I 

108TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 4361

To provide for the security of public transportation systems in the United 

States, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

MAY 13, 2004

Ms. NORTON (for herself, Mr. TURNER of Texas, Ms. LORETTA SANCHEZ of 

California, Mr. MARKEY, Mr. DICKS, Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts, Ms. 

HARMAN, Ms. SLAUGHTER, Mr. DEFAZIO, Mr. ANDREWS, Ms. LOFGREN, 

Ms. MCCARTHY of Missouri, Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas, Mr. PASCRELL, 

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN, Mr. ETHERIDGE, Mr. LUCAS of Kentucky, Mr. 

LANGEVIN, Mr. MEEK of Florida, Mr. CHANDLER, Mrs. MALONEY, and 

Mr. MATSUI) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 

Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure 

A BILL

To provide for the security of public transportation systems 

in the United States, and for other purposes.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Safe Transit and Rail 

5 Awareness and Investments for National Security Act of 

6 2004’’ or the ‘‘Safe TRAINS Act’’. 
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1 SEC. 2. HOMELAND SECURITY PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION 

2 GRANTS. 

3 (a) AUTHORIZATION.—The Secretary of Homeland 

4 Security is authorized to make grants for the purpose of 

5 improving the security of public transportation systems 

6 against acts of terrorism. The grant program shall be ad7 ministered by the Under Secretary for Border and Trans8 portation Security—

9 (1) in consultation with the Director of the Of10 fice of Domestic Preparedness, to ensure that the 

11 program is consistent with other Department of 

12 Homeland Security grant programs; 

13 (2) with the Assistant Secretary for Infrastruc14 ture Protection to ensure that grant awards are con15 sistent with critical infrastructure risk assessments 

16 and protective priorities as they relate to public 

17 transportation; and 

18 (3) with the Under Secretary for Science and 

19 Technology to ensure that technology aspects of 

20 grant proposals are feasible and generally consistent 

21 with existing technologies and standards. 

22 (b) CONSIDERATIONS.—Among the considerations on 

23 which grants shall be awarded are the following: 

24 (1) Risk of terrorism, including threat assess25 ment, vulnerabilities of public transportation sys26 tems, potential effects of acts of terrorism against 
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1 public transportation systems, and past acts of ter2 rorism against modes of transportation. 

3 (2) Merits of the proposed projects to increase 

4 national security, based on a consideration of—

5 (A) threats; 

6 (B) vulnerabilities; 

7 (C) consequences, including human casual8 ties and economic impacts; 

9 (D) consequence management; 

10 (E) the likelihood that such projects would 

11 have been pursued in the normal course of busi12 ness and in the absence of national security 

13 considerations; and 

14 (F) feasibility, based on the technical and 

15 operational merits of the projects. 

16 (c) ALLOWABLE USE OF FUNDS.—Grants made 

17 under this section shall be used for the purposes of—

18 (1) support for increased capital investments in 

19 cameras, close-circuit television, and other surveil20 lance systems; 

21 (2) increased capital investment in command, 

22 control, and communications systems, including in23 vestments for redundancy and interoperability and 

24 for improved situational awareness, such as emer25 gency call boxes and vehicle locator systems; 
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1 (3) increased training, including for carrying 

2 out exercises under section 3, and technical support 

3 for public transportation employees, especially for 

4 security awareness, prevention, emergency response, 

5 including evacuation, and decontamination; 

6 (4) expanded deployment of equipment and 

7 other measures, including canine detection teams, 

8 for the detection of explosives and chemical, biologi9 cal, radiological, and nuclear agents; 

10 (5) capital improvements and operating activi11 ties, including personnel expenditures, to increase 

12 the physical security of stations, vehicles, bridges, 

13 and tunnels; 

14 (6) capital improvements and operating activi15 ties to improve passenger survivability in the event 

16 of an attack, including improvements in ventilation, 

17 drainage, fire safety technology, emergency commu18 nications systems, lighting systems, passenger 

19 egress, and accessibility by emergency response per20 sonnel; 

21 (7) acquisition of emergency response and sup22 port equipment, including fire suppression and de23 contamination equipment; and 
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1 (8) expansion of employee education and public 

2 awareness campaigns regarding security on public 

3 transportation systems. 

