[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 57 (Tuesday, April 10, 2018)]
[House]
[Pages H3068-H3069]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
FRA SAFETY DATA IMPROVEMENT ACT
Mr. MITCHELL. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the
bill (H.R. 4925) to require the Administrator of the Federal Railroad
Administration to implement certain recommendations for management and
collection of railroad safety data.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 4925
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 ``FRA Safety Data Improvement
Act''.
[[Page H3069]]
SEC. 2. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR MANAGEMENT AND COLLECTION OF
RAILROAD SAFETY DATA.
(a) In General.--The Administrator of the Federal Railroad
Administration shall develop a plan, and a timeline to carry
out such plan, to implement the recommendations from the
Inspector General Report No. ST2017045 of the Department of
Transportation, issued on May 3, 2017, to the greatest extent
possible, to improve the Federal Railroad Administration's
management and collection of railroad safety data.
(b) Implementation.--
(1) In general.--Not later than 180 days after date of
enactment of this Act, the Administrator shall submit the
plan and timeline developed under subsection (a) to the
Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure of the House
of Representatives and the Committee on Commerce, Science,
and Transportation of the Senate.
(2) Report.--The Administrator shall report annually to the
committees on the implementation of such plan until
implementation is complete.
SEC. 3. NO ADDITIONAL FUNDS AUTHORIZED.
No additional funds are authorized to carry out the
requirements of this Act. Such requirements shall be carried
out using amounts otherwise authorized.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
Michigan (Mr. Mitchell) and the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr.
Capuano) each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Michigan.
General Leave
Mr. MITCHELL. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members
have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to
include extraneous material on H.R. 4925.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Michigan?
There was no objection.
Mr. MITCHELL. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, the FRA Safety Data Improvement Act requires the Federal
Railroad Administration to develop a timeline and plan to implement
improvements to its safety data collection and reporting system.
Rail safety is critical to our Nation, and in order to ensure that
regulations are rooted in accurate data, the FRA must make improvements
to its data collection system.
Safety data is important to railroad safety, and failures of that
concern us. Effective safety data collection and reporting is critical
to ensuring railroad safety.
The Department of Transportation inspector general published a report
outlining issues with the data collection and reporting for safety
data. The report made a number of recommendations to standardizing
certain procedures and implementing effective and uniform training
programs. Additionally, the report recommends the FRA update its
reporting guidance to clear up discrepancies in their reporting forms.
In summary, the bill requires the FRA, the Federal Railroad
Administration, to implement the recommendations from the DOT Office of
Inspector General report. Additionally, it requires the FRA to develop
a timeline and plan to implement the guidelines and recommendations.
The bill ensures the FRA addresses these discrepancies by a report
requiring FRA to annually update Congress on its progress until
completion.
I believe this bill will improve the safety of our railways. Rail
safety is obviously critical to our Nation and our infrastructure; and
to ensure that safety regulations are effective and clear, they must be
updated.
I again thank Chairman Shuster, Chairman Denham, and Mr. Gottheimer
for working with me, as well as my colleague, Mr. Capuano.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. CAPUANO. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, again, this is a relatively easy bill and a bipartisan
bill. It simply requires that the FRA train people when they report
incidents of safety, that they report them in a uniform manner so that
when somebody goes to look to see how many accidents there were or a
certain type of accident, they can compare apples to apples instead of
apples to oranges. It is kind of simple. It is a straightforward bill
and, again, it is bipartisan.
Mr. Speaker, I yield the balance of my time to the gentleman from New
Jersey (Mr. Gottheimer), the author of this bill.
Mr. GOTTHEIMER. Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Shuster and Ranking
Member DeFazio for their leadership on the Transportation and
Infrastructure Committee, working with me on a bipartisan basis on the
FRA Safety Data Improvement Act. Additionally, I want to thank
Congressman Mitchell for helping colead this important bill.
In New Jersey, our rails and tunnels are literally crumbling. In a
political environment, that is all too often polarized. Democrats and
Republicans can certainly find common ground on our infrastructure
being deficient, degrading, and incurring accidents that are becoming
all too regular.
The American Society of Civil Engineers gave America a D-plus
infrastructure rating on their scorecard. New Jersey also received an
overall D-plus, with rail and transit in particularly bad shape.
Bergen County, in my district, is the worst in the Northeast for
railway crossing crashes. America's infrastructure failure is leading
to more and more accidents. In fact, recently, we have seen fatal
Amtrak and New Jersey Transit crashes in Hoboken, New Jersey,
Washington State, South Carolina, and West Virginia.
We simply can't afford to sit idly by, punting on this urgent need.
We need infrastructure investment, but we also need to proactively
improve our safety procedures and processes. We need to take on safety
in this country. And for all we pay in taxes and tickets, both of which
I think are far too high, we cannot play games with the safety of our
families and children. From administration to administration, we can't
have inconsistencies or delays in implementing rail safety rules.
I am proud to have led on this bipartisan bill to secure America's
rails with real safety provisions. The bipartisan FRA Safety Data
Improvement Act improves and standardizes reporting and training around
railway accidents on railroads like Amtrak and New Jersey Transit. By
better standardizing reporting requirements, we can leverage big
datasets to improve safety and make smarter decisions. It does so my
implementing the DOT's inspector general report and ensuring reporting
to Congress on compliance.
The IG found that the Federal Railroad Administration had taken some
steps to improve data reporting, but it still lacks standardized
reporting and training. This bill codifies steps suggested by the IG,
providing more certainty in the safety of our rails.
By allowing us to better leverage bill datasets--and the key here is
putting big data to work--this bill will save lives. I urge support and
passage of the FRA Safety Data Improvement Act.
Mr. CAPUANO. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. MITCHELL. Mr. Speaker, this bill and the previous one we
discussed reflect the bipartisan commitment to our Nation's
infrastructure and to a safe infrastructure. I appreciate my
colleagues' support in working jointly in bringing these bills forward.
I urge my colleagues to join all of us in supporting this legislation.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Mitchell) that the House suspend the rules
and pass the bill, H.R. 4925.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the
rules were suspended and the bill was passed.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
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