WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), the chairman of the Surface Transportation Subcommittee, today chaired her first hearing of 2018 entitled: “Surface Transportation Security: Addressing Current and Emerging Threats.” The hearing examined efforts by the administration to enhance surface transportation security for America’s passenger and freight rail, mass transit, highways, and ports.

Witnesses at today’s hearing included: The Honorable David Pekoske, Administrator, Transportation Security Administration, and Mr. John Kelly, Acting Inspector General, Department of Homeland Security.

Senator Fischer released the following statement after today’s hearing concluded:

“In the last several years, the world has seen the growing threat of terrorism to surface transportation networks – here at home and abroad. Targeted attacks, like the 2016 massacre in Nice, France and the more recent explosion in the New York subway terminal, demonstrated the need for greater attention to security across transportation modes. I appreciated the information TSA Administrator Pekoske and Inspector General Kelly shared with us today as we work to protect American travelers from these growing threats.”

In 2017, Senator Fischer became an original cosponsor of the Surface Transportation and Maritime Security Act (S. 3379). The bill would address security vulnerabilities at TSA by requiring the agency to re-evaluate its mission and determine how it assesses risks to surface transportation. It enhances surface transportation security by training frontline surface transportation operators and employees, reforming port security and credentialing, and improving access to better vetting tools for passenger railroads.

With this legislation, Fischer hopes to help prevent incidents like the one that occurred in October 2017 in Oxford, Nebraska, when an armed man managed to board an Amtrak locomotive and pull the train’s emergency brake. Read more about this incident in the Lincoln Journal Star here.