4 (d) ELIGIBLE RECIPIENTS.—Grants shall be made 

5 available under this section directly to owners, operators, 

6 and providers of public transportation systems. Owners, 

7 operators, and providers of infrastructure over which pub8 lic transportation operates, but which is not primarily 

9 used for public transportation, may also be eligible for 

10 grants at the discretion of the Secretary. 

11 (e) ACCOUNTABILITY.—The Secretary shall adopt 

12 necessary procedures, including audits, to ensure that 

13 grants made under this section are expended in accord14 ance with the purposes of this Act and the priorities and 

15 other criteria developed by the Secretary. If the Secretary 

16 determines that a recipient has used any portion of the 

17 grant funds received under this section for a purpose other 

18 than the allowable uses specified for that grant under this 

19 section, the grantee shall return any amount so used to 

20 the Treasury of the United States. 

21 (f) PROCEDURES FOR GRANT AWARD.—The Sec22 retary shall prescribe procedures and schedules for the 

23 awarding of grants under this section, including applica24 tion and qualification procedures, and a record of decision 

25 on applicant eligibility. The Secretary shall issue a final 
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1 rule establishing the procedures not later than 90 days 

2 after the date of enactment of this Act. 

3 (g) COST SHARE.—Grants made under this section 

4 shall account for no more than—

5 (1) 85 percent for fiscal year 2005; 

6 (2) 80 percent for fiscal year 2006; and 

7 (3) 75 percent for fiscal year 2007, 

8 of the expense of the purposes for which the grants are 

9 used. 

10 (h) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 

11 are authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary to carry 

12 out the purposes of this section—

13 (1) $1,200,000,000 for fiscal year 2005; 

14 (2) $900,000,000 for fiscal year 2006; and 

15 (3) $700,000,000 for fiscal year 2007. 

16 Amounts appropriated pursuant to this subsection shall 

17 remain available until expended. 

18 SEC. 3. TRAINING EXERCISES. 

19 (a) GUIDELINES.—Not later than 4 months after the 

20 date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Homeland 

21 Security shall publish guidelines for the conduct by recipi22 ents of grants under section 2 of appropriate exercises for 

23 emergency response and public transportation employee 

24 training purposes. 
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1 (b) PLANS.—Not later than 6 months after receipt 

2 of a grant under section 2, the recipient of such grant 

3 shall transmit to the Secretary its emergency response 

4 plan as well as a plan for conducting exercises for emer5 gency response and public transportation employee train6 ing purposes pursuant to the guidelines published under 

7 subsection (a). 

8 (c) EXERCISES.—

9 (1) REQUIREMENT.—Not later than 1 year 

10 after receipt of a grant under section 2, the recipient 

11 of such grant shall conduct an exercise pursuant to 

12 the plan for conducting exercises transmitted under 

13 subsection (b). 

14 (2) EXEMPTIONS.—The Secretary may exempt 

15 a grant recipient from the requirement under para16 graph (1) if the recipient has recently conducted an 

17 equivalent exercise. 

18 (3) NOTICE AND REPORT.—Not later than 30 

19 days after conducting an exercise under paragraph 

20 (1) or as described in paragraph (2), the recipient 

21 shall notify the Secretary that such exercise has 

22 been completed, including a description of the re23 sults of the exercise and findings and lessons learned 

24 from the exercise, and shall make recommendations 

25 for changes, if necessary, to existing emergency re-
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1 sponse plans. If the recipient revises an emergency 

2 response plan as a result of an exercise under this 

3 subsection, the recipient shall transmit the revised 

4 plan to the Secretary not later than 6 months after 

5 the exercise. 

6 (d) TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE.—The Secretary shall 

7 provide technical assistance in the design, preparation for, 

8 and conduct of emergency response exercises. 

9 (e) USE OF PLANS.—The Secretary shall ensure that 

10 information submitted to the Secretary under this section 

11 is protected from any form of disclosure that might com12 promise public transportation security or trade secrets. 

13 Notwithstanding the preceding sentence, the Secretary 

14 may use such information, on a nonattributed basis unless 

15 otherwise agreed to by the source of the information, to 

16 aid in developing recommendations, best practices, and 

17 materials for use by public transportation authorities to 

18 improve security practices and emergency response capa19 bilities. 

