Richard Blumenthal

It carries about 90,000 vehicles a day, and it will have a huge impact in creating congestion, from Florida to Maine.

In other words, you will issue a regulation that might have saved his life.

The $5,000 penalty, under those circumstances of neglect, the severity of the consequences, the seriousness of the safety violations, is atrociously inadequate as a measure of what happened here.

I continue to believe that there has to be attention to the penalty provisions to make sure that they are commensurate with the kind of neglect and failing that we've seen at Metro-North on occasion to deter that kind of violation of basic…

A lot of riders have lost trust and confidence, not only in the railroad, but also in the enforcement authority of the FRA

These relatively minuscule penalties... plainly, I think, provide an inadequate deterrent to violation-of-safety standards.

The experience of Metro-North... provides a national poster railroad in culminating years of neglect and systematic and cultural failure.

Standards need to be sufficiently high, they need to be enforced rigorously, and that penalties have to provide a deterrent to violation of them.

I truly believe that the GROW AMERICA Act is a logical and important step forward in improving hazardous materials transportation safety.

The Highway Trust Fund will go broke in July, just next month.

The funding for that system expires at the end of September, and there's a need to reauthorize the Nation's surface transportation law.

We are here at a moment of tremendous promise and peril for our Nation's transportation system.

If they're on the books and they're not enforced, they're dead letter.

Only the FBI has the resources, expertise, and authority to do the kind of prompt and effective investigation that is absolutely vital to restore and sustain the trust and confidence of the American public and our Nation's veterans, our…

Would you agree with me that the alleged criminality that has been raised so far--I stress 'alleged'--would provide a predicate for FBI investigation?

I hope that perhaps the FBI can do more to make them more useful as sources of data on gun violence.

I have been dismayed and outraged by some of the revelations about the secret records, destruction of records, false statements.

Would you agree with me that if there are credible and reliable indications of false statements to Federal officials, destruction of Federal records, obstruction of Federal investigation--all of them have been alleged, and they are…

I think that is a determination that unites us in this room and that accountability means changing the team, if necessary, at VA.

All of you, I believe, would agree with me that the investigation should be as hard hitting, aggressive, thorough, and prompt as possible.

I urged the Secretary of VA, Secretary Shinseki, to strongly consider--in fact, I recommended that he involve the Department of Justice because there is ample evidence--and, I emphasize, evidence, not just allegations--of criminal…

I want to thank all of the leaders here for your presence today, but also your tireless and relentless work on behalf of the veterans of America.

And would it not be appropriate to ask for assistance from the Federal Bureau of Investigation or some other similar agency...

Can you commit that within 3 weeks, you will have a report for us?

Do you not believe as I certainly believe, that there is a responsibility from the IG to complete this report as quickly as possible