James Oberstar

Mr. OBERSTAR

Mr. OBERSTAR. Madam Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 2671, a bill to designate the Federal courthouse located at 301 North Miami Avenue, Miami, in the Southern District of Florida as the ``C. Clyde Atkins United States Courthouse''. Judge C. Clyde Atkins was born on November 23, 1914, in Washington, DC. He graduated from the University of Florida College of Law in 1936. He practiced law as a partner in the law firm of Walton, Lantaff, Shroeder, Atkins, Carson, and Wahl for more than 25 years, from 1941 to 1966. In 1966, judge Atkins was appointed to the District Court in the Southern District of Florida by President Lyndon B. Johnson. He served first as a district judge, then as chief judge, and eventually as a senior judge. During his time on the Federal bench, Judge Atkins presided over a number of landmark cases, including the unprecedented desegregation of Dade County schools in 1969. In 1970, he presided over an important environmental case and ruled that there was a public interest in protecting wildlife from discharge from a nuclear plant into Biscayne Bay. Judge Atkins found the City of Miami guilty of a pattern of harassment of the City's homeless population and showed great courage in overturning Federal policies that required the repatriation of Haitian and Cuban refugees at Guantanamo Bay. Judge Atkins often made these rulings with little fanfare but always with a deep, abiding respect for the rule of law and equality. He was respected because of his application of the law without respect to race, creed, religion, or national origin. He was also very active in the Catholic Church, and he was named a Knight of St. Gregory by Pope Paul VI. Judge Atkins died in 1999 at the age of 84. I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting H.R. 2671.

Mr. OBERSTAR

Mr. OBERSTAR. Madam Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 2728, a bill to designate the border station of the United States Border Patrol located at 25762 Madison Avenue in Murrieta, California, as the ``Theodore L. Newton, Jr., and George F. Azrak Border Patrol Station''. On June 17, 1967, United States Border Patrol Inspectors Theodore L. Newton, Jr., and George F. Azrak were killed in the line of duty while working the late-night shift at a checkpoint along the U.S.-Mexico border. While examining a vehicle intercepted for suspected drug smuggling, the two inspectors were kidnapped and later killed. As a result of the tragic deaths of these two men, the U.S. Border Patrol now requires that a minimum of three to five agents work each checkpoint, depending on a variety of factors, along with a back-up unit. In addition to this requirement for increased manpower, the Border Patrol has also enhanced the training and support that all Border Patrol agents receive. In honor of these two inspectors, the Border Patrol annually bestows upon its bravest agents the Newton-Azrak Award. Eligibility for the award is based on the demonstration of unusual courage in the line of duty or a heroic or humane act during times of extreme stress or in an emergency. In addition, the National Border Patrol Museum in El Paso, Texas, has a permanent memorial display in honor of Inspectors Newton and Azrak. Designating the United States Border Patrol Station in southern California as the ``Theodore L. Newton, Jr., and George F. Azrak Border Patrol Station'' is a fitting tribute to honor the bravery and service of these men. Their valor has served as an inspiration for a generation of Border Patrol agents that have followed them in service to their country. I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting H.R. 2728.

Mr. OBERSTAR

Mr. OBERSTAR. Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of H. Res 772, to recognize the American Highway Users Alliance on the occasion of its 75th anniversary. Our Nation's roadways truly are the lifeblood of our economy and an integral part of our everyday lives. Our highway system unites Americans from every state and allows us to explore the diverse culture, geography, and attractions that America has to offer. Highways are critical to the mobility of our Nation by enabling the extensive movement of goods and people. Our highways make it possible for Americans to take more than 660 million trips to visit friends and family every year, and more than 110 million Americans use the highways to commute to and from work. People will travel three trillion miles on our Nation's roads this year. Without our national highway system, America would be a far different place. The need to connect America with a system of interstate highways was obvious to President George Washington in the first year after our Nation was founded. While traveling to the Ohio country on horseback, Washington observed the isolation and vulnerability caused by a lack of interstate mobility. He also saw the economic impact that an interstate road would have for the viability and survival of the new Nation, and called for the development of a trans-Appalachian road to unify the young Nation. That route was authorized by Congress in 1806, and the ``National Road'' (later known as U.S. Route 40) became the first federally funded road in U.S. history. A young Dwight Eisenhower came to a similar conclusion while accompanying an Army convoy from Washington, D.C., to San Francisco in 1919. Eisenhower found that the state of America's transportation system was deficient. Years later, as the Supreme Allied Commander in the Second World War, Eisenhower was impressed by the ability of the autobahns to move military material rapidly across Germany. As President, Eisenhower would sign into law the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 which authorized the Interstate Highway System and established the Highway Trust Fund. The American Highway Users Alliance was instrumental to the passage of this landmark transportation legislation. Founded in 1932, the American Highway Users Alliance has been a persistent and outspoken proponent for our Nation's highway. Known as the ``Highway Users'', the alliance has voiced the interests of motorists and businesses on major national highway and traffic safety legislation over the past 75 years. The Highway Users has worked tirelessly to protect the integrity of the Highway Trust Fund and State highway trust funds. Madam Speaker, the Highway Users has been a consistent advocate in favor of strengthening the national highway network by promoting a strong Federal role in mobility and safety and by advocating policies that benefit all highway users. For these and other contributions to the daily lives, the economic well-being, and the health and safety of the traveling public, I rise to recognize the outstanding achievements of the American Highway Users Alliance and its sustained contribution in service to our Nation, and to recognize the Alliance's 75th anniversary.

