Fra Safety Data Improvement Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. GOTTHEIMER. Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Shuster and Ranking Member DeFazio for their leadership on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, working with me on a bipartisan basis on the FRA Safety Data Improvement Act. Additionally, I want to thank Congressman Mitchell for helping colead this important bill.

In New Jersey, our rails and tunnels are literally crumbling. In a political environment, that is all too often polarized. Democrats and Republicans can certainly find common ground on our infrastructure being deficient, degrading, and incurring accidents that are becoming all too regular.

The American Society of Civil Engineers gave America a D-plus infrastructure rating on their scorecard. New Jersey also received an overall D-plus, with rail and transit in particularly bad shape.

Bergen County, in my district, is the worst in the Northeast for railway crossing crashes. America's infrastructure failure is leading to more and more accidents. In fact, recently, we have seen fatal Amtrak and New Jersey Transit crashes in Hoboken, New Jersey, Washington State, South Carolina, and West Virginia.

We simply can't afford to sit idly by, punting on this urgent need. We need infrastructure investment, but we also need to proactively improve our safety procedures and processes. We need to take on safety in this country. And for all we pay in taxes and tickets, both of which I think are far too high, we cannot play games with the safety of our families and children. From administration to administration, we can't have inconsistencies or delays in implementing rail safety rules.

I am proud to have led on this bipartisan bill to secure America's rails with real safety provisions. The bipartisan FRA Safety Data Improvement Act improves and standardizes reporting and training around railway accidents on railroads like Amtrak and New Jersey Transit. By better standardizing reporting requirements, we can leverage big datasets to improve safety and make smarter decisions. It does so my implementing the DOT's inspector general report and ensuring reporting to Congress on compliance.

The IG found that the Federal Railroad Administration had taken some steps to improve data reporting, but it still lacks standardized reporting and training. This bill codifies steps suggested by the IG, providing more certainty in the safety of our rails.

By allowing us to better leverage bill datasets--and the key here is putting big data to work--this bill will save lives. I urge support and passage of the FRA Safety Data Improvement Act.

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