I 
109TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. R. 909
To provide for the establishment of a hazardous materials cooperative research 
program. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
FEBRUARY 17, 2005
Mr. CUMMINGS introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com-
mittee on Science, and in addition to the Committee on Transportation 
and Infrastructure, for a period to be subsequently determined by the 
Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within 
the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 
A BILL 
To provide for the establishment of a hazardous materials 
cooperative research program.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Hazardous Materials 
Cooperative Research Act of 2005’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) There are more than 1,000,000 shipments 
per day in the United States of materials identified
as hazardous by the United States Department of 
Transportation. These shipments are estimated to 
total 2,100,000,000 tons of hazardous cargo per 
year and to comprise more than 18 percent of the 
total freight tonnage moved in the United States an-
nually. 
(2) Hazardous materials are shipped by all 
transportation modes and it is estimated that there 
are currently 400,000 large trucks, 115,000 railroad 
tank cars, and 3,000 tank barges dedicated to the 
shipment of hazardous materials. 
(3) More than a dozen Federal agencies have 
regulatory, enforcement, and operational responsibil-
ities for ensuring the safety and security of haz-
ardous materials shipments. In addition, a variety of 
State and local agencies have responsibility for de-
veloping and enforcing State-level regulations and 
for responding to incidents involving hazardous ma-
terials. 
(4) Decisions regarding the packaging and 
routing of hazardous materials shipments, the devel-
opment and implementation of procedures to ensure 
both the safety and security of such shipments, and 
the regulation of hazardous materials shipments are 
made by industry groups and government entities at
a variety of levels and in all modal administrations 
of the Department of Transportation on a daily 
basis. 
(5) The Federal agencies involved in the regula-
tion and oversight of hazardous materials shipments 
as well as State and local governments, carriers, 
shippers, and other groups conduct on-going re-
search on the transportation of hazardous materials. 
However, much of this research is program or mode-
specific and as such is focused on addressing only 
the regulatory, inspection, enforcement, or oper-
ational needs of the group undertaking the research. 
(6) There is a documented need for the estab-
lishment of a cooperative research program that will 
engage all modes and actors, both public and pri-
vate, involved in the transportation of hazardous 
materials in conducting cross-cutting assessments of 
hazardous materials transportation issues that are 
national and multi-modal in scope and application. 
SEC. 3. HAZARDOUS MATERIALS COOPERATIVE RESEARCH 
PROGRAM. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—From the amounts made available 
under section 5127 of title 49, United States Code, the 
Secretary of Transportation may obligate not to exceed
$2,000,000 per fiscal year to develop and administer a 
hazardous materials cooperative research program. 
(b) GOVERNANCE.—The Secretary of Transportation 
shall establish an independent governing board to select 
projects and studies to be carried out under the hazardous 
materials cooperative research program. The Board shall 
be comprised of one voting representative from the fol-
lowing: 
(1) The Federal Aviation Administration. 
(2) The Federal Motor Carrier Administration. 
(3) The Federal Transit Administration. 
(4) The Federal Railroad Administration. 
(5) The Maritime Administration. 
(6) The Research and Innovative Technology 
Administration. 
(7) The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials 
Safety Administration. 
(8) The Department of Homeland Security. 
(9) The Department of Energy. 
(10) The Environmental Protection Agency. 
(11) A State department of transportation. 
(12) A State emergency management agency. 
(13) A nonprofit organization representing 
emergency responders. 
(14) A hazmat employer.
(15) A nonprofit organization representing 
hazmat employees. 
(16) A hazardous materials shipper. 
(17) A hazardous materials manufacturer. 
(18) An organization representing the haz-
ardous materials manufacturing industry. 
(19) A research university or research institu-
tion. 
(20) Additional representatives as the Secretary 
considers appropriate. 
(c) RESEARCH STUDIES.—Under the cooperative re-
search program, the governing board shall select coopera-
tive research studies of hazardous materials transpor-
tation that are cross-cutting in nature and that consider 
issues not adequately addressed by existing Federal or pri-
vate sector research programs. Priority shall be given to 
research studies that will yield results immediately appli-
cable to risk analysis and mitigation or that will strength-
en the ability of first responders to respond to incidents 
and accidents involving transportation of hazardous mate-
rials. 
(d) SPECIAL RULES REGARDING STUDIES.—
(1) SAFETY AND SECURITY.—The purpose of at 
least one of the studies to be conducted under the 
cooperative research program shall be—
(A) to provide an assessment of opportuni-
ties for integrating and supplementing safety 
and security measures for hazardous materials 
transportation; 
(B) to identify areas where safety and se-
curity measures currently utilized in the trans-
portation of hazardous materials conflict or 
complement one another; 
(C) to outline a comprehensive approach to 
hazardous materials transportation that effec-
tively incorporates safety and security proce-
dures; and 
(D) to produce a model of reasonable State 
and local risk response and management plans 
that effectively address safety and security of 
hazardous materials transportation. 
(2) PERFORMANCE
DATA
FOR
BULK
CON-
TAINERS .—The purpose of at least one of the stud-
ies to be conducted under the research program shall 
be to provide—
(A) an analysis of, and recommendations 
for, the design and funding of a nationwide sys-
tem capable of collecting and analyzing per-
formance data from bulk containers involved in 
transportation accidents; and
(B) recommendations that can be used to 
develop conditional release probabilities for var-
ious container design specifications (by trans-
port mode). 
(3) PACKAGING REQUIREMENTS.— The purpose 
of at least one of the studies to be conducted under 
the research program shall be to provide an analysis 
of recommendations on appropriate packaging re-
quirements for those hazardous materials that are 
most frequently involved in release incidents. 
(4) ROUTING.—The purpose of at least one of 
the studies to be conducted under the research pro-
gram shall be to identify the components that could 
comprise a model of risk and consequence analysis 
in rail and highway transportation and that can be 
used to facilitate decisionmaking regarding the rout-
ing of hazardous materials shipments and the devel-
opment of regulations regarding mandatory routing 
decisions. 
(5) RESPONSE COVERAGE.—The purpose of at 
least one of the studies to be conducted under the 
research program shall be to provide an assessment 
of the quality of response coverage for hazardous 
materials incidents, including cost-effective strate-
gies for improving response capabilities and making
recommendations on systematic approaches that 
could be used to allocate government funding to en-
hance response capability. 
(6) RESPONSE GUIDELINES.—The purpose of 
at least one of the studies to be conducted under the 
research program shall be—
(A) to develop a guideline document for 
use by emergency responders and handlers to 
guide their response to incidents involving haz-
ardous materials and to define the roles and re-
sponsibilities of carriers and shippers in event 
response; and 
(B) to detail event response procedures 
that can be consistently applied across all 
modes. 
(e) IMPLEMENTATION.—The Secretary of Transpor-
tation shall make grants to, and enter a cooperative agree-
ment with, the National Academy of Sciences to carry out 
activities under this Act. 
(f) REPORT.—Not later than 1 year after the date 
of enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall transmit a 
report to the Committee on Transportation and Infra-
structure of the House of Representatives and the Com-
mittee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the 
Senate on the effectiveness of the program in meeting the
needs of government and the private sector for cooperative 
research on hazardous materials transportation. 
(g) DEFINITIONS.—In this Act, the terms ‘‘hazmat 
employer’’ and ‘‘hazmat employee’’ have the meaning 
given those terms in section 5102 of title 49, United 
States Code.
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