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July 12, 2005
The Honorable Daniel Akaka
United States Senate
141 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Dear Senator Akaka:
In light of the despicable and horrific terrorist attacks on London's subway and bus system last week and on Madrid's last year, I write on behalf of the 1,500 member organizations of the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) regarding the Fiscal Year 2006 Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Appropriations bill. We strongly urge you to support the amendment which may come up as early as today sponsored by Senators Shelby, Sarbanes, Dole and Reed that would provide $1.166 billion for transit security grants.
The events in London and Madrid demonstrate once again that public transit riders are targets of terrorists and that much greater investment is clearly needed to increase the security of their daily commute.
- Since the tragic events of September 11, 2001, the federal government has spent over $18 billion on aviation security and only $250 million for public transportation security.
- For public transportation alone, APTA has identified more than $6 billion in security needs.
- With 9.6 billion trips a year on public transportation, transit security is a very important issue for America's transit riders. Americans take public transportation 32 million times a day-16 times more than travel on domestic airlines. We need to take every action possible to avoid a terrorist attack on a U.S. transit system like the ones in London and in Madrid.
We note that last year the Senate unanimously passed S. 2884, which authorized $3.5 billion for transit security. We strongly urge the Senate to significantly increase investment in our nation's public transportation security needs. We again request your support of the Shelby/Sarbanes amendment.
If you have any questions about these issues, please have your staff contact Tom Yedinak of APTA's Government Affairs Department at (202) 496-4865 or email tyedinak@apta.com.
Sincerely yours,
William
W. Millar
President
WWM/tjj
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