Committee Hearings – Week of 02-25-18

With both the House and Senate back in Washington this week there are a relatively small number of hearings being held on both sides of the Capitol. Two Senate hearings may be of specific interest to readers of this blog; DHS authorization markup and an oversight hearing looking at PTC implementation.

DHS Authorization

On Wednesday the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee will hold a markup [.PDF download] of HR 2825, the DHS Authorization Act of 2017. The bill was passed in the House by a substantially bipartisan vote in July of last year. It is unusual that the Committee is taking up the bill without introducing a bill of its own, but the Senate has been busy with nominations and other ‘incidental’ business.

PTC Implementation

On Thursday the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee will conduct an oversight hearing on the implementation of positive train control (PTC) technology by passenger railroads. The Committee asked for reports from both the GAO and the DOT Inspector General on the topic and both reports will be presented at this hearing. The witness list includes:

• Susan Fleming, Government Accountability Office;
• Barry J. DeWeese, Department of Transportation OIG;
• David L. Mayer, Metropolitan Transportation Authority; and
• Richard Anderson, Amtrak