Mr. OBERSTAR

Mr. OBERSTAR. Mr. Chairman, the essential issue here is not whether the noxious fumes, whether the groundwater pollution caused by solid waste deposited on rail property should be regulated. The question here is whether the language and the manner in which the gentleman proposes to prevent those effects upon nearby communities is in interference with the authority and the preemption authority of the Federal Railroad Administration. Mr. Mulvey, one of the commissioners of the Surface Transportation Board, said, ``I believe that an amendment such as this is necessary to redress the growing misuse of Federal railroad preemption law . . . with respect to solid waste transload facilities.'' But he, too, expresses concerns that it could be interpreted too broadly to frustrate the zoning of legitimate solid waste transfer facilities. This is an issue, he says, that can be worked out. It can be worked out, and we are committed to doing so, with participation of the gentleman from Pennsylvania.

Mr. OBERSTAR. If the gentlewoman would yield, the language is very broad. It says: Such sums as may be necessary to design and develop a pilot electric conveyor system. But I think that is not limited to one. That is broad enough language to be interpreted as to embrace more than one such project. It would be done by the Department of Transportation through the Federal Railroad Administration with appropriated funds. But also, the applicant has the authority under existing law in the SAFETEA-LU bill to apply for some of the $35 billion in railroad infrastructure loan funding.

Mr. OBERSTAR. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to this rather frivolous amendment.

