Todd Tiahrt: “I wanted to talk about one of the provisions in this conference report and why I am such an active supporter of it, and…”

“I wanted to talk about one of the provisions in this conference report and why I am such an active supporter of it, and that provision deals with the merger of the Union Pacific and Southern Pacific railroads. This merger has created a significant potential safety and environmental problem which this legislation addresses. Currently, there is a mitigation study being conducted by the Surface Transportation Board, and this study is based on certain data and criteria, that establish how many trains will be coming through Wichita and what the environmental and safety impact, that it will have on the community. In this legislation we have report language that provides a safeguard that will deal with future safety and environmental problems, and I would like to quote just a part of it. It says, ``After the Board has approved the final environmental measures for Wichita, if the Union Pacific Corp. or any of its divisions or subsidiaries materially changes or is unable to achieve the assumptions on which the Board based its final environmental mitigation measures, then the Board should reopen Finance Docket 32760 if requested by interested parties, and prescribe additional mitigation properly reflecting these changes if shown to be appropriate.''”