Bipartisan Senate group introduces bill to address surface, maritime security concerns

A bipartisan group of U.S. senators recently reintroduced the Surface Transportation and Maritime Security Act, which seeks to address concerns regarding the safety of the nation’s rail, transit, highway, and maritime passenger and freight transportation infrastructure.

The group includes U.S. Sens. John Thune (R-SD), Bill Nelson (D-FL), Deb Fischer (R-NE), and Cory Booker (D-NJ). A similar bill was submitted during the 114th Congress, but was not considered.

Bill supporters said it would address issues raised by independent government watchdog agencies that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) was not adequately positioned to identify security risks across different modes of transportation.

The bill contains many provisions related to transportation safety, including requiring the TSA administrator to conduct a risk analysis and implement a risk-based security model for surface transportation facilities, mandates risk-based budgeting for surface transportation security, and authorizes as many as 70 canine teams for surface transportation monitoring.

To address potential transparency issues, the legislation establishes a Surface Transportation Advisory Committee to provide both stakeholders and the public the opportunity to coordinate and comment on policy, and directs the TSA to regularly update Congress on the status of long-overdue surface transportation rulemaking.

“To keep Americans safe, Congress must continually focus attention on areas of neglect and potential weakness to keep them from becoming targets for terrorism,” Thune said. “The Commerce Committee will soon vote on these important reforms for the TSA.”