i heard you're doing some ties and things like that. what would you say are the next safety -- next things? mr. wiedefeld: the ties, the power cables, the running rails. mr. mica: would you submit a list of prioritization and what percentage do you think you can do in-house and outhouse -- not outhouse but outside? ok. finally, on that hearing you had to face me on that hearing. sometimes i have a tough demeanor. i said you need to fire people. i saw the tape. it's part of my italian background. i get a little emotional. sir, you fired people, you fired about 20, i heard? mr. wiedefeld: yes, sir. mr. mica: ok. i am going to create a new award. you're going to get the first one. this is a certificate of appreciation. i'll probably make these into gold, into silver and bronze. you're going to get a silver because you actually responded since march 18 and took action and fired people.

so this is a certificate, a special congressional recognition from me to you. if we could get more people in other agencies, t.s.a., the e.p.a., on and on, to take the action you had, we'd have much better government. thank you for stepping up to the plate and doing your job responsibly. finally if this doesn't work in january when i come back, i will have a very nice -- i'll give you a little bit more time, sir. i will have a privatization bill to turn this over to private management if this doesn't work but i think we're in fairly good hands. i'm rooting for you. staff, would you make sure that the gentleman gets this certificate? this is unprecedented in 24 years in congress. mrs. comstock: i now recognize mr. sires for five minutes. mr. sires: i got to washington -- i'm from new jersey.

we are one big transportation hub. i got to washington 10 years ago and i was all excited because everybody had this reputation for the metro system. i went on and got my card so i could use the metro system here. but ever since i got here, the efficiency of this metro system has just gotten worse and worse and worse. and it really is a shame because this is the nation's capital. and at a time in america when people are moving into the cities, at a time when you look at washington -- i'm not going to give you a certificate. [laughter] mr. sires: the time when you look around there are cranes, people move into the city and you get 17 million people come into the city, this city is choking in this traffic and yet we have this system that was a gem now we have less ridership than before.

so the city -- it impacts everything around the city. the economy of the city, the people coming to work in the city. we face similar problems in new jersey going into new york and so forth. but i think this really has to be turned around. or this city's going to stand still. the only people that will be able to move around here are the people cutting you off with the bicycles. and quite frankly people deserve better. you know, people deserve a safe system. as i looked, mr. wiedefeld, i don't want people to get the wrong thing here. there are actions, you say 652 or whatever.

can you tell me what's good about the system, what's left in the system that is good that we can work with and tell america, look, this is a system that we can fix, this is -- i want to you come to washington, d.c. i want you to use the system. i want you to get off the road. we need to get people back in the system so the city can move around a little bit better, what's left that's good? mr. wiedefeld: if i may, we do move 1.3 million passengers a day so the system does perform very well for the vast majority of people every day. it has a problem. there's no doubt about it. it gets back to the two-track system. so whenever we have an issue it impacts quickly for everybody on the line. when you look at other systems, they all have issues. i went to school in new jersey. i was -- worked up there for a number of years. i know some issues they had. they continue to have. they have major challenges in front of them. san francisco is facing very significant issues. atlanta is facing issues. we all have these issues. it's a very large infrastructure investment, but day-to-day the system works very well. mr. sires: also, the concern is the people in america are moving back into the cities.

so if we don't have a system that's safe, i think we're headed for trouble and i know we have a responsibility. we have a responsibility to make sure that there's enough funding there for the infrastructure, enough funding for the safety part of it. quite frankly i just want america to know that washington, you can still come and you can still use the system. we're going to fix it. mr. wiedefeld: you can. i was with a couple in from colorado the other day. they didn't know who i was and they got talking about the metro and they had a good experience.

it's -- i think that's more common than we think. mr. sires: thank you for being here and talking about the system. thank you for the panel. mrs. comstock: thank you. i now recognize mr. webster for five minutes. mr. webster: thank you, madam chair. i rode the metro every day for 5 1/2 years since i was in congress. i went to pentagon city to l'enfant to south and i think there's more saving, firing people, hiring people, all of that all i know is that every day i ride there's an escalator broken so i started watching three escalators. there's a bunch on them i ride on but this is three and i would say that over the past few years that these three i watched have been rebuilt four times. i'm talking about everything. all the threads, all the bearings and all that. and it just seems to me there would be a more efficient way to do that. if we can save money we can save money in the right place. i would tell you ought to look -- i don't know if there's any reports about that but all i can tell you is i know because i've seen it. on the other hand, there is one escalator that is privately done, and in the 5 1/2 years i've been riding one on that system where you get dropped up and this is done by the people that own the building, it's been broken once. in 5 1/2 years. i don't know what you do as far as efficiency and rechecking the people that do your maintenance and so forth but if the other

maintenance -- i've never been in a wreck or anything like that so i don't know anything about the cars. i see them. they may be -- you may have extra ones. you may change them out. i don't know that. what i do know is the escalators are fixed, they're there and you have to get them repaired time and time again and just seems to me like -- i don't know if it's done by an independent contractor or your employees. whether it's the -- maybe it's the vendor that provides the actual treads and so for forth on the escalator.

