(Washington, DC) - On May 14, 2009, the Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials held a hearing on Reauthorization of the Department of Transportation’s Hazardous Materials Safety Program.  "The discussion at the hearing, and work conducted by the Subcommittee leading up to and following that hearing, has led me to believe that the agency charged with overseeing the safety of hazardous materials transportation in this country (the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration) is not doing what it should be doing to protect the safety of the traveling public," said Congresswoman Brown.

The Congresswoman continued:  "we are seeing problems with the way in which they handle data collection and analysis, special permits and approvals, coordination with the modal administration, and enforcement…and while we are still looking into all of these issues, I can guarantee that we are going to get to the bottom of what is going on there and then address those issues in the transportation reauthorization bill," said the Congresswoman.

The Congresswoman added that "we need increased oversight and compliance.  Indeed, one of the very important and serious responsibilities of Congress is to provide oversight of precisely this kind.  Moreover, we need to ensure that we coordinate and communicate effectively with all of the local agencies so they can arrive on the scene of any potentially dangerous incident fully prepared.  Obviously, any one of these types of spills could prove to be disastrous for the population in the immediate area, and, as committee members, we need to possess all the data available to be able to make informed decisions on how to recommend and implement sound policy that will prevent these types of accidents in the future."

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