Mr. PATRICK J. MURPHY of Pennsylvania.

Mr. Chairman, I want to add a word of my support of Mr. PALLONE’s amendment. The issue of companies circumventing the law and the wishes of cities and towns in this Nation deserves to be addressed.

In my district, in Bensalem, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, a firm wanted to build a waste transfer station. Given the potential environmental and health risks, both the local community and even the State voiced their objections to the proposal. As an end run around this, the rail company that would service the proposed waste transfer facility applied to the Federal Surface Transportation Board, or the STB, to, in effect, have the waste transfer facility declared a rail facility. This was an attempt to supersede the rulings of the State and local entities that had already rejected the proposed waste transfer station. Fortunately, the rail company’s application was rejected, but they can reapply to the STB at any time.

Just yesterday I stood with Bensalem Mayor Joe DiGirolamo and Pennsylvania State Representative Gene DiGirolamo and opposed this facility.

Mr. Chairman, people in the local, State and Federal level are all opposed to this end run around the law.

Mr. Chairman, when Congress created the STB, it was never intended to allow decisions by the STB to be used to override the wishes of cities and towns across the country, and certainly not as a means of superseding health and environmental regulations of State and local governments. Yet that is exactly what is happening.

Mr. Chairman, I want to thank the gentleman from New Jersey for his excellent leadership on this issue, and thank Chairman OLVER for providing me the opportunity to speak today and stand up for the residents of Bensalem and the Eighth District of Pennsylvania.