[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 11]
[House]
[Page 14968]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




             PUBLIC TRANSIT NEEDS MORE FUNDING FOR SECURITY

  (Mrs. MALONEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mrs. MALONEY. Mr. Speaker, it does not hurt to remind Americans to be 
vigilant against terrorist attacks, but yesterday's infomercial from 
the Department of Homeland Security was similar to warnings in April 
and May that did not tell the American people what to do and glossed 
over serious gaps in the administration's effort to protect our rail 
and transit systems.
  One-third of all terrorist attacks worldwide target transit systems, 
and public transit is the most frequent target. What happened in Madrid 
could easily happen in New York. And we know for sure that the al Qaeda 
had plans to attack Washington D.C.'s Metro system last year.
  We know that public transit carries 16 times more passengers than the 
airlines, but the Federal Government provides 90 times more funding for 
airline security. Something is very wrong with this security funding 
formula, and yesterday's press conference did nothing to fix it.

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