20 SEC. 4. SECURITY BEST PRACTICES. 

21 The Secretary of Homeland Security shall, not later 

22 than 120 days after the date of enactment of this Act, 

23 develop, disseminate to appropriate owners, operators, and 

24 providers of public transportation systems, public trans25 portation employees and employee representatives, and 
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1 Federal, State, and local officials, and transmit to the 

2 Congress a report containing best practices for the secu3 rity of public transportation systems. In developing best 

4 practices, the Secretary shall be responsible for consulting 

5 with and collecting input from owners, operators, and pro6 viders of public transportation systems, public transpor7 tation employee representatives, first responders, industry 

8 associations, private sector experts, academic experts, and 

9 appropriate Federal, State, and local officials. 

10 SEC. 5. PUBLIC AWARENESS. 

11 Not later than 90 days after the date of enactment 

12 of this Act, the Secretary of Homeland Security shall de13 velop a national plan for public outreach and awareness. 

14 Such plan shall be designed to increase awareness of 

15 measures that the general public, public transportation 

16 passengers, and public transportation employees can take 

17 to increase public transportation system security. Such 

18 plan shall also provide outreach to owners, operators, pro19 viders, and employees of public transportation systems to 

20 improve their awareness of available technologies, ongoing 

21 research and development efforts, and available Federal 

22 funding sources to improve public transportation security. 

23 Not later than 9 months after the date of enactment of 

24 this Act, the Secretary shall implement the plan developed 

25 under this section. 
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1 SEC. 6. SECURITY PLAN. 

2 (a) REQUIREMENT.—Not later than 1 year after the 

3 date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Homeland 

4 Security, in coordination with the Secretary of Transpor5 tation and in accordance with the Memorandum of Agree6 ment executed under section 7, shall develop a strategic 

7 plan for the security of the Nation’s public transportation 

8 systems and transmit to Congress a report containing a 

9 summary of that plan. Such plan shall—

10 (1) include a comprehensive assessment of risks 

11 to the Nation’s public transportation systems, in12 cluding an assessment of threats of terrorist attack, 

13 vulnerabilities against terrorist attack, and human, 

14 economic, and national security consequences of ter15 rorist attack; 

16 (2) take into account actions taken or planned 

17 by both public and private entities to address identi18 fied security issues; 

19 (3) describe measures for prevention, protec20 tion, and preparedness, including recommended ac21 tions and best practices (as described in section 4); 

22 (4) make prioritized recommendations for im23 proving public transportation system security; 

24 (5) identify specific actions the Federal Govern25 ment should take to provide increased security sup26 port for public transportation systems, both gen-
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1 erally and in periods of high or severe threat levels 

2 of alert; 

3 (6) identify measures for coordinating initia4 tives undertaken by the public and private sectors to 

5 increase security of public transportation systems; 

6 (7) contain an estimate of the cost to imple7 ment measures, recommendations, and best prac8 tices, and other actions contained within the plan; 

9 (8) identify milestones and timeframes for im10 plementing measures, recommendations, and best 

11 practices, and other actions contained within the 

12 plan; and 

13 (9) identify methods for measuring progress 

14 against the plan and communicating such progress 

15 to owners, operators, and providers of public trans16 portation systems and to Congress. 

17 (b) IMPLEMENTATION.—The Secretary shall begin 

18 implementation of the plan not later than 3 months after 

19 its development. 

20 (c) CONSULTATION; USE OF EXISTING RE21 SOURCES.—In developing the plan under this section, the 

22 Secretary shall be responsible for consulting with and col23 lecting input from owners, operators, and providers of 

24 public transportation systems, public transportation em25 ployee representatives, first responders, industry associa-
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1 tions, private sector experts, academic experts, and appro2 priate Federal, State, and local officials. 

3 (d) FORMAT.—The Secretary may submit the report 

4 in both classified and unclassified formats if the Secretary 

5 considers that such action is appropriate or necessary. 

6 (e) 2-YEAR UPDATES.—The Secretary, in consulta7 tion with the Secretary of Transportation, shall update the 

8 plan every 2 years, as necessary, and transmit such up9 dated report to Congress. 

