Norton Announces Hearings on Security Funding by Two of her Committees - June 14, 2006
Norton Announces Hearings on Security Funding by Two of her Committees
with Mayors Williams and Bloomberg as Invited Witnesses
New Norton Amendment for Public Transit on Way to Floor
June 14, 2006
Washington, DC—Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today announced two hearings before committees on which she serves on large cuts in homeland security funds for the National Capital Region and other targeted areas, following strong objections from her and other officials about the cuts. The first hearing will take place before the Government Reform Committee at 10 AM tomorrow (Thursday, June 15, 2006 in Room 2154 of the Rayburn House Office Building). The Committee on Homeland Security hearing is expected on Wednesday, June 21. Mayor Anthony Williams has been invited to testify at both hearings. Norton has postponed until after these hearings the face-to-face meeting she sought with officials from Department of Homeland Security (DHS) headquarters and elected and other regional officials for a review of the D.C. area cuts, a $30 million drop this year from the $77 million provided last year. Norton has expressed deep concern about how these cuts will affect the security of the federal presence, as well as residents of the city and region.
Norton also is pleased that the Homeland Security Committee today approved her amendment to the Science and Technology security bill (H.R. 4941) taken from her more comprehensive Secure TRAINS Act (Secure Transit and Railroads Across America and Investment in National Security) introduced earlier this session. Her amendment is the first research and development provision dedicated exclusively to rail and mass transportation. She emphasized the disparity between security funds spent on aviation security--$9 per air passenger--contrasted with one penny spent per ground passenger, almost none of it on research and development, despite the London train bombing almost one year ago, the Madrid commuter train attacks two years ago, and the dominant passenger use of rail and public transit over air travel. The Congresswoman’s amendment initially also sought $50 million a year for three years, an “almost embarrassingly modest amount,” she said, but the funding was dropped on a party line vote. Nonetheless, the research and development amendment itself passed and is included in the final bill. The Norton amendment also assures that research and development efforts are coordinated with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to avoid duplication.
Just yesterday, Norton questioned expert witnesses at a Rail Subcommittee hearing on hazardous materials, and reported at today’s Homeland Security Committee mark-up, that, “neither the industry nor the regulatory agencies know how to protect our wide open public transportation systems that must be easily accessible and cannot be controlled like air travel and airports. Yet almost none of the billions we have spent on air and ground travel is relevant to the forms of transportation used by the average American everyday, and we are doing nothing about it.” Norton cited the almost 800,000 passengers who daily ride D.C.’s Metro and said that only the federal government has the research capacity to do the urgently needed science and technology, which “is not even in the start-up phase for subways, rail and other mass transportation.”
Last year Norton got two important amendments from the Act adopted as part of the Homeland Security reauthorization bill. They require DHS to develop security best practices to be used by mass transportation operators and to develop a national plan for passenger and employee awareness to prevent and respond to terrorist acts on public transportation. “If I have to do my Secure TRAINS Act amendment by amendment, so be it,” Norton said, “but we cannot sit by plowing dollars into air travel while continuing to ignore the daily vulnerability of most American travelers as they go to and from work, school and other activities.”