we need to continue to support it and provide the funding that's necessary to move this forward.

Can you help me understand and this Committee understand why, if energy storage is indeed the Holy Grail of technology, we have a budget that drastically defunds our commitment to deploy the energy storage that we need?

Your budget, to its credit, increases the energy storage R&D supported by the Office of Electricity by 5 percent.

Obviously, safety is what is most important here, the safety of the workers, safety of communities that rail traffic flows through.

Chairman DeFazio and I have led a letter that has gone to Amtrak CEO Richard Anderson, asking a number of questions about the reduction in the police force.

It sounded like you hesitated there.

What you need to be doing is making sure that the safety is still there, and I understand that.

I want to make sure that we keep in mind that technology will not replace the necessity for workers.

I am once again a supporter of the two-person crew bill, because it is imperative that our trains remain safe as the industry changes.

expanding workforce development programs is one of my priorities as we head towards surface transportation reauthorization.

See, I have had 900 complaints in my office.