Jackie Speier: “I thank the ranking member for yielding and the chairman for his leadership as well. As has been mentioned, this bill is…”

“I thank the ranking member for yielding and the chairman for his leadership as well. As has been mentioned, this bill is important in our efforts to make sure that mass transit is under the umbrella for the sharing of information. Let us not forget that in 2004 al Qaeda detonated multiple explosives during rush hour on a packed commuter train in Madrid, Spain, killing 191 people. A little more than a year later in London, a terrorist cell linked to al Qaeda carried out four suicide bombings, three of them on the London Underground, killing more than 50. To date, the United States has not experienced the death and destruction associated with dirty bombs or a mass transit attack. But that doesn't mean we haven't had close calls. In fact, in September of 2009, Najibullah Zazi was arrested in New York City for allegedly plotting to blow up New York City subways. In October 2010, the FBI arrested a man who was plotting a large- scale attack here in Washington, D.C. on the Metro system. Last year he was sentenced to 23 years in Federal prison. Most recently, we learned through documents taken from the compound of Osama bin Laden following the successful Navy SEAL raid that al Qaeda was plotting to attack U.S. mass transit systems to commemorate the 10th anniversary of 9/11. Millions of Americans travel each day on mass transit to work, but these systems, such as subways, have relatively few security measures. This bill will change that.…”