Transportation Security Administration Authorization Act

Floor Speech

TRANSPORTATION SECURITY ADMINISTRATION AUTHORIZATION ACT -- (House of Representatives - June 04, 2009)

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Mr. BILIRAKIS. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of H.R. 2200, the Transportation Security Administration Authorization Act. This bill will help to enhance our Nation's transportation security and contains many important provisions.

I'm particularly pleased that the manager's amendment includes a provision I authored to clarify the roles and responsibilities of the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Transportation with respect to the security of pipelines. I thank Chairman Thompson for working with me on this issue and for including this in the manager's amendment.

Over the past 36 years, there have been multiple instances of individuals rupturing pipelines in areas surrounding my district. Most recently in November 2007, three teenagers drilled into an anhydrous ammonia pipeline after being told that the pipeline contained money. The pipeline breach necessitated the evacuation of nearly 300 people in my district.

At the time, local officials received conflicting guidance from the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Transportation about whether this was a security incident or a safety incident.

My provision seeks to resolve issues of this sort by requiring the Comptroller General to study the roles and responsibilities of the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Transportation with respect to pipelines and report the results of the study to the Committee on Homeland Security within 6 months.

Finally, my amendment requires the Secretary of Homeland Security to review and analyze the GAO study and report to the Committee on Homeland Security on her review and analysis, including recommendations for changes to the Annex to the Memorandum of Understanding between DHS and DOT or other improvements to pipeline security activities at DHS. Clarifying the respective roles of DHS and DOT will help to ensure that the officials in the areas that we represent do not receive conflicting guidance in the event of a future pipeline breach.

I'm also pleased that the bill includes my provision that would provide reimbursement to airports that used their own funding to install explosive detective systems after 9/11. These airports installed such systems after receiving assurances from the Federal Government that they would be reimbursed. However, to date, they have not been reimbursed.

Congress addressed this issue in section 1604 of the Implementing Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Act. But despite this explicit direction in 2007, TSA has not yet reimbursed a single eligible airport. My provision requires TSA to establish a process for resolving reimbursement claims within 6 months of receiving them. It also requires TSA to report to the Committee on Homeland Security an outline of the process used for the consideration for reimbursement claims, including a reimbursement schedule. This is a commonsense provision that will ensure that airports that did the right thing to protect the traveling public after the September 11th attacks will finally get the reimbursement they were promised by TSA and Congress.

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