[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 95 (Thursday, July 14, 2005)]
[House]
[Pages H5887-H5888]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        FUNDING FOR MASS TRANSIT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton) is recognized 
for 5 minutes.
  Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, Homeland Security Secretary Chertoff came 
before our Committee on Homeland Security with his second review of the 
agency. It was an impressive review. Of course, the promise lies in the 
implementation, but he has done a competent job there.
  Astonishingly, though, Madam Speaker, he mentioned not one word about 
London or about the vulnerability of rail and public transportation in 
the United States, even

[[Page H5888]]

though we are barely 10 days out of London. There was, as we stood here 
this morning, a moment in solidarity with those who died in London.
  Madam Speaker, WMATA, our own Metro system here, is considerably 
ahead of most of the country. In fact, WMATA is designated as the lead 
agency for emergency coordination for the entire region's transit and 
commuter rail. We are ahead of most of the country, after Oklahoma City 
began to take real action that most still have not begun to take. In 
June, 19 million people rode WMATA. That breaks all of its records. 
Many of those were constituents of the Members of this House and the 
Senate, because 20 million visitors come annually to the District of 
Columbia.
  WMATA indicates that its most pressing needs are current WMD 
detection equipment, decontamination equipment and testing, 
surveillance systems, antiterror equipment for transit police, video 
cameras for buses. Remember, this is one of the best prepared systems 
in the country.
  Yet, Madam Speaker, yesterday, Democratic Leader Pelosi, Ranking 
Member Thompson of the Committee on Homeland Security, and other 
Democratic leaders stood with me as I reintroduced the Secure Trains 
Act, an act I first introduced more than a year ago, simply to bring 
the country somewhere approaching where we have now, for some time, 
been in aviation, having gotten there for aviation after the fact.
  We are breaking the post-9/11 promise that we would never be caught 
flat-footed again. In fact, the President's 2006 budget eliminated 
dedicated mass transportation funding all together. I trust that we 
will put it back, or something back, before we go on August recess. 
Ninety percent of the funds that we have allocated have been for 
aviation security. Yet 9 billion passenger trips are made annually on 
rail and on public transportation. What are we thinking?
  This bill, a modest $3.8 billion for the basics: cameras, 
communications systems, explosive detection, security upgrades on 
tracks and tunnels. Is this too much to ask? More than 4 years after 9/
11, is this too much to ask, following more than 50 dead in London, 
almost 200 dead in Madrid, hundreds injured when you tally them both 
together?
  Mr. Chertoff allowed as how $8.6 billion was ``available for transit 
operators'' under one of the homeland security programs. What he was 
talking about, Madam Speaker, is that a local jurisdiction can use 
transit for transit security money, money that we have allocated for 
first responders. I do not believe we mean transit security to be the 
stepchild of homeland security when that is where the people are. Far 
more people than ever consider getting on an airplane, and we are 
borrowing from first responders who are screaming that they do not have 
enough funds in order to skim off money for rail transportation, after 
Madrid, after London, and after a terrible accident involving HAZMAT in 
South Carolina, which could just as easily have been a terrorist event.
  I beg the House, before we go on August recess, to do our duty, keep 
our post-9/11 promise to do what is necessary for passenger rail, light 
rail, ferries, buses, the vehicles, the public transportation that our 
people get on every day to go to and from work. There is still time to 
do it. I do not think we would want to go home when every single Member 
will have a question like this: What have you done for our subways? 
What have you done for our buses? We do not need to go home and say 
``nothing,'' Madam Speaker.

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