[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 14]
[House]
[Pages 18780-18781]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




REPEAL OF PROHIBITION ON USE OF CERTAIN FUNDS FOR TUNNELING IN CERTAIN 
  AREAS WITH RESPECT TO LOS ANGELES TO SAN FERNANDO VALLEY METRO RAIL 
                                PROJECT

  Mr. SHUSTER. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the 
bill (H.R. 4653) to repeal a prohibition on the use of certain funds 
for tunneling in certain areas with respect to the Los Angeles to San 
Fernando Valley Metro Rail project, California.
  The Clerk read as follows:

                               H.R. 4653

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. REPEAL OF PROHIBITION.

       The second sentence of section 321 of the Department of 
     Transportation and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 1986 
     (99 Stat. 1287) is repealed.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
Pennsylvania (Mr. Shuster) and the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. 
Oberstar) each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Pennsylvania.
  Mr. SHUSTER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  H.R. 4653 repeals a 20-year-old prohibition on the use of certain 
Federal transit funds to tunnel in the San Fernando Valley area west of 
Los Angeles.
  In 1985, an explosion of naturally occurring methane gas blew up a 
department store in the Wilshire Boulevard corridor in Los Angeles, 
injuring 22 people. Concerned about the safety of tunneling in this 
area of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles City Council created a task force 
to investigate the explosion. The task force identified methane risk 
zones along the Wilshire Boulevard corridor.
  In 1985, the Los Angeles Red Line subway line was in the planning and 
design stage. Since then, the Red Line has been completely funded and 
built and has been in operation since 1993, with an extension to North 
Hollywood that was completed in 2000.
  The fiscal year 1986 transportation appropriations bill included a 
legislative provision that prohibits the use of Federal transit funds 
associated with the Los Angeles project for tunneling in or through an 
identified methane risk zone. The language was written very broadly, 
binding future funds provided by Congress and affecting all parts of 
the Metro Rail subway project, including future extensions.
  However, in November of 2005, a panel of engineering experts reported 
that tunneling along the Wilshire Boulevard corridor can be done safely 
if proper procedures and appropriate techniques are used.
  This bill, H.R. 4653, was introduced by Congressman Waxman in 
December of 2005 and will repeal the current prohibition on tunneling 
in the Wilshire Boulevard corridor. With its passage, a more 
comprehensive transportation planning process can take place in the 
corridor, and future transportation proposals that involve tunneling 
will be eligible for Federal funding.
  I encourage my colleagues to join me in support of H.R. 4653.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

