WASHINGTON, DC– U.S. Sen. Cory Booker(D-NJ) today issued the following statement after the Senate passed a one-month extension of federal transportation funding that included a three year extension of the implementation deadline for Positive Train Control technology. The Senate also confirmed Sarah Feinberg as Administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration, responsible for overseeing our nation’s rail system and implementation of PTC. Booker, the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Subcommittee on Surface Transportation, recently called on Majority Leader McConnell to speed-up the Senate’s consideration of Feinberg’s nomination as part of any PTC extension.
“Every day, New Jersey commuters deal with crumbling roads, dangerous bridges, and failing rail lines that lack modern safety technology. America’s infrastructure is falling behind other nations, and it’s costing us jobs, compromising safety, and constraining economic growth. The only way to fix it is with smarter, more comprehensive, and increased investment in our infrastructure needs – needs that have been ignored for years at the federal and state levels. Congress can’t act soon enough to correct these mistakes and begin moving our nation’s infrastructure forward. We must aim for better than the status quo and more short-term extensions that kick the can down the road and do not meaningfully address our nation’s most pressing infrastructure needs.
“The transportation funding extension passed by the Senate today includes a three year delay in the deadline for railroads to implement Positive Train Control technology. While railroads face significant challenges in implementing this new technology, now and always we must place the safety of our citizens before concerns related to difficulties incurred by necessary technological change. While this legislation extends the PTC deadline by three years, it also adds protections, oversight and additional benchmarks to help ensure railroads complete installation of this life-saving technology as soon as possible. I will work hard to ensure we hold industry and stakeholders accountable to do so. Each day our rail lines lack these systems is another day that people are put at risk.”