It establishes a grant program for freight and passenger rail security upgrades and requires railroads shipping highhazard materials to create threat mitigation plans. It authorizes studies to find ways to improve passenger and baggage security screening on passenger rail service between the U.S. and Canada. The bill will hopefully move us closer to addressing something I have been trying to get implemented at our northern car and truck border crossings for years: establishing a preclearance system. The study is required to identify what exactly is needed to perform prescreening of rail passengers on the northern border. I am pleased that the Senate retained language that will require that TSA screeners finally come under an unambiguous personnel system. A further amendment that I supported will finally give Transportation Security Administration screeners the whistleblower protections afforded to most other Federal workers. including law enforcement officers. It also gives them the right to appeal suspensions and to collectively bargain. just like their counterparts in the Border Control. FEMA and the Capitol Police. The bill also requires studies on how to improve the safety of transporting radioactive and hazardous materials and shipments of explosives and radioactive materials on our highways.
Keywords matched
Border Control border crossing