Date: 2015-03-04
Speaker: SEAN PATRICK MALONEY (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: New York

Mr. Speaker. I offer this amendment today as the final amendment to the bill. I am proud of the bipartisan work that the committee has done. and I want to commend the chairman. Mr. SHUSTER. also Messrs. DEFAZIO. DENHAM. and CAPUANO. and all the staff for the work that went into this legislation. This is a good bill. and it makes key investments in our rail infrastructure and in rail safety. I want to personally thank the chairman for all of his hard work on this bill and for. in particular. including the provisions that I authored on positive train control and grade crossings. the need for which has been so dramatically demonstrated by the terrible accidents in places like Valhalla and Spuyten Duyvil. New York. and recently in Oxnard. California. However. we can make this bill better. My amendment will not kill the bill nor send it back to committee. If adopted. it would proceed immediately to final passage. My amendment simply provides $150 million annually to Amtraks police department to address critical security needs. Amtraks security force is not large. but its task is monumental. protecting nearly 32 million passengers who use Amtrak every year. My amendment gives those security officials the resources they need to prevent and defend against terrorist attacks. From additional canine units to explosive detection equipment. we need to make sure that Amtraks police officers. nationwide. have the capability to protect passengers. The amendment also requires Amtrak to implement a veterans hiring initiative specifically designed to hire veterans with experience working with military dogs. canine units. Amtrak has a long history of providing career opportunities to veterans. as well as Active Duty military members. but under current law is not required to do so. It is not required to seek out veterans for open positions. With more than 200.000 Active Duty servicemembers transitioning to civilian life. we can. today. guarantee that Amtrak will seek out veterans for new hires. In the last 10 years. more than 800 attacks have occurred worldwide against passenger and commuter rail systems. killing thousands. Many of us remember the terrifying images of the terrorist attacks in Madrid and London. In Mumbai. three separate attacks in the last 15 years have killed hundreds of people. All of us here in both parties understand the real dangers our country is facing. I have no doubt that one of the greatest threats we face is to our U.S. rail system. Subways and commuter systems. in particular. remain a top threat. Information taken from Osama bin Ladens very compound in Pakistan indicated that al Qaeda was considering attacks on a number of U.S. rail systems. Our intelligence and law enforcement officials have foiled several threats in just recent years. In 2009. an Afghanborn jihadist plotted to bomb New York subways with devices very similar to those used in the 2005 London attacks. And in 2011. two al Qaedasupported terrorists were arrested after plotting to bomb and derail a train between Toronto and New Yorks Penn Station. At a time with heightened security and growing threats like ISIL. we are asking Amtraks police force to do more with less. Amtrak reports that security funding overall has decreased by more than 50 percent since 2011. We need to reverse this trend to protect the security of our national passenger rail system. I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this commonsense amendment to provide the necessary funding to ensure the safety and security of Amtrak passengers and rail commuters. I yield back the balance of my time.