U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, spoke on the passage of a bicameral, bipartisan measure to keep America’s railroads open. The House passed the measure contained in H.R. 3819 on October 27, 2015, by voice vote, and the Senate passed the legislation by voice vote.

The measure extends the positive train control implementation deadline from the end of this year to December 31, 2018, to reflect the reality noted in studies that the current deadline is unrealistic that no freight or passenger railroad has yet to achieve the legal requirements of full implementation.A fact sheet on the legislation is available here.

Mr. President, I rise today on an issue of great urgency and importance to our nation’s economy.

As many know by now, nearly every railroad in the country, including every major freight railroad, will not meet the unrealistic December 31, 2015, deadline for implementing positive train control.

Positive train control or PTC, when working as intended, is a critical safety technology that will prevent certain types of rail accidents and save lives.

We have the ability to make rail transportation even safer by ensuring full implementation of PTC.

As the Chairman of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, I can assure my colleagues that these disruptions would have caused cascading and devastating effects for nearly every sector of the economy and every region of the country.

Railroads have already started notifying customers that they will stop accepting certain chemical shipments in late November and early December to ensure such cargoes are off their system when the existing deadline hits at the end of the year.

As rail-dependent businesses and their customers prepare for this shutdown, they have already started to feel the negative supply chain effects on logistics and inventory management.

The House-passed short-term highway extension provided an option to avert this completely avoidable and unnecessary harm.

This is not just about the railroads—

• it’s about the farmers that depend on rail for fertilizer;

• it’s about the manufacturers and other businesses that depend on rail for critical inputs; and

• it’s about water treatment facilities that depend on rail for chemicals to purify drinking water.

It’s about all of the workers and households that benefit from this safe mode of transportation.

Rail-dependent commuters and customers cannot afford a Congressionally-caused railroad shutdown.

Each day, well over one million riders in the United States board commuter railroads to get to and from their places of work.

Over two million people work in industries that use hazardous chemicals hauled by rail, and the gross economic output of these industries alone is over $2 trillion.

In fact, the effects of a looming railroad shutdown would have occurred well in advance of the year-end deadline.

Over 130 farmers, manufacturers, and retailers wrote to Congress last week, stating that:

“(R)ail customers are already starting to feel the impact… [w]ith a shutdown just around the corner rail customers must start putting contingency plans into motion, including adjusting production schedules and workforce levels.”

This is not only an economic issue—it has major implications for public health and safety.

Water treatment facilities across this country have urged a deadline extension and wrote a joint letter to me, reiterating that:

“[e]ven a temporary interruption of water disinfection chemical deliveries could risk a public health disaster for communities across the country.”

The U.S. Conference of Mayors also urged a deadline extension and wrote that switching from rail to other modes of transportation could lead to additional accidents in our nation’s communities and greater exposure to the risks of hazardous materials.

The Acting Federal Railroad Administrator, who conducts oversight of our nation’s rail network, expressed concern at a September Commerce Committee hearing.

She said that a rail shutdown would:

“lead to significant congestion and it does lead to safety impacts.”

Keep in mind, total train accidents per year have decreased by nearly 50 percent since 2005, and rail is often the safest available way to haul many types of products – especially hazardous chemicals.

It would take more than 600,000 trucks on our nation’s roads to replace freight rail, let alone the additional cars and buses needed to replace commuter rail.

When Congress passed legislation in 2008 mandating the implementation of PTC, it never intended to punish rail customers or harm the economy.

But this law failed to properly consider the complexity and time involved in developing, mass-producing, installing, and testing a new technology involving a complex network of new computers and communications equipment deployed on more than 20,000 locomotives and 60,000 miles of track.

There is plenty of finger-pointing to go around, but the bottom line is this: after seven years of work, over $6 billion of mostly private funds spent, and with about two months to go before the legal deadline, not one railroad – commuter or freight –– has fully implemented PTC.

For years, study after study, including those from the non-partisan Government Accountability Office, found that the 2015 deadline for full implementation of PTC was unrealistic.

The independent experts at the GAO concluded that the vast majority of railroads, including all freight railroads, would not meet the deadline by the end of year.

I'm pleased the Senate came together and acted on a solution.

The bipartisan, bicameral proposal I helped craft does not just extend the deadline for implementing PTC, it significantly increases accountability and transparency.

Our proposal gives the Secretary of Transportation the authority to fine railroads if they fall behind metrics and milestones on their way to completing installation and full implementation.

It requires detailed and publicly available reporting to ensure progress each step of the way.

Under our bipartisan proposal, railroads must implement PTC by December 31, 2018.

To ensure PTC works as intended, the Secretary has very limited case-by-case discretion to allow railroads additional time for testing and certification, but only if railroads complete all installation, spectrum acquisition, and employee training.

To qualify for this additional time, freight railroads must have started using PTC on the majority of their territories or track.

These accountability-focused changes, with objective criteria and rigorous oversight, are designed to ensure we never need another extension.

I’d like to extend my thanks to Representatives Schuster, DeFazio, Denham, and Capuano for their strong bipartisan leadership and collaboration to address this major transportation issue.

This issue has been extensively debated in the Senate, and this proposal incorporates principles and text that have twice been reported out of the Commerce Committee and that passed the full Senate in July by a vote of 65-34.

I’m grateful to Senators Blunt and McCaskill for their partnership and leadership to bring Congress together to ensure that PTC is made safely available as soon as possible.

Now, some suggested different ways of approaching this issue.

At a time when we are making progress to finally end the “kick-the-can” mentality through the enactment of a multi-year transportation reauthorization bill, this proposal will ensure we are not injecting the same type of uncertainty into another transportation mode—our nation’s rail system.

Attaching the bipartisan agreement on extending the PTC deadline as part of the short-term highway extension solves this problem while keeping pressure on the House to pass a multi-year transportation bill that we can then reconcile with the Senate-passed DRIVE Act.

I want to applaud Leader McConnell, Chairman Inhofe, Ranking Member Boxer, and Ranking Member Nelson for their continued efforts to push for the completion of a multi-year transportation reauthorization bill.

Due to constant pressure from the Senate – as was noticed with last week’s mark-up by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee – we can see the path to getting a bill done with our House colleagues.

The fact that the short term extension before the Senate sets a November 20th deadline – along with the House planning to take up a multi-year transportation bill next week – indicates that it is in fact possible to soon get a multi-year transportation bill across the finish line.

Nobody should misinterpret my efforts to work with my colleagues in addressing the harms associated with failing to address the looming PTC deadline.

A major part of the overall DRIVE Act legislative text originated from the Senate Commerce Committee, and I will not be backing down in my efforts to see a host of transportation safety, freight, and rail provisions signed into law in the coming weeks.

Together we have averted the potential harm of a Congressionally-caused rail shutdown, set a realistic PTC deadline, held railroads accountable, and ensured the job is done swiftly and safely.

Thank you, Mr. President.