Chuck Schumer: “This amendment deals with rail security. It is rail security and transit grants. Now, first, I do want to say that we…”

“This amendment deals with rail security. It is rail security and transit grants. Now, first, I do want to say that we are providing $278 million for these grants. The amendment by my friend from West Virginia raised the amount to that. But it is not close to enough when we are considering that rail is one of the great dangers we face in this war on terrorism. If anything, we have learned since last year's appropriations bill that al-Qaida has chosen rail as one of its methods of terror. Our rail systems, whether they be mass transit, subways, commuter rails, passenger rails, freight rails, are utterly unprotected. While we are making small steps in the direction of protecting them, we are not moving close to quickly enough. Despite the significant threat to transit systems, the funding for transit security has been grossly inadequate. Over the last 2 years, Congress appropriated only $115 million in transit security: $65 million in fiscal year 2003; $50 million--less-- in 2004. The administration's budget requested no additional funding.”