (16) A hazardous materials shipper.
            (17) A hazardous materials manufacturer.
            (18) An organization representing the hazardous materials 
        manufacturing industry.
            (19) A research university or research institution.
            (20) Additional representatives as the Secretary considers 
        appropriate.
    (c) Research Studies.--Under the cooperative research program, the 
governing board shall select cooperative research studies of hazardous 
materials transportation that are cross-cutting in nature and that 
consider issues not adequately addressed by existing Federal or private 
sector research programs. Priority shall be given to research studies 
that will yield results immediately applicable to risk analysis and 
mitigation or that will strengthen the ability of first responders to 
respond to incidents and accidents involving transportation of 
hazardous materials.
    (d) Special Rules Regarding Studies.--
            (1) Safety and security.--The purpose of at least one of 
        the studies to be conducted under the cooperative research 
        program shall be--
                    (A) to provide an assessment of opportunities for 
                integrating and supplementing safety and security 
                measures for hazardous materials transportation;
                    (B) to identify areas where safety and security 
                measures currently utilized in the transportation of 
                hazardous materials conflict or complement one another;
                    (C) to outline a comprehensive approach to 
                hazardous materials transportation that effectively 
                incorporates safety and security procedures; and
                    (D) to produce a model of reasonable State and 
                local risk response and management plans that 
                effectively address safety and security of hazardous 
                materials transportation.
            (2) Performance data for bulk containers .--The purpose of 
        at least one of the studies to be conducted under the research 
        program shall be to provide--
                    (A) an analysis of, and recommendations for, the 
                design and funding of a nationwide system capable of 
                collecting and analyzing performance data from bulk 
                containers involved in transportation accidents; and
                    (B) recommendations that can be used to develop 
                conditional release probabilities for various container 
                design specifications (by transport mode).
            (3) Packaging requirements.-- The purpose of at least one 
        of the studies to be conducted under the research program shall 
        be to provide an analysis of recommendations on appropriate 
        packaging requirements for those hazardous materials that are 
        most frequently involved in release incidents.
            (4) Routing.--The purpose of at least one of the studies to 
        be conducted under the research program shall be to identify 
        the components that could comprise a model of risk and 
        consequence analysis in rail and highway transportation and 
        that can be used to facilitate decisionmaking regarding the 
        routing of hazardous materials shipments and the development of 
        regulations regarding mandatory routing decisions.
            (5) Response coverage.--The purpose of at least one of the 
        studies to be conducted under the research program shall be to 
        provide an assessment of the quality of response coverage for 
        hazardous materials incidents, including cost-effective 
        strategies for improving response capabilities and making 
        recommendations on systematic approaches that could be used to 
        allocate government funding to enhance response capability.
            (6) Response guidelines.--The purpose of at least one of 
        the studies to be conducted under the research program shall 
        be--
                    (A) to develop a guideline document for use by 
                emergency responders and handlers to guide their 
                response to incidents involving hazardous materials and 
                to define the roles and responsibilities of carriers 
                and shippers in event response; and
                    (B) to detail event response procedures that can be 
                consistently applied across all modes.
    (e) Implementation.--The Secretary of Transportation shall make 
grants to, and enter a cooperative agreement with, the National Academy 
of Sciences to carry out activities under this Act.
    (f) Report.--Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of 
this Act, the Secretary shall transmit a report to the Committee on 
Transportation and Infrastructure of the House of Representatives and 
the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate on 
the effectiveness of the program in meeting the needs of government and 
the private sector for cooperative research on hazardous materials 
transportation.
    (g) Definitions.--In this Act, the terms ``hazmat employer'' and 
``hazmat employee'' have the meaning given those terms in section 5102 
of title 49, United States Code.
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