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Sen. Moran Gives Floor Remarks Honoring Ed Rolfs
Aug 21 2018
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Todd Young (R-Ind.), Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), and Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) today introduced the Developing Responsible Individuals for a Vibrant Economy (DRIVE-Safe) Act, S. 3352, to address the driver shortage in the trucking and logistics industry, and enhance safety training and job opportunities for young truckers.
Though many states allow individuals to obtain a commercial driver’s license at the age of 18, federal law currently prohibits those operators from moving goods from state to state until they are 21. The DRIVE-Safe Act creates a training program that would allow for the legal operation of a commercial motor vehicle in interstate commerce by commercial driver’s license holders under the age of 21. The apprenticeship training program would help ensure younger drivers are trained beyond current standards while instituting rigorous safety standards and performance benchmarks.
“Indiana is the Crossroads of America and the truck driver shortage has a significant impact on our state,” said Senator Young. “As I’ve traveled throughout Indiana, I have heard from Hoosiers that a pathway is needed to qualify more drivers to move goods safely and efficiently. The DRIVE-Safe Act will help address the driver shortage, enhance safety, and create new career opportunities for young Hoosiers.”
“Not only would the DRIVE-Safe Act create new career opportunities for young Kansans, but it would also help move the supply-chain nationwide in a more expeditious manner – benefitting many sectors of the Kansas economy,” said Senator Moran. “This legislation includes important provisions that would help curb the trucker shortage, train safe drivers, and deliver goods and supplies to the Kansans that need them.”
“As home to three inland ports, nearly 4,000 miles of rail and over 12,000 miles of highways, Oklahoma is rightfully recognized as and benefits from being one of the nation’s leading transportation hubs and America’s Corner. By expanding the opportunity for all commercial license holders to engage in interstate commerce, we can meaningfully address the driver shortage while improving transportation safety and give younger Americans the ability to be competitive in a strong economy so they can fully benefit from a skilled career,” said Senator Inhofe.
The apprenticeship program established by the DRIVE-Safe Act would require young drivers to complete at least 400 hours of on-duty time and 240 hours of driving time with an experienced driver in the cab with them. All trucks used for training in the program must be equipped with safety technology including active braking collision mitigation systems, a video event capture system, and a speed governor set at 65 miles per hour or below.
U.S. Representatives Trey Hollingsworth (R-IN-09) and Duncan Hunter (R-CA-50) introduced companion legislation in the House earlier this year (H.R. 5358).
What they are saying:
“As an industry that is uniquely impacted by this issue, we are thankful to Senator Young for his leadership driving this legislation forward,” said Mark Allen, President and CEO of the International Foodservice Distributor Association (IFDA). “This bill reinforces a culture of safety far and above current standards to provide the next generation of drivers with the critical skills they need to operate a truck safely on our nation’s highways.”
“The trucking industry’s shortage of drivers threatens our economy,” said American Trucking Associations President and CEO Chris Spear. “The Drive-Safe Act would open the door to millions of Americans who are seeking a career and a path to the middle class by training young men and women to safely and reliably move freight across state lines. Senators Young, Moran and Inhofe should be commended for their thoughtful leadership in creating a safe apprenticeship pathway for young people looking to go into trucking.”
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WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Jerry Moran’s (R-Kan.) and Tom Udall’s (D-N.M.) amendment to maintain Amtrak train services along the established, long-distance passenger rail route of the Southwest Chief, #3665, was today included in the 2018 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies appropriations bill that passed the Senate on 92-6 vote. The amendment was cosponsored by U.S. Senators Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) and Michael F. Bennet (D-Colo.), all senators who represent states through which the critical Southwest Chief route runs.
This amendment would provide resources for maintenance and safety improvements along the Southwest Chief route and would compel Amtrak to fulfill its promise of matching funding for the successful TIGER IX discretionary grant supported by the Kansas Department of Transportation and local communities along the route. In addition, this amendment would effectively reverse Amtrak’s decision to substitute rail service with bus service over large segments of the route through FY2019.
“As the divide between urban and rural communities in America continues to expand, passenger rail services like the Southwest Chief are invaluable in connecting Kansans to the rest of the country while also bringing visitors from out of state to our local communities,” said Sen. Moran. “I applaud the bipartisan efforts to keep the Southwest Chief operational for our rural communities and will continue working with Amtrak to make certain this route remains available for the Kansans who need it.”
