Testimony of Administrator John S. Pistole, Transportation Security Administration, before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Govermental Affairs,

"See Something, Say Something, Do Something: Next Steps for Securing Rail and Transit"

Release Date: June 22, 2011

Good (morning/afternoon), Chairman Lieberman, Ranking Member Collins, and distinguished Members of the Committee. I appreciate the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) surface transportation programs.

As you know, TSA’s efforts in the surface transportation domain are undertaken to reduce security vulnerabilities and to strengthen resilience against terrorist attacks. In this domain, which includes mass transit systems, ferries, trucking, freight rail, and passenger rail, we work collaboratively with public and private sector partners to develop and to implement programs that promote commerce while enhancing security and mitigating the risk to our nation’s transportation systems. We strive to maximize participation from state, local, tribal, and industry interests with a common goal of securing all modes of transportation.

DHS's Mission to Prevent Terrorism and Enhance Security

TSA secures and safeguards mass transit and railroad operations through a variety of programs. Many of these programs enchance security by addressing policy gaps, enhancing coordination, and maximizing the use of partner strengths and capabilities as addressed in the March 2010 Surface Transportation Security Priority Assessment. The primary mission of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)- Preventing Terrorism and Enhancing Security- is strongly supported by TSA and is aligned with DHS's programmatic activities and organizational structure as found in the 2010 Quadrennial Homeland Security Review and corresponding Bottom-Up Review Report.

Due to the large populations and substantial infrastructure served by mass transit and national railroad systems, these networks remain a target for terrorist groups. Moreover, an open architecture connecting millions of passengers in major metropolitan areas creates inherent potential security vulnerabilities. TSA thus employs advanced risk-based, intelligence-driven techniques to prevent terrorist attacks and to reduce the vulnerability of the nation’s transportation systems to terrorism.

Recognizing that the risk from terrorism and other hazards to surface transportation demands a coordinated approach involving all sector partners and stakeholders, the federal government initiated a comprehensive review of U.S. surface transportation security efforts across all modes of surface transportation in 2009. The resulting Surface Transportation Security Priority Assessment (STSPA), released in April 2010, identified interagency priorities for the following four years and provided concrete recommendations on how to enhance security efforts and maximize the use of partnerships to optimize public safety, facilitate commerce, and strengthen the resiliency of the country’s surface transportation system.

DHS has completed risk-based implementation plans for each of the 20 consensus recommendations of the STSPA, further addressing the potential risks to the surface transportation system and its four subsectors (mass transit and passenger rail, highways and motor carriers, freight rail, and pipelines). These plans focus on improving information sharing, increasing coordination among federal agencies involved in the transportation sector, and improving the effectiveness and efficiency of the grants process. As of May 2011, 10 recommendations have been fully implemented and the implementation of the others is underway.

Collaboration with Federal, State, Local, Tribal, and Private Entities

Over the past several years, DHS has been working to establish a new architecture in order to better defend against these evolving terrorist threats. This new architecture includes an emphasis on collaboration across government as well as in concert with private industry and the American public.

In 2005, DHS and the Department of Transportation (DOT) signed the Public Transportation Security Annex to the DHS/DOT Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). This agreement promotes security collaboration between federal, state, local, tribal, and private entitites. To implement the Annex, TSA- in collaboration with DOT's Federal Transit Administration and the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Grant Programs Directorate- develops a framework to leverage each agency's unique resources and capabilities. The Annex also identifies specific areas of coordination among the parties including citizen awareness, information sharing, security standards, data collection and analysis, and technical resource documents.

In 2010, in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Justice and Amtrak, TSA announced a significant step toward enhancing the security of the nation transportation infrastructure with the implementation of the Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting Initiative (NSI) capability throughout the entire Amtrak rail system. The NSI is a partnership among federal, state, and local law enforcement to establish a standard process for law enforcement to identify and report suspicious incidents or activity and share that information nationally so it can be analyzed to identify broader trends. Under this collaborative program, Amtrak officers are also utilizing an upgraded reporting system—made available by TSA —to refer suspicious activity reports to DHS and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for analysis and follow-up.

DHS fosters regional security coordination and to integrate the spectrum of available resources for enhanced deterrent and response capabilities while empowering our state and local partners through training and exercise grant programs like the Department’s Transit Security Grant Program. TSA works to improve security with security stakeholders outside of the federal government. Key partners include trade groups representing mass transit and passenger railroad interests and the mass transit and passenger railroad agencies as well as senior executives, law enforcement chiefs, and emergency responders. The sector partnership model under the National Infrastructure Protection Plan (NIPP) provides a strong framework for TSA to work with other federal, state, local, and private sector partners on critical infrastructure protection and resilience, especially in the area of surface transportation.

We are also making considerable progress engaging the public in transportation security. DHS launched the “If You See Something, Say Somethingâ„¢â€