[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 100 (Thursday, July 21, 2005)]
[House]
[Page H6208]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
TIME TO FUND PUBLIC TRANSIT SECURITY FUNDING
(Mr. MENENDEZ asked and was given permission to address the House for
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. Speaker, this morning, another set of apparently
coordinated attacks took place on the London subway and bus system. So,
once again, our thoughts and prayers are with the people of London, and
our minds should be riveted back here in the United States: Madrid
should have been our wake-up call; the bombings in London should have
been our reminder.
How much longer must we wait for this Congress to act to secure the
over 14 million Americans who use a public transit system every day to
get to work? What are the consequences in the loss of lives and the
economic ripple effect upon an attack on such a system?
And instead of acting on a wake-up call, the Congress seems to be
hitting the snooze button. In fact, we seem to be moving backwards.
Just last week, the Senate voted to cut transit security funding by
one-third. How many warnings do we need before we take action? And who
among us will be satisfied to say, well, we did not act fast enough,
when someone we know, some constituent, some family member dies in a
transit attack?
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