Jack Reed: “I rise to commend Chairman Shelby for his leadership on this issue and Senator Sarbanes for his leadership. I am proud…”

“I rise to commend Chairman Shelby for his leadership on this issue and Senator Sarbanes for his leadership. I am proud to be a cosponsor of this amendment along with Chairman Shelby and Senator Sarbanes. They have said it very well. We understand that transit systems are threatened by terrorists. That understanding was developed after 9/11, but certainly it was sharpened last week with the attack in London that left 52 dead and over 700 injured. We recognize that we have to protect these vulnerable transit systems, and the purpose of this amendment is to provide the resources to do that. There are 6,000 transit systems in the United States, so this money, although it seems significant, will barely keep up with the demands for security improvements to transit systems across the United States. Each day, 14 million riders use transit to get to work, to get to appointments, to get to hospitals, to do what they must do. Let me disabuse the notion that this is just the province of the very biggest metropolises like New York City. In Dallas, for example, on a yearly basis, 55 million trips a year on transit; Houston, 96 million trips a year; Atlanta, 137 million trips per year; Portland, 95 million; Charlotte, NC, 16 million trips per year; Philadelphia, PA, 297 million trips per year; and Minneapolis, 56.9 million trips per year. Millions of Americans each day get on a subway or a bus and use the transit system.…”