i believe there's lots of savings to be found there. either by getting a different vendor or different employees or different -- a different person that actually performs the work if it's an independent contractor. so that's my two cents. that's only from my experience on it. i don't live here. i have one rail system in my district. it's owned by disney world and i've never seen it broken in 30-some years they've been there.

we have a lot of people that ride that too. 66 million people that come to my district every year. and they go to one place, walt disney world and also sea world and universal studios. but the one rail system there seems to be much more maintained. so i would suggest maybe just talking to those who own or operate rail systems. maybe there's some savings there too. with that, madam chair, i yield back. mrs. comstock: thank you. and i now recognize ms. frankel for five minutes. ms. frankel: thank you and thank you to the witnesses. i know sometimes -- you're probably sitting there thinking that congress, we do a better job of criticizing than fixing. thank you for your patience and your courtesy. i live near a subway. i rode the metro. i used to love to ride the metro. the stories in the newspapers and on tv have been scary to me. my first question is, could you quantify, has there been a decline in the ridership?

does that affect your budget? the other question i have, there's been these very high publicized criminal incidences. there was a young man that was stabbed multiple times. there was a woman that was recently sexually assaulted. and i don't mean to insinuate that was the fault of metro. but my question would be, is there anything that you can do to make it safer or what are you doing to make it safer for the riders? mr. wiedefeld: the ridership levels, yes, we have had a drop in the last five years. it's a combination, i think, of some of the service we provided but it's also a change in demographics. telecommuting in this region is very strong. the growth of uber. you know, rideshare, has impacted that. there are others around the country that experienced some of that as well, major properties. in terms of the criminal activity, you know, it is an extremely safe system from that perspective numerically. it's one incident per five million. that means nothing obviously to the person that's the victim and

does not mean much about the perception. we have applied a number of things in terms of policing. we basically put more police out there. we're moving people behind the desk. we moved people that -- we have officers out there, sworn officers out there. we have a major recruitment on the way to beef up that area. in fact, today we're meeting with washington council of governments in effect to have an agreement with all the jurisdictions where we could bring in moonlighting officers, sworn officers, again, to beef up the presence on the system. the reality is if you do something we get you literally if not in hours in days. for every one of these incidents, we're getting these people. it's difficult to be everywhere all the time but it's clearly a concern for our customers and for us and we'll continue to work it. we're working, for instance, local school system on issues. we follow social media to monitor what's going on in the community and, again, we apply the resources accordingly with the limited resources we do have. ms. frankel: one more question. i see -- you got an award from one of my colleagues for firing. i think a better award would be for training. what are you doing about training so you don't have to fire?

mr. wiedefeld: let me just could, i get no pleasure. it is not a -- the last thing i want to do is let someone go. i understand the impact they have on their personal life. the key is to train, to bring people along. it's not just management but

front line employees. so that's part of -- my estimation is part of the change in culture. that's how you get to the safety culture in the customer service culture. it's not necessarily through discipline. you have to have that tool, but that is the last tool i want to use personally. i think it's the last tool any manager wants to use but on the other hand you have to use it when you need to do it. ms. frankel: what are you doing to up the training? mr. wiedefeld: basically there's a number of things. on the front line people we're focusing on the safety training right now is one of our biggest things. just basic -- even how we even i.d. our people, for instance. ms. frankel: are you holding classes, what are you doing? mr. wiedefeld: series of classes. we have our outside vendor coming in creating programs for us. we literally have to do it on an annual basis. we've been letting it slip. making sure we do it. it's recruiting people that come in that way. it's a combination of all those. ms. frankel: required -- employees are required to go through the training? mr. wiedefeld: yes. yes. every new employee spends four days in training the minute they walk in the door just to understand who we are and what we do. ms. frankel: what about continuing? mr. wiedefeld: yeah.

