Date: 2007-03-27
Speaker: LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Florida

Mr. Speaker. I would like to thank my good fridnd. the gentleman from Florida . for the time. I yield myself such time as I may consume. At about 9 a.m. on July 5. 2005. three bombs went off within 50 seconds of each other in the London underground. Less than an hour later there was another explosion in one of Londons doubledecker buses. The bombings killed over 50 people and injured approximately 700. On March 11. 2004. the Spanish people also faced- an attack on their rail system. Like the attacks in London. in that attack the terrorists exploded multiple bombs on four trains packed with early morning commuters. The attacks killed almost 200 and left at least 1.800 injured in Madrid. Mr. Speaker. those attacks were a warning to us on this side of the Atlantic that just as terrorists can take advantage of our airlines to carry out cowardly acts. they can do the same with our public service transportation systems. With this in mind. the House of Representatives last year passed comprehensive rail and mass transit security legislation. The legislation was included in H.R. 5814. the Department of Homeland Security Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007. Unfortunately. the session of Congress ended before that important legislation could be enacted into law. Public transit moves more people on a given day than any other mode of transportation worldwide. Transit sustains the economic vitality of any community. In heavily populated areas like MiamiDade County. one of the counties that I am honored to represent. many people depend on public transit for cost efficiency and convenience. The provision of safe transit requires a significant investment in technology to protect infrastructure. equipment. workers and. of course. the passenger. H.R. 1401 makes it possible for Congress to invest in public transportation security. And in my district. MiamiDade Transit is also responsible for the evacuation of the general public. including disabled persons. in moments of crisis. This bill provides critical funding for evacuation improvements. MiamiDade County would be eligible for funds. regardless of whether the evacuation is due to terrorism or natural disasters. Although MiamiDade Transit has a fleet of over 360 paratransit vehicles and over 1.000 buses and approximately 45 miles of rail. they do not have mobile communication service equipment. This means that all modes do not have a way to communicate with each other during an evacuation procedure. This bill takes into account those needs and provides for security improvements to stations surveillance equipment. public awareness campaigns. and GPS systems. I would like to point out. Mr. Speaker. that this bill includes riskbased grants. In their final report to Congress. the 9/11 Commission criticized the existing process for allocation of Federal homeland security assistance grants. recommending that the distribution not. I quote. "remain a program for general revenue sharing." Given the limited resources of Federal aid. distributing grants based on risk is really the only appropriate way to apportion grants. In order to ensure that our taxpayer funds are spent as efficiently and effectively as possible. we need to focus our resources at those sectors under the greatest threat. When I was a member of the Select Committee on Homeland Security. I worked hard to ensure that Homeland Security grant funds are distributed through riskbased assessments. I commend the -Homeland Security Committee for following through on the recommendation of the 9/11 Commission and including risk as the primary motive for distribution of grants in this legislation. Mr. Speaker. yesterday the Rules Committee met to report out a rule for this legislation. The rule that we are now debating closes out several important and germane amendments. Two amendments by my friend. Mr. MICA. the ranking member of the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. were excluded by the majority on the Rules Committee. even though they were germane and. obviously. from a key committee with jurisdiction. Another of my Florida colleagues. Representative GINNYX BROWNWAITE. offered an amendment last night that would have strengthened protections for all sensitive security information related to rail and mass transit plans and procedures. That amendment also was blocked by the majority on the Rules Committee. I think it was unnecessary and unfortunate for the majority in the Committee on Rules to continue to close the legislative process in the 110th Congress. Mr. Speaker. one thing. an additional point I would like to make. I would like to point out to my colleagues that the majority is now including in this section 2 language which allows the Speaker to postpone consideration of the bill at any time in every rule. It is including that language now in every rule. It Is interesting. since this is a structured rule. which means that the bill will be considered in the Committee of the Whole. This is very precedentsetting because in previous Congresses this language has never been included on structured rules. It is typically only included on a closed rule or a modified closed rule where the bill is being considered in the House and not in the Committee of the Whole. And in previous Congresses it was only included when debate was scheduled to last more than the traditional 1 hour in the House. So I find this strange. because when the House is in the Committee of the Whole. it can simply rise and postpone consideration. I find it curious as to why the new majority is extending this authority now to all rules. even when it doesnt seem necessary. Could it be that the majority is intending to quash the minoritys lone procedural guarantee. the motion to recommit? I am afraid that that may be exactly what it amounts to. Mr. Speaker. because there is no other procedural excuse for this language being included in a structured rule. It is not necessary for the Speaker to have this authority unless they want to postpone consideration just prior to the vote on the motion to recommit. This is just another example. Mr. Speaker. of the seemingly small. yet significant. precedents that the new Democratic majority is setting. creating new ways to silence the voice of the minority. At this time. Mr. Speaker.I reserve the balance of my time.