“For the second time in two weeks, the Senate is speaking out with strong, bipartisan support for long-distance rail, especially the Southwest Chief -- and this time with $50 million in new funding,” said Sen. Udall. “Replacing rail service with bus service between Dodge City, Kansas and Albuquerque, New Mexico would not only have completely disrupted service for Amtrak passengers, it would have discouraged riders from taking the Southwest Chief in the first place, adding to Amtrak’s financial problems. The Southwest Chief route is an economic engine in New Mexico, giving passengers a ride through time -- through the historic West -- and connecting our communities. The additional funding from our amendment will make sure the Southwest Chief gets back on a sound financial track. I remain committed to working with our communities, Amtrak leadership, and other stakeholders to keep the Chief running long into the future.”
“I am pleased the Senate has approved our amendment to ensure continuous rail service on all long distance routes, especially the Southwest Chief,” said Sen. Roberts. “We heard from many Kansans strongly opposed to the proposed bus service within the route.”
“I’m excited to support an amendment that will greatly help the Southwest Chief’s continued presence in southeastern Colorado,” said Sen. Gardner. “The amendment secured by the bipartisan coalition in the appropriations bill will set aside funding for route improvements and enhancements, providing the opportunity to ensure the Southwest Chief stays in Colorado and continues servicing the rural areas that desperately need it.”
“The Southwest Chief is an important component of Southeastern Colorado's tourism economy, and we will do all we can to preserve it,” said Sen. Bennet. “We’ll continue to work closely with lawmakers from Colorado—and also New Mexico and Kansas—to keep running the Southwest Chief through our state."
“I’m proud to help lead this bipartisan coalition in the Senate to save the Southwest Chief, and I hope that my colleagues in the House of Representatives agree that fighting for infrastructure in rural America is good for our economy as a whole,” said Sen. Heinrich. “Each year, the Southwest Chief brings thousands of Boy Scouts from around the country to New Mexico’s Philmont Boy Scout Ranch and generates economic activity in our communities like Raton, Las Vegas, and Lamy. It makes no sense for Amtrak to provide inferior service while cutting out a key part of rural America. We’re going to continue fighting any effort to undermine this important route.”
The Southwest Chief runs daily between Chicago and Los Angeles and connects towns and cities in Kansas, Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and California and provides passenger train and long-distance passenger service, particularly through rural communities. The Southwest Chief stops in several Kansas communities including Lawrence, Topeka, Newton, Hutchinson, Dodge City and Garden City.
Items to Note:
- Last week, the Senate overwhelmingly passed a Sense of the Congress measure to affirm support for the long-distance rail service.
- Last month, the senators sent a letter to Amtrak’s CEO urging him to uphold Amtrak’s side of a longstanding public-private partnership to continue operating the Southwest Chief passenger train and long-distance passenger service.
- In May, the senators sent a bipartisan, multi-state letter condemning Amtrak’s decision not to match TIGER grant funds.
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WASHINGTON — U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) today released the following statement after the Senate unanimously confirmed Kansan Holly Teeter as United States District Court Judge for the District of Kansas:
“Holly Teeter is an exceptionally bright legal mind that will serve Kansans well,” said Sen. Moran. “Mrs. Teeter is the right choice for this important job and I’m pleased the Senate agreed unanimously to confirm her to the bench.”
Teeter, a University of Kansas School of Law graduate, will join the United States District Court for the District of Kansas with a lifetime appointment. The U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas processes civil and criminal cases that come under federal jurisdiction. The District of Kansas covers the full state of Kansas.
Item to Note:
- Sen. Moran introduced Mrs. Teeter last October in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee as the committee considered her nomination.
Biography provided by the White House at the time of Mrs. Teeter’s nomination:
Mrs. Teeter is currently an Assistant United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri. Earlier in her career, Mrs. Teeter practiced patent law at Shook, Hardy & Bacon, LLP, and was a patent law clerk at Los Alamos National Security, LLC. She served as a law clerk to Judge Brian C. Wimes of the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri and to Judge Carlos Murguia of the United States District Court for the District of Kansas. Mrs. Teeter received her B.S. with highest distinction from the University of Kansas School of Engineering, and her J.D. from the University of Kansas, where she was a member of the Kansas Law Review and graduated first in her class. She also holds a Diploma in Legal Studies from the University of Oxford.
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WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) – member of the Senate Committee on Appropriations – introduced an amendment that would maintain Amtrak train services along the established, long-distance passenger rail route of the Southwest Chief.
“Local communities whose residents and businesses depend on Amtrak should be provided the stability of rail service that the Southwest Chief has delivered to them for decades, as ordered when chartered by Congress,” said Sen. Moran. “This bipartisan amendment will provide critical support for the Southwest Chief to ensure its continuity for passengers and pressure Amtrak to live up to its promises of keeping the route in service.”
Sen. Moran’s amendment – which is cosponsored by U.S. Senators Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Tom Udall (D-N.M.), Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) and Michael F. Bennet (D-Colo.), all senators who represent states through which the route runs – would set aside resources for maintenance and safety improvements along the route, and compel Amtrak to fulfill its promise of matching funding for the successful TIGER IX discretionary grant supported by the Kansas Department of Transportation and local communities along the route. In addition, this amendment would effectively reverse Amtrak’s decision to substitute rail service with bus service over large segments of the route.
Items to note:
- On July 25, 2018, the Senate overwhelmingly passed a Sense of the Congress measure to affirm support for the long-distance rail service.
- Last week, Sen. Moran joined a bipartisan group of senators in a letter to Amtrak’s CEO urging him to uphold Amtrak’s side of a longstanding public-private partnership to continue operating the Southwest Chief passenger train and long-distance passenger service.
- Last month, Sen. Moran and five of his Senate colleagues met with Amtrak CEO Richard Anderson to discuss solutions for the Southwest Chief and encourage more transparency in Amtrak’s decision-making.
- In May, Sen. Moran led a bipartisan, multi-state letter condemning Amtrak’s decision not to match TIGER grant funds.
- Also in May, Sen. Moran questioned Amtrak board nominees on Amtrak’s decision not to match federal TIGER grant program funding and on their intentions regarding the Southwest Chief.
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Sen. Moran Moves 2018 Farm Bill to Conference
Jul 31 2018
Sen. Moran Speaks on Senate Floor Regarding Importance of Technology Modernization Fund
“We must do all we can to increase our nation’s ability to detect, prevent and respond to cybersecurity attacks”
Jul 31 2018
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) – member of the Senate Commerce and Appropriations Committees – today spoke on the Senate floor regarding a path forward to appropriating FY2019 funding to the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) and his ongoing efforts to bolster the transparency of the TMF, including coordinating specific information exchanges between Senate appropriators and related agencies.
Last year, Sen. Moran’s Modernizing Government Technology (MGT) Act passed the Senate as part of the FY2018 National Defense Authorization Act and the bill was subsequently signed into law in December. The MGT Act creates the TMF, a separate, centralized fund administered by the General Services Administration within the Department of the Treasury.
Click Here to Watch the Remarks
“Congress and federal agencies must work hand-in-hand to provide the necessary resources to the Technology Modernization Fund, which, used responsibly, is a vital tool for the federal government’s task of keeping our nation’s critical IT infrastructure efficient and secure,” said Sen. Moran.
Sen. Moran’s full remarks as prepared for delivery:
“Mr. President, today I wish to speak on evolving threats in cybersecurity that not only pose harm to individual Americans but also the federal agencies that are tasked with ensuring the economic and national security of our nation. In recent years, it has become clear that threats in cybersecurity are rapidly changing – cyberattacks are not only growing in volume, but also in complexity.
“As chairman of the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, Insurance, and Data Security, I’ve convened hearings and publicly questioned federal agencies and private corporations alike to determine what standards and practices they have in place to better protect their customers’ personal and financial data.
“With examples of breaches exposing the personally identifiable information of tens of millions of Americans like the 2015 breach within the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, the ability to compromise data and networks in the federal government cannot be overstated. Companies must do all they can to prevent hackers from gaining access to their customers’ information. The federal government and state officials must do the same.
“Advancements in information technology, or IT, will continue to drive change in our nation’s security, economic competitiveness, communications, health care, privacy and other areas. The federal government must keep pace with these changes through nimble, expeditious and results-driven decision making. A stringent and cumbersome budgeting and acquisition process has tied the hands of federal agencies in their efforts to modernize their IT systems in an efficient fashion.
“The U.S. Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) 2015 High-Risk Series report highlighted several issues it deemed critical to improving IT acquisition. Specifically, the report stated that about 75 percent of the $80 billion the federal government spends annually on IT investments is spent operating and maintaining outdated and unsupported legacy systems – creating major cybersecurity vulnerabilities at home and abroad.
“In fact, Federal Chief Information Officer (CIO) Suzette Kent recently testified to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform last week, where she identified the replacement of legacy IT systems as critical to achieving stronger federal cybersecurity protections.
“With the support of the Trump administration, I partnered with Senator Tom Udall of New Mexico to introduce the Modernizing Government Technology (MGT) Act in an effort to address the foundational cybersecurity threats that outdated legacy systems in our federal agencies pose.
“The MGT Act establishes IT working capital funds at the 24 CFO Act-eligible agencies and allows them to use savings obtained through streamlining IT systems, replacing legacy products and transitioning to cloud computing for further modernization efforts for up to three years. The bill also creates the Technology Modernization Fund, a separate, centralized fund within the Department of the Treasury. These resources would be administered across the federal government by the head of the General Services Administration in consultation with a board of federal IT experts.