they have to have the training. ms. frankel: thank you very much. i yield back. mrs. comstock: thank you. i now recognize mr. meadows for five minutes? ms. meadows: thank you, madam chairman. let me come back, mr. wiedefeld, to you. we obviously had our dealings before and i guess my concern is today we heard a lot of talk about funding and the focus is all about funding and yet i understand that perhaps this is not a funding issue as much as it is a management issue and truly a maintenance issue, is that correct? mr. wiedefeld: i think there's an issue with the funding in terms of a dedicated and sustainable funding source so that's not necessarily means more dollars. it just means that we do not go through an annual budgeting process. mr. meadows: are you aware at no time that we can find that the board has come to this committee or the oversight committee to suggest that maintenance was not getting done because they didn't have funding? we can't find that.

mr. wiedefeld: i am not aware of that. mr. meadows: so if you are not aware of that and this committee's not aware of it and the oversight committee is not aware of it, how could we be focusing all our attention on funding when your board has never let us know that they are not doing repairs because of funding? mr. wiedefeld: it's the history of what the board has done. mr. meadows: ok. are you aware there is an average of four times a week a

fire actually occurs on the metro system and that makes it -- there's a greater probability of somebody seeing a fire on the metro in washington, d.c., over the last five months than there was in the great smokey national park that i represent? do you find that alarming? mr. wiedefeld: i do. i think it's, again, why the safe track plan and all the implications of that is why i put it out there. mr. meadows: all right. so if we're looking at this board -- and i understand from a board member that you are -- the buck stops with you. they're not going to micro manage, you are going to have complete authority to make this system safe, reliable and a service standard that we can all applaud, correct? mr. wiedefeld: yes. mr. meadows: if that does not happen, will you within seven days let this committee and the oversight committee know that you are being thwarted on the board? mr. wiedefeld: yes. mr. meadows: i guess what i'm saying is, i am making a request if there is an interference by the board on any of the service-related activity, will you report back to this committee and of the oversight committee? mr. wiedefeld: sir, if i may. again, i took this job to tackle these issues. if i am thwarted in any way, that's not the job for me. mr. meadows: all right. so let me go back to the board because a lot has been said about who the board should be, what the makeup should be and i ran into a gentleman in the hall a week or two ago and said really the board should have someone who travels the metro each and every day as a citizen advocate, so to speak, that is on the board. do you agree with that? mr. wiedefeld: i know a number of the board members use the system every day.

mr. meadows: but someone who speaks -- doesn't have any political ties, that actually speaks for the populous, do you think that would not be a bad idea? mr. wiedefeld: i have that through riders unions. i have that through a number of resources. mr. meadows: all right. so the other thing i would say, what if we took every one of the board members and required them for one week a year to experience what all the commuters get to experience each and every day, do you think it would change their opinion on some of this?

mr. wiedefeld: i get text and emails from board members constantly. mr. meadows: every board member because there are some who obviously don't use the metro and perhaps don't have the same appreciation. mr. wiedefeld: i think they all do use it. i just don't know, sir. mr. meadows: so making that a requirement is not something you would support? mr. wiedefeld: i think they use it today. mr. meadows: all right. let me finish with the funding question. we're going to rely on you to make good management decisions and realign this. from a funding standpoint, do you think it is wise to continue to add additional capital improvements and extend the metro when we don't have a good maintenance operating budget plan in place?

because that's really what we did. we invested billions of dollars in a metro, like buying a new car, and then we didn't change the oil for 30 years. and so in doing that, do you think it is more prudent to have the maintenance of the existing system as the top priority versus the capital expenditures for expansion until we get that? mr. wiedefeld: i think we have the same experience i think whatever the number is, $86 billion of unmet maintenance needs around the country. yet, we still need to increase the system for economic systems, safety reasons, all kinds of reasons. i think there is a time for that.

my focus is on the maintenance and my focus going forward, after we do the safe track plan we can't back away from the ongoing maintenance or we'll be

right back where we started. mr. meadows: all right. i'll yield back, madam chairman. mrs. comstock: ok. i'll yield to mr. lipinski for five minutes. mr. lipinski: before i get in the meat of things, there are things i want to get out there. first of all, i say i started a few years ago and you are the first congressional transit caucus about how important it is that we support public transit across the country, not just my hometown of chicago but i'm also a metro rider when i'm out here. so first thing i wanted to mention is i will have a question for the record about wmata's recent cancellation about the electronic payment program which is designed to make the customer experience better and reportedly would have saved wmata up to $60 million a year. so i know there is much invested in this and we certainly see challenges to the current fair collection system. i will be asking a question for the record on that and what has happened with that. i want to move on. i will ask a quick question. ms. flowers, a recent assault on a d.c. bus driver became deadly when the bus was hijacked and horrifically killed a pedestrian. driver assaults are a national issue. the fast track noticed a propose rