Federal Railroad Safety Improvement Act of 2007

FEDERAL RAILROAD SAFETY IMPROVEMENT ACT OF 2007 -- (House of Representatives - October 17, 2007)

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Ms. NORTON. Mr. Chairman, I thank the chairman, not only for yielding, but his extraordinarily hard work in preparing this bill, along with my good friend, the gentlewoman from Florida, who together have crafted a bill, working with Mr. Mica and Mr. Shuster, so that what we have before us is a classic bipartisan bill and one that is urgently needed.

This is a public transportation bill, and it looks to a part of our economy upon which we are disproportionately dependent. It also happens to be a mode of transportation that is relatively clean. I got to thinking about the importance of this bill, Mr. Chairman, and I could only think about where we have spent much more time, and that is on air travel. Yet, we have limited the time that pilots, and, for that matter, other air personnel can be on duty and certainly in the air.

Rail employees for decades have simply absorbed the burden of extraordinary numbers of hours away from home, on duty. How have we escaped some catastrophic accidents that would linger in our minds? I think it is only because of the courage and the perseverance of rail personnel, who obviously have worked through fatigue and who have simply taken on their shoulders most of the hardships. I don't even want to think about what the cost of family life has been with regards to children, the cost of being away when there has been an emergency or death in the family or someone is lingering. I just don't want to think about that, because when I do, I am reminded about how late this bill is and how urgent it is.

So I want to thank the chairman, and I want to commend the courage of rail workers, and especially I want to do so as a member of the Homeland Security Committee, which is deeply affected as well.

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