[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 42 (Wednesday, March 16, 2016)]
[House]
[Page H1404]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1345
                         CHANGE NEEDED AT WMATA

  (Mrs. COMSTOCK asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mrs. COMSTOCK. Mr. Speaker, yesterday afternoon the Washington 
Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, our Metro system, informed us that 
they would be suspending operations all day today and into tonight.
  While I appreciate that the new general manager had to make this 
decision to keep our riders safe, what this does is highlight many more 
widespread problems throughout the system that have been present for 
years that we need to address. We know a culture change in management 
needs to happen.
  When our delegation met with the new manager at the end of last year, 
we told him we needed to have a management change and that we needed to 
see some action taken quickly. I am appreciative the Transportation 
chairman is going to have hearings on this.
  I want to read to you an example of why we need changes here. A 
trainee at Metro talked about the incompetence there. He said:

       I'll be honest with you. I studied harder for fast-food 
     jobs and waiter jobs when I was in college than I did for 
     their training program at Metro. Their testing program is a 
     joke.

  This is from a Washingtonian article in December of last year.
  WMATA and Metro lifers who haven't left for years need to start 
leaving so that we can have a new management culture there.

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