Mr. OBERSTAR. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman and colleagues, we gather here for an historic moment in the history of transportation, particularly the history of rail transportation. And I'm glad there are so many Members still gathered on the floor to listen to an erudite conversation that we are going to have on both sides of the aisle about the history of rail safety. Although our committee has had jurisdiction over the rail sector for the past dozen years, this is the first time the committee has brought a rail safety authorization bill to the House floor. It is, in fact, only the second time in 100 years that the House will consider amendments, adjustments to the hours of service rule in the rail sector. We bring to you an important bill that addresses long-neglected failings and shortcomings of safety in the rail sector that will make the railroad safer in the future; that will make jobs for workers in that sector safer in the future; that will make safer passage through towns through which railroads pass, often with toxic substances, toxic chemicals, frankly, the safest way to move those substances, but we are going to make it safer with this legislation. I particularly want to thank the distinguished Chair of the Subcommittee on Railroads, the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Corrine Brown) for her persistent leadership, persistent efforts over the past years of service on the committee in support of rail safety; and the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Mica), ranking member of the full committee, participating in substantive discussions that resulted in compromises that we bring to the floor; and to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Shuster), who has a large rail presence in his own district and, of course, in the State of Pennsylvania. In each of the past five Congresses, I have introduced for consideration by the committee broad scope rail safety legislation and pledged that if it isn't considered in each of those Congresses, when the majority would turn and I would have the opportunity to lead the committee, that we would move such legislation. And today we deliver on that commitment. The discussions that we had were inclusive. They were extensive. They were intensive. There were adjustments made on both sides with the result that, as the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Lincoln Diaz-Balart) said during consideration of the rule, this is a bipartisan bill. The Federal Railroad Administration has reported that the total number of train accidents, collisions, derailments, and others increased from 2,504 in 1994 over the next decade to 3,325 in 2005. Thankfully, over the last year, that number decreased to 2,925. Those improvements in rail safety statistics are a good sign. But I know from more than 25 years of chairing subcommittees on safety issues that we have a long way to go. Serious accidents resulting in fatalities, injuries, and environmental damages continue to occur and will continue to occur. Equipment can fail, people make mistakes, storms happen that cause those accidents. But we have to do everything that is possible in our realm to make sure that those accidents are minimized. Safety requires constant vigilance by workers on the job, by employers, by government safety oversight agencies, and by the Congress. Whether it is in mining, whether in maritime, whether in aviation, trucking, highway passenger vehicle traffic, or in the railways, vigilance is the key to safety. Safety, I define, is the relative absence of risk. And when we apply that standard to every mode of transportation and we enforce it, we will achieve greater protection of the public interest. The FRA says that 40 percent of all train accidents result from human factors, and that's a comparable number in the other modes of transportation as well. In railroading, one in four of those accidents results from fatigue. In testimony at our committee hearings, the National Transportation Safety Board said, ``The current railroad hours of service laws permit, and many rail carriers require, the most burdensome, fatigue-inducing work schedule of any federally regulated transportation mode in the country.'' And a comparison of the modes is revealing. A commercial part 121 airline pilot can work up to 100 hours a month. A part 135, generally known as a charter operation, can work up to 120 hours a month. Shipboard personnel on ocean-going vessels can work up to 360 hours a month. A truck driver can be on duty for 350 hours a month. But in train crews, they can be on duty up to 432 hours a month. That's 14 hours a day for each of those 30 days. Fatigue sets in. Fatigue causes people to lose concentration, to lose focus, to lose control. Vince Lombardi said, ``Fatigue makes cowards of us all.'' He didn't mean physical cowards. He meant inability to make the right judgments. And that's what fatigue does in the workplace. If you have any question about it, look at some of the things we say around this body at 2, 3 or 4 o'clock in the morning after 14 or 16 hours of debate. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense when you listen to it or when you read it. And it doesn't make any better sentence in the locomotive. Congress made some slight modifications to the hours of service law in 1969, but this bill is the first major reform of rail hours of service standards since 1907. Our duty is to make hours of service safer and better. And this bill provides signal and train crews with rest, prohibits them from working more than 12 hours in a day, limits limbo time. I said in the beginning of the hearing, if it was good enough for the Pope to eliminate limbo, it ought to be good enough for the Congress to at least limit it in rail service. The bill also requires all class 1 railroads to implement a positive train control system, which was the NTSB's most wanted transportation safety improvement since this was developed in 1990. The legislation also addresses track safety. In 2006, track-related accidents surpassed human factors as the leading cause of all train accidents. Just look at the list. Most recently, in Oneida, New York; Pico Rivera in California; Home Valley in Washington; Minot, North Dakota; Nodaway, Iowa. All of them raise serious questions about the condition and the safety of the track on the Nation's railways, call into question the adequacy of track safety regulation and FRA's, Federal Railroad Association's, oversight of those conditions. This bill requires the railroads to inspect their tracks, to look for internal defects, and provides increased funding for Federal Railroad Administration for track inspection technology, and strengthens enforcement at the Federal Railroad Administration. FRA investigated just 13 percent of the most serious grade crossing collisions. We've got to do better than that. In 2004, the FAA conducted onsite investigations of 1,392, 93 percent of the aviation accidents that FAA had responsibility for investigating, but the FRA did only 13 percent. That's not good enough. That's not conducting oversight. That's not accepting and exercising your governmental oversight responsibility and responsibility to the public. We increase the number of inspectors for safety at the FRA. We will double the number of Federal rail safety inspectors over the next 4 years. And we do many other items that are of great importance. I will include in the Record at this point the committee document that lists in specific detail all those safety improvements. H.R. 2095, The Federal Railroad Safety Improvement Act of 2007 Reauthorizes the FRA Establishes the FRSA. Re-establishes the Federal Railroad Administration as the Federal Railroad Safety Administration (FRSA), which shall consider the assignment and maintenance of safety as the highest priority. Creates a new position of Chief Safety Officer. Rail Safety Strategy. Requires the Secretary to develop a long-term strategy for improving rail safety, which must include an annual plan and schedule for, among other things, reducing the number and rates of accidents, injuries, and fatalities involving railroads. Reports. Requires regular reporting from the Department of Transportation's Inspector General and the National Transportation Safety Board on the FRSA's progress in implementing statutory mandates and open safety recommendations. Financing. Increases funding for the Federal rail safety program for fiscal years 2008 through 2011, as follows: $230 million for FY2008; $260 million for FY2009; $295 million for FY2010; and $335 million for FY2011. In addition, $18 million is authorized for the design, development, and construction of the Facility for Underground Rail Station and Tunnel at the Transportation Technology Center in Pueblo, Colorado. Worker and Public Safety Hours of Service Reform. Provides signal and train crews with additional rest; prohibits them from working in excess of 12 hours; extends hours-of-service standards to railroad contractors; limits limbo time; eliminates the use of camp cars; and requires railroads to develop fatigue management plans. Training. Establish minimum training standards for railroad workers, and requires the certification of conductors and carmen. Medical Attention. Prohibits railroads from denying, delaying, or interfering with the medical or first aid treatment of injured workers, and from disciplining those workers that request treatment. Also requires railroads to arrange for immediate transport of injured workers to the nearest hospital. Emergency Escape Breathing Apparatus. Provides emergency breathing apparatus for all crewmembers on freight trains carrying hazardous materials that would pose an inhalation hazard in the event of unintentional release. Installation of Safety Technologies. Mandates implementation of positive train control by December 31, 2014, and authorizes the FRSA to establish a grant program to assist railroads in implementing this requirement. Also requires railroads to either install technologies in nonsignaled territories that alert train crews of misaligned switches or operate trains in such areas at speeds that will allow them to safely stop in advance of a misaligned switch. Rail Passenger Disaster Family Assistance. Directs the NTSB to establish a program to assist victims and their families involved in a passenger rail accident, modeled after a similar aviation disaster program. Track Safety Internal Rail Defects. Requires railroads to conduct inspections to ensure that rail used to replace defective segments of existing rail is free from internal defects, and to perform integrity inspections to manage an annual service failure rate of less than 0.1 per track mile on high-risk corridors. Also encourages railroad use of advanced rail defect inspection equipment and similar technologies as part of a comprehensive rail inspection program. Concrete Crossties. Directs the FRSA to develop and implement regulations for all classes of track for concrete rail ties. Inspection Technologies. Directs the FRSA to purchase, with amounts appropriated, six Gage Restraint Measurement System vehicles and five track geometry vehicles to enable the deployment of one Gage Restraint Measurement System vehicle and one track geometry vehicle in each region. Grade Crossing Safety Toll Free Number to Report Grade Crossing Problems. Requires the railroads to establish and maintain a toll-free telephone number for reporting malfunctions of grade crossing signals, gates, and other devices and disabled vehicles blocking railroad tracks. Sight Distance. Directs the railroads to remove overgrown vegetation at grade crossings, which can obstruct the view of approaching pedestrians and vehicles. Accident and Incident Reporting. Requires the FRSA to conduct periodic audits of railroads to ensure they are reporting all accidents and incidents the National Accident Database. National Crossing Inventory. Requires railroads to report current information, including information about warning devices and signage, on grade crossings to enable the FRSA to maintain an accurate inventory of such crossings. State Action Plan. Requires the Secretary to identify on an annual basis the top 10 States that have had the most grade crossing collisions, and to work with them to develop a State Grade Crossing Action Plan that identifies specific solutions for improving safety at grade crossings. Emergency Grade Crossing Improvements. Establishes a grant program to provide emergency grade crossing safety improvements at locations where there has been a grade crossing collision involving a school bus or multiple injuries/fatalities. Enforcement Civil Penalties. Increases civil penalties for certain rail safety violations from $10,000 to $25,000. The minimum civil penalty remains $500. For grossly negligent violations or a pattern of repeated violations, the maximum civil penalty is increased from $20,000 under current law to not more than $100,000. Criminal Penalties. Increases the maximum penalty for failing to me an accident or incident report from $500 to $2,500. Enforcement Transparency. Requires the FRA to provide a monthly updated summary to the public of all railroad enforcement actions taken by the Secretary. Safety Investigations. Makes it unlawful for any person to knowingly interfere with, obstruct, or hamper an investigation by the Secretary of Transportation or the National Transportation Safety Board. Railroad Radio Monitoring. Authorizes the FRSA to intercept and record certain railroad radio communications for the purpose of correcting safety problems and mitigating the likelihood of accidents or incidents. Inspector Staffing. Doubles the number of Federal rail safety inspectors by December 31, 2011. Other Tunnel Information. Requires railroads to maintain certain information related to structural inspections and maintenance activities for tunnels, and requires those railroads to provide periodic briefings to the government of the local jurisdictions in which the tunnels are located, including updates whenever a repair or rehabilitation projects alters the methods of ingress and egress into and out of the tunnels. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. OBERSTAR. Mr. Chairman, I yield 5 minutes to the distinguished Chair of our Rail Subcommittee, Ms. Brown, the gentlelady from Florida.

