[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 11]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 14432]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




 THE NEED FOR AN INCREASED NATIONAL FOCUS ON RAIL AND TRANSIT SECURITY

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                        HON. ELIJAH E. CUMMINGS

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, July 13, 2006

  Mr. CUMMINGS. Mr. Speaker, the terrible events of 9/11 brought 
intense scrutiny to security on our nation's aviation system and led 
Congress to enact significant measures to strengthen security both on 
airplanes and throughout airports. However, this same level of scrutiny 
has simply not been extended to the other transportation modes in our 
nation, particularly railroads and public transit systems.
  Even though transit and rail systems throughout the world have been 
the targets of deadly terror attacks, including the London subway 
system a year ago this month and the rail system in Bombay, India, just 
yesterday, the Bush Administration seems guilty of the same lack of 
anticipatory thinking that plagued our approach to aviation security 
prior to 9/11.
  In fact, as has happened so often in our nation's history, public 
voices calling attention to the inadequate security provided for 
railroads and public transit appear to be warning of a problem in plain 
sight that is essentially being ignored by officials whose basic plan 
is apparently to hope that nothing happens.
  In July of last year, the Secretary of the Department of Homeland 
Security articulated the Bush Administration's general indifference to 
security on transit systems when he announced that our nation's public 
transit systems should expect to bear most of the costs of funding 
security improvements themselves. At that time, the Secretary dismissed 
the idea that a terror strike on a transit system could produce 
``catastrophic consequences'' by saying ``a bomb in a subway car may 
kill 30 people.''
  Under pressure, Secretary Chertoff backed away from his statement. 
However, the Bush Administration appears to have continued its policy 
of essentially leaving to public transit systems and to railroads much 
of the financial burden associated with providing any security 
enhancements on these systems.
  Thus, in fiscal year 2006, the federal government appropriated just 
$150 million in security grants to be divided among transit intercity 
passenger rail, and freight rail systems. This is the same amount 
provided in fiscal year 2005.
  In fact, federal grants for transit and railroad security since 9/11 
have totaled just over $550 million. By comparison, the Congressional 
Research Service reports that the federal government has spent nearly 
$20 billion on aviation security since September 11, 2001. As evidenced 
by this funding disparity, national focus has been almost exclusively 
on aviation security despite the fact that almost 7 times more people 
use public transportation on a daily basis than fly on airplanes.
  Perhaps not surprisingly given the lack of focus, the inadequacy of 
federal funding has been accompanied by repeated failures on the part 
of the Department of Homeland Security to develop comprehensive risk 
assessments and mode-specific security plans as documented by several 
GAO studies and now by a study written by the Democratic Members of the 
Committee on Homeland Security.
  I strongly support the Rail and Public Transportation Security Act of 
2006, H.R. 5714, as well as other measures that would strength rail and 
transit security in our Nation. It is simply incomprehensible to me 
that Congress has not yet considered and passed these measures that 
would close gaping holes in our transit security system and 
significantly increase funding for security grant programs.
  Mr. Speaker, while it will not be possible to protect our transit and 
rail systems from every possible terror threat, we are not yet doing 
all that we can to make these systems as safe as possible. Our failure 
to anticipate the unthinkable before 9/11 led to the tragic death of 
3,000 innocent Americans. It is past time that we act to secure our 
public transit and rail systems before another unthinkable act leads to 
the deaths of more innocent Americans.

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