(Source: Joint press release from the office of Senators Charles Schumer and Richard Blumenthal, January 14, 2014)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senators Charles E. Schumer and Richard Blumenthal today announced that the upcoming Omnibus Appropriations bill, filed late yesterday, includes $185 million for the Federal Railroad Administration to hire an additional 45 critically-needed railroad inspectors, the full amount requested by the Administration for Fiscal Year 2014. Last month, in the wake of the Spuyten Duyvil Metro-North accident, the senators revealed that the agency, the nation’s chief rail-safety overseer, is woefully underfunded and unable to fully evaluate existing and future rail-safety programs across the nation’s freight and passenger railroads. The agency lacks the resources to inspect 99% of the nation’s rails and to sufficiently prepare for the oversight of new safety measures. Today, Schumer and Blumenthal announced that they had secured funding for an additional 45 inspectors, who will be hired over the course of the months ahead.
Full release: Senator Blumenthal’s website