Al Green: “I am offering an amendment not only on my behalf but also the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Udall) and the gentleman from…”

“I am offering an amendment not only on my behalf but also the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Udall) and the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Vitter), from what I understand, to require the Secretary of Transportation to report to Congress, on my part of the amendment, and the NTSB on the status of any recommendation that the NTSB has made on railroad grade crossing safety. My community in Houston has a serious problem with railroad grade crossings; but it is a national problem, also. There are roughly 260,000 at-grade crossings in the U.S. In 4 years, from 1999 to 2002, over 1,600 people were killed in crossing accidents. Thousands of these at-grade crossings have no protection devices at all, no lights, no barriers. Even in urban areas we have no protection.”