Political Quotes

“as one of the Democratic cosponsors, I rise in strong support of H.R. 3609. Our pipeline infrastructure is the invisible backbone of this country through which the vast majority of our gasoline and natural gas flows. This bill greatly enhances the safety of all the pipelines by requiring more frequent inspections, additional operator training, greater fines for safety violations, and better measures to protect against terrorist attacks. All these additional enhancements are reached on a bipartisan basis, not only by the Committee on Energy and Commerce but also by my good friends and colleagues on the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. Mr. Speaker, protecting the lives of the folks whom I represent in Houston, Texas, who have lived and worked along pipelines all their lives, is our first priority, even around the country. The vast majority of the pipelines scheduled to be inspected first are those with high population density surrounding them. This commonsense approach will immediately bring the greatest margin of safety to the largest number of people. In addition, all pipelines will be inspected more frequently under this legislation. Because of the increased inspections mandated under the bill, pipeline inspection equipment and the personnel needed to man them should increase at a rapid pace. This will in turn lead to even better inspections and less accidents like we have had in Washington State and New Mexico. This is a great bill.…”