                              {time}  1745

  Mr. OBERSTAR. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 30 seconds to say that the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Waxman), with whom I entered Congress 
together in 1975, has been a champion of this project, but with a 
watchful eye on the way in which it was crafted and carried forward. 
And it has been his inspiration that has brought this project to the 
point where it is now, an agreed-upon initiative and financially 
sustainable and operationally successful.
  I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from California.
  Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Chairman, I want to thank everyone who assisted in 
bringing this bill to the floor today, Chairman Don Young, Ranking 
Member Oberstar, Representatives Jerry Lewis and David Dreier.
  H.R. 4653 is noncontroversial legislation. It repeals a law enacted 
in 1985 that prohibits subway tunneling in an area of Los Angeles that 
I represent.
  I authored the 1985 measure after a methane gas explosion demolished 
a Ross Dress for Less store in the Third and Fairfax area of Los 
Angeles.
  At the time, serious safety concerns were raised about the city's 
plans to extend the subway through this area due to underground pockets 
of methane gas. In recent years, experts have indicated that 
technologies have been developed that could make tunneling in this area 
safe.
  In 2004, the Los Angeles City Council passed a motion urging a 
reversal of the 1985 law, and in February 2005 the Los Angeles 
Metropolitan Transportation Authority's board voted to renew 
discussions of the subway's expansion in this area. As a result, I 
worked with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to select a panel of scientific 
experts to conduct an independent safety review. These experts made a 
unanimous determination in a November 2005 report that tunneling in the 
methane gas area can be done safely if proper procedures and 
appropriate technologies are used.
  H.R. 4653 simply lifts the Federal tunneling prohibition that has 
been in place since 1985. The Transportation Infrastructure Committee 
reported this bill unanimously on July 19, and I urge my colleagues to 
support it as well.
  Mr. SHUSTER. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my 
time.
  Mr. OBERSTAR. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from California and the gentleman from 
Pennsylvania have fully explained the provisions of this bill and the 
need for the project. It needs no further elaboration.
  This project moves us further in the direction of advancing the cause 
of transit in our national transportation intermodal system.
  Transit is the fastest growing sector of the transportation in 
America. We are adding 1 million new transit riders a day last year, 
for 375 million new transit trips, for 10.5 billion transit trips in 
America. At a time in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, New York accounted 
for over 60 percent of all transit trips in America. No longer. New 
York's share is down somewhere around 39 percent because the rest of 
the Nation is catching up and accelerating its use of transit.
  In fact, if we could, as is done in Europe, have a mode shift of 10 
percent of all trips taken for all purposes by transit, in America we 
would save 550 million barrels of oil a year, and that is the amount we 
import from Saudi Arabia.
  The move to transit is inexorable; it is a necessary part of our 
overall balanced transportation system in America, and in this 
intensely populated area of Los Angeles, the San Fernando Metro Rail 
Project will make an enormous contribution to mobility and to savings 
in fuel consumption in America.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise to support the passage of H.R. 4653, to repeal a 
prohibition on the use of Federal transit funds for tunneling in 
certain areas for the construction of the San Fernando Valley Metro 
Rail project in Southern California.
  More than 20 years ago, an explosion caused by the ignition of 
methane gas that had been accumulating along the Third Street

[[Page 18781]]

corridor in the Wilshire-Fairfax District of Los Angeles rocked the 
area. The resulting explosion severely damaged a building structure and 
injured 22 people. A preliminary investigation into the cause of the 
explosion pointed to ignition of underground pockets of pressurized 
gas.
  This incident raised safety concerns related to the proposed 
tunneling in the area to build the planned Metro Rail subway system. To 
address the safety concerns, the Los Angeles City Council created a 
Task Force to investigate the explosion to determine the cause of the 
accident and to make recommendations to avoid future incidents. The 
results of the investigation identified two methane risk zones.
  To ensure that the safety concerns related to construction of the 
Metro Rail subway system were fully addressed prior to the use of 
Federal transit funds for the construction of the project, a provision 
was included in the fiscal year 1986 Transportation and Related 
Appropriations Act prohibiting the use of Federal funds for the project 
until certain safety concerns has been properly addressed.
  Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to report that the initial concerns related 
to possible methane gas explosions associated with the construction of 
the project have been resolved through extensive reviews and studies. 
In October 2005, a peer review panel of engineering experts was 
convened at the request of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan 
Transportation Authority Board to conduct an independent evaluation of 
gas-related safety issues associated with the proposed tunneling of the 
extension of the Metro Rail Line subway along Wilshire Boulevard. Based 
on the findings, the five-member panel of experts reported that 
tunneling along the Wilshire Boulevard corridor can be done safely 
using proper procedures and appropriate techniques.
  In response to the findings of the peer review panel of experts, the 
City of Los Angeles and the gentleman from California (Mr. Waxman) who 
represents areas along the proposed Metro Rail subway system corridor 
have joined together to support the enactment of H.R. 4653. The passage 
of H.R. 4653 will help advance badly needed transit projects throughout 
the Los Angeles to San Fernando Valley region.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge the passage of H.R. 4653 to remove the funding 
prohibition for the Los Angeles to San Fernando Valley Metro Rail 
Project.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. SHUSTER. Mr. Speaker, I just want to encourage my colleagues to 
join me in support of H.R. 4653, and I yield back the balance of my 
time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Shuster) that the House suspend the 
rules and pass the bill, H.R. 4653.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds having voted in favor 
thereof) the rules were suspended and the bill was passed.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

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