Mr. OBERSTAR. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself 15 seconds. I thank the gentleman for his comments, for his support of the bill. I am delighted to learn that the gentleman spent so much time on the railroad going through college. We share that. I worked on the rail during my years in the iron ore mines. I worked those double-aught shifts, as well, and I know how hard hours of service are and how important it is for us to put those limits on. I now yield 3 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Salazar).

Mr. OBERSTAR. I would like to inquire of the time remaining on both sides.

Mr. OBERSTAR. I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Napolitano).

Mr. OBERSTAR. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself 1\1/2\ minutes to point out that although the gentleman is right, the FRA did deny Union Pacific, the denial is ``without prejudice to the submission of a future request addressing the same subject matter,'' so the issue remains alive and it seems appropriate to address it in this manner. The gentleman does raise a concern about the NAFTA agreement and such language might run in contravention, but safety always trumps other issues. In our aviation trade agreements with other countries, the U.S. rules on safety prevail over those of the trading nation. We are elevating this whole role of safety in the FRA and changing its title to the Federal Railroad Safety Administration. I think we should explore further in that context and with relationship to aviation the effect of NAFTA and the effect this language might have within NAFTA, and I will be glad to pursue that with the gentleman. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. OBERSTAR. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Corrine Brown).

Mr. OBERSTAR. Under the rule, the gentlewoman from California has the right to close on her amendment?

Mr. OBERSTAR. Mr. Chairman, with the further caveat about the issues raised by the gentleman from Pennsylvania about the possible effect on NAFTA, a matter going forward we can review with the appropriate authorities, I urge support for the amendment of the gentlewoman from California. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. OBERSTAR. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself 5 seconds. Mr. Chairman, I express my great sympathy to the gentleman from Ohio on the tragedy, and for his description of it, and also my appreciation for his kind words about our work on the committee. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Lipinski), whose district includes the greatest confluence of rail in the whole country.

Mr. OBERSTAR. Mr. Chairman, at this time I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentlewoman from the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton).

Mr. OBERSTAR. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. McCarthy).

Mr. OBERSTAR. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Rodriguez).

Mr. OBERSTAR. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself the balance of my time. Mr. Chairman, I again want to express my great appreciation to Ms. Brown for years of advocacy for rail issues and for her championing of the rail safety matters, and to thank the distinguished gentleman from Pennsylvania, who has devoted a great deal of energy and time and effort to rail from his first day on the committee, asking the committee to hold a hearing in 2001 in his district on rail maintenance yard issues and continuation of rail service. It turned out to be a very enlightening hearing. He has remained engaged in the issues. As the gentleman said a moment ago, we did not just throw issues on the table; we rather sat around the table after the hearings and discussed in detail repeatedly subject matters, made concessions on each side, adjustments, understanding each other's concerns, and reached not the ideal of each side, but ideal in the best public interest. The result is, I believe, a bill that substantially advances the cause of rail safety. I must say in passing that it diminishes the substance of the bill to say that it is, as the previous speaker did, a gift to rail labor. This is a gift to all Americans, to all residents of communities that are home to railroads, to rail makeup yards through which the goods of America move, through which the coal and the grain and the containers move. It is safety for them. It is safety for the workers on the railroads. It is in the best interest of all America. I urge passage of the bill.

Mr. OBERSTAR. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. OBERSTAR. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. OBERSTAR. Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment.

Mr. OBERSTAR

Mr. OBERSTAR. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks on the bill, H.R. 2095, and to include extraneous material in the Record pertinent thereto.

Mr. OBERSTAR

Mr. OBERSTAR. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that in the engrossment of H.R. 2095, the Clerk be authorized to correct section numbers, punctuation, cross-references, and to make such other technical and conforming changes as may be necessary to accurately reflect the actions of the House.