[gavel sounds] sen. Wicker this full Committee Nomination will come to order. Order. This morning the committee will consider four nominations to key transportation positions. The nominees before us today are eric soskin, nominee for Inspector General for dp of transportation. Robert pmbing rimus, nominated to be a member of the Surface Transportation Board. Sara feinberg, nominated to be a director of the amtrak board of directors. And chris coose, nominated to be a director on the amtrak board of directors. The Inspector General of transportation oversees audits of the d. O. T. s programs with the end goal of ensuring our national frppings system is safe, efficient and effective for the american people. Eric soskin has been nominated for this Important Role. Hes a senior trial counsel in the federal Programs Branch at the u. S. Department of justice where he has served since 2006. During his tenure at the justice department, he hasing mored complex litigation an was chose fn a detail
This full Committee Nomination will come to order. This morning the committee will consider four nominations to key transportation positions. The nominees before us today are eric soskin, nominee for Inspector General for dp of transportation. Robert pmbing rimus, nominated to be a member of the Surface Transportation Board. Sara feinberg, nominated to be a director of the amtrak board of directors. And chris coose, nominated to be a director on the amtrak board of directors. The Inspector General of transportation oversees audits of the d. O. T. s programs with the end goal of ensuring our national frppings system is safe, efficient and effective for the american people. Eric soskin has been nominated for this Important Role. Hes a senior trial counsel in the federal Programs Branch at the u. S. Department of justice where he has served since 2006. During his tenure at the justice department, he hasing mored complex litigation an was chose fn a detailed assignment as policy counsel in
This full Committee Nomination will come to order. This morning the committee will consider four nominations to key transportation positions. The nominees before us today are eric soskin, nominee for Inspector General for dp of transportation. Robert pmbing rimus, nominated to be a member of the Surface Transportation Board. Sara feinberg, nominated to be a director of the amtrak board of directors. And chris coose, nominated to be a director on the amtrak board of directors. The Inspector General of transportation oversees audits of the d. O. T. s programs with the end goal of ensuring our national frppings system is safe, efficient and effective for the american people. Eric soskin has been nominated for this Important Role. Hes a senior trial counsel in the federal Programs Branch at the u. S. Department of justice where he has served since 2006. During his tenure at the justice department, he hasing mored complex litigation an was chose fn a detailed assignment as policy counsel in
Traffic controllers, yet they are working exclusively for the union at the taxpayers expense. In fiscal year 2011, the most recent year for which we have official time data, the department of transportation spent more than 17 million on official time. In the same year, the department of housing and urban development spent more than 2 million on official time. Across the entire federal government more than three million official time hours were used in collective bargaining or arbitration of grievances against an employer who, by the way, is us, in fiscal year 2011. These Union Activities were performed at taxpayer expense to the tune of 155 million for the same time period. While we are not voting on veterans funding today, it is timely, given recent events, to mention the impact that the use of official time has on the department of veterans affairs. The v. A. Is one of the largest abusers of official time, spending more than 42. 5 million on this cost in fiscal year 2011. In 2012, mo
Considers itself an advanced nation generation as i head of us on railroad. We are two generations behind, for example, on high speed. And there is zero dollars in this bill for high speed railroad. Amtrak is very well managed. In the committee we had heard what they have done and how they have done it. But they cant manage without at least some recognition from the congress that we too have a role to play in a railroad. No railroad in the world is unsubsidized. This one is subsidized very little. It is still able to run most of its trains over 100 Miles Per Hour and we ought to understand who were talking about. Were not just talking about the District Of Columbia to new york. Of the 25 busiest stations, amtrak stations, what about seattle . Or harrisberg . Or bakersfield, california . At a time when the airlines are in trouble and have reduced air operations, and amtrak keeps growing in ridership each and winning h, we have a operation here. We are sending it back into losing for us.