10 SEC. 7. MEMORANDUM OF AGREEMENT. 

11 Not later than 60 days after the date of enactment 

12 of this Act, the Secretary of Homeland Security and the 

13 Secretary of Transportation shall execute a Memorandum 

14 of Agreement governing the roles and responsibilities of 

15 the Department of Homeland Security and the Depart16 ment of Transportation, respectively, in addressing secu17 rity matters for public transportation systems, including 

18 the process the departments will follow to promote com19 munications, efficiency, and nonduplication of effort. Such 

20 Memorandum of Agreement shall also establish a formal 

21 mechanism to ensure coordination and the timely sharing 

22 of expertise and information between the Department of 

23 Homeland Security and the Department of Transpor24 tation, as appropriate, in public transportation security. 
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1 SEC. 8. NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SECURITY CENTERS. 

2 (a) ESTABLISHMENT.—The Secretary of Homeland 

3 Security shall establish more than 1 but not more than 

4 4 National Transportation Security Centers at institutions 

5 of higher education to assist in carrying out this Act and 

6 to conduct research and education, and to develop or pro7 vide professional training, including the training of public 

8 transportation employees and public transportation-re9 lated professionals, with emphasis on utilization of intel10 ligent transportation systems, technologies, and architec11 tures. 

12 (b) CRITERIA.—The Secretary shall designate the 

13 Centers according to the following selection criteria: 

14 (1) The demonstrated commitment of the insti15 tution to transportation security issues. 

16 (2) The use of and experience with partnerships 

17 with other institutions of higher education, Federal 

18 laboratories, or other nonprofit laboratories. 

19 (3) Capability to conduct both practical and 

20 theoretical research and technical systems analysis. 

21 (4) Utilization of intelligent transportation sys22 tem technologies and architectures. 

23 (5) Ability to develop professional training pro24 grams. 

25 (6) Capability and willingness to conduct edu26 cation of transportation security professionals. 
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1 (7) Such other criteria that the Secretary may 

2 designate. 

3 (c) FUNDING.—The Secretary shall provide such 

4 funding as is necessary to the National Transportation Se5 curity Centers established under subsection (a) to carry 

6 out this section. 

7 SEC. 9. WHISTLEBLOWER PROTECTION. 

8 (a) IN GENERAL.—No employee or other person may 

9 be harassed, prosecuted, held liable, or discriminated 

10 against in any way—

11 (1) because that person—

12 (A) has commenced or caused to be com13 menced, or is about to commence; 

14 (B) has testified or is about to testify at; 

15 or 

16 (C) has assisted or participated in, or is 

17 about to assist or participate in any manner in, 

18 a proceeding or any other action to enhance public 

19 transportation security; or 

20 (2) because that person has refused to violate 

21 or assist in the violation of any law, rule, or regula22 tion related to public transportation security. 

23 (b) APPLICATION OF SARBANES-OXLEY ACT OF 2002 

24 AMENDMENTS.—
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1 (1) CIVIL ACTION TO PROTECT AGAINST RETAL2 IATION IN FRAUD CASES.—Section 1514A of title 

3 18, United States Code, shall apply to subsection (a) 

4 of this section as if—

5 (A) an act or refusal to act described in 

6 subsection (a) were described in such section 

7 1514A; and 

8 (B) a violation of subsection (a) were a 

9 violation of such section 1514A(a). 

10 (2) RETALIATING AGAINST A WITNESS, VICTIM, 

11 OR INFORMANT.—Section 1513(e) of title 18, United 

12 States Code, shall apply to a violation of subsection 

13 (a) of this section as if the violation of subsection 

14 (a) were a violation of such section 1513. 

15 SEC. 10. DEFINITION. 

16 For the purposes of this Act—

17 (1) the term ‘‘public transportation employees’’ 

18 means security personnel, dispatchers, vehicle and 

19 vessel operators, other onboard employees, mainte20 nance and support personnel, and other appropriate 

21 employees of owners, operators, and providers of 

22 public transportation systems; and 

23 (2) the term ‘‘public transportation systems’’ 

24 means passenger, commuter, and light rail, including 
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1 Amtrak and subways, buses, commuter ferries, and 

2 other modes of public transit.

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