Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton - Norton Praises House Passage of Hazmat Rerouting and Union Station Security Money (3/27/07)

Norton Praises House Passage of Hazmat Rerouting and Union Station Security Money
March 27, 2007

Washington, DC--Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), who was a chief sponsor of a rail security bill for the past several years, was on the House floor today as a version of her bill passed. The Rail and Public Transportation Security Act includes a requirement that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reroute very toxic substances in highly populated jurisdictions, such as the National Capital Region. The bill also includes $20 million for upgrades and security at Union Station. In her floor remarks, Norton said, “Hear the collective sighs of the American people now that we are doing something about rail and mass transit. They have wondered, and how could they not, whether the bombs that were planted in Madrid and in London would somehow find their way into their own subways or whether the hazardous material accidents could be more than that here in this country.”

A member of the Homeland Security Committee and the Transportation Committee’s Aviation Subcommittee, Norton said that there is an important lesson learned after the necessary shoring up of air security following 9-11. “But by shoring up one mode of transportation, we may be offering a virtual invitation for terrorists to go to the next most vulnerable target,” she said. “That turns out to be rail and mass transit, where we could least afford terrorists events. That is where the American people are.”

Norton's concern about dangerous rail shipments that travel near D.C. neighborhoods and the U.S. Capitol complex, risking the lives of tens of thousands of people, and about possible rail disasters elsewhere, prompted her, and later the D.C. City Council, to seek remedies. When Congress failed to act, the District passed an emergency ban last year that prohibits toxic material shipments within two miles of the Capitol. The ban was put on hold pending the result of a lawsuit by CSX, still in progress.

The underlying bill that the House passed today is comprehensive rail security legislation

that mandates DHS to develop regulations and penalties to increase the security and safety for Amtrak, Metro, buses and similar systems nationwide.