“It is fitting that the MGT Act was signed into law last year as part of the National Defense Authorization Act for FY2018, as cybersecurity policy is increasingly interwoven into comprehensive national security discussions.
“As contributors to the original drafting of the MGT Act, Senate appropriators demonstrated their continued support for the innovative policy by appropriating $100 million to the Technology Modernization Fund for FY2018. Of this original funding, the Technology Modernization Fund has already awarded substantial loans to applicant agencies including the Departments of Housing and Urban Development, Energy and Agriculture to replace their outdated, unsupported and vulnerable systems.
“Given these early stage successes, I was disappointed to find that the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee for Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) provided no funds for the Technology Modernization Fund in their mark for FY2019.
“After working with Subcommittee Chairman Lankford and his staff, it is clear that GSA and OMB need to provide more information on individual agency proposals submitted to and awarded by the Technology Modernization Fund. I worked with the subcommittee to include specific reporting requirements in this bill for the agencies to provide to Congress. Agency officials have been providing necessary information to appropriators since the markup of the bill. These commonsense requirements are absolutely critical and will lead to more transparency, and it is important that the GSA and OMB work closely with the Appropriations Committee on proposals moving forward.
“Congress and federal agencies must work hand-in-hand to provide the necessary resources to the Technology Modernization Fund, which, used responsibly, is a vital tool for the federal government’s task of keeping our nation’s critical IT infrastructure efficient and secure. Inherently tied to improving our nation’s critical IT infrastructure is bolstering cybersecurity efforts to protect us from those who wish to do harm in the cyber domain. The federal role in cybersecurity involves both securing federal systems and assisting in protecting nonfederal systems. Under current law, all federal agencies have cybersecurity responsibilities relating to their own systems, and many have sector-specific responsibilities.
“One of the most well-known topics related to our nation’s cybersecurity capabilities relates to the intelligence community indicating that Russian cyber actors interfered with U.S. elections.
“These exposures threaten to compromise one of the most sacred privileges we have as Americans afforded to us in our constitutional freedom to participate in democracy through elections. Backend election systems – including voter registration databases, ballot creation systems, voting machine configuration systems, absentee processing and reporting, and tabulation software – are increasingly vulnerable and have been compromised by both private and state actors.
“While states are charged with primary responsibilities of securing their systems, the federal government can bolster those efforts through legislation like the Secure Elections Act, which I cosponsored in an effort to strengthen protections against foreign interference and prevent Russian meddling in our elections as in 2016.
“Our nation faces existential threats from adversaries such as Russia and China in a warfare we cannot see that rages in the shadows of cyberspace where cyber-attacks know no bounds – affecting our federal systems, our states, and crossing the line among numerous sectors in our nation’s critical infrastructure. As our intelligence community and other agencies analyze cyber threats – whether attacking our democracy or our critical infrastructure – it is important the federal government promptly streamline and share cybersecurity information with state, local and private sector partners.
“Though talk of cyber threats to our state networks and critical infrastructure across all sectors continue to grow, this threat is not new and just last July we saw hackers infiltrate a network of companies that run nuclear plants in the United States, including a nuclear power plant in Burlington, Kansas. Incidentally, a cross-section of stakeholders at the state and federal levels, and among the private sector, are represented in the Kansas Intelligence Fusion Center (KIFC), which plays a critical role analyzing and comparing cyber data and intelligence among public private partners and federal agencies to identify similarities, anomalies and ways our cyber defenses can improve.
“The Fusion Center is an analytical capability that works as an intermediary supporting companies across the United States in our financial and energy sectors, as well as our Intelligence Community and the Departments of Defense, Energy and Homeland Security. With the Fusion Center’s ability to access, analyze and transmit data at classified levels, they are able to more accurately assess cyber threats from a vantage point that private sector partners cannot. Similarly, they are able to share what they learn from cyber-attacks on private sector partners to federal agencies.
“As we look for ways to improve IT systems across the federal government, there is much to be gained from the private sector and their experience and exposure to cyber-attacks. As the Departments of Defense, Energy and Homeland Security develop an assessment of our nation’s cyber infrastructure, I hope they seek the perspective of our private sector partners that have just as much stake in protecting our cyber infrastructure across the country as in our federal government.
“We must do all we can to increase our nation’s ability to detect, prevent and respond to cybersecurity attacks, which is why fully-funding the Technology Modernization Fund is so important to bolstering an environment that incentivizes organizations to strengthen their IT systems.
“I hope my colleagues recognize the importance of investing into defensive cybersecurity capacity and join me in supporting funding for the Technology Modernization Fund in the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations bill and supporting the Secure Elections Act.”
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