November 1, 2006
The Honorable Bennie Thompson
Ranking Member
House Committee on Homeland Security
H2-117 Ford House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
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Dear Representative Thompson:
On behalf of the American Public Transportation Association's (APTA) more than 1,500 member organizations, I write to thank you for your support of public transportation security funding. Since September 11, 2001, transit authorities have spent significant amounts of their own resources for transit security with very little federal assistance. Your vote last month to direct conferees on the Security and Accountability For Every Port Act (SAFE Port Act, H.R. 4954) to include funding for transit security is appreciated by the nation's public transportation systems. Americans use public transportation some thirty-two million times every day, and we believe the federal government can and should do more to protect those citizens against terrorist acts. Unfortunately, the final conference report on the SAFE Port Act did not address transit security.
In light of the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, London, Madrid and other terrorist attacks on transit, there is a significant need for federal assistance to improve security in the areas of communication, surveillance, detection systems, personnel, and training. While an APTA survey has identified $6 billion of these security needs, Congress has allocated only $386 million to transit security through Fiscal Year (FY) 2006. For FY 2007, $175 million has been appropriated for the security needs of transit, freight rail and inter-city passenger rail. With your continued help, I trust that legislation authorizing new transit security funding can be enacted as soon as possible.
Again, we very much appreciate your support on this important issue. 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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