Political Quotes

“I thank Mr. Joyce for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of my legislation, H.R. 1313, the Transit Security Grant Program Flexibility Act. The Transit Security Grant Program provides needed funds to transit agencies to protect critical surface transportation infrastructure and the traveling public from acts of terrorism. With billions of riders using surface transportation annually, and limited security screening, it should come as no surprise that surface transportation has been, and continues to be, a terror target. We have witnessed multiple attacks overseas: the bombings of commuter trains in Madrid, the metro station bombing in Brussels, the bombing of the tube in London. In New York, we saw, in 2019, there was an attempted liquid explosive attack, which, if successful, would have killed many, many hundreds. And then, soon after that, there was a planned attack against the Long Island Railroad, in my own district, carried out by Bryant Neal Vinas, who was then in Afghanistan plotting the attack. And more recently and much closer to home, we witnessed the 2017 New York Port Authority bombing, which the Speaker is well aware of, involving our city. With the continual calls from ISIS and other extremist groups for lone-wolf attacks to target crowded areas, we must ensure the first responders and transit agencies have the tools needed to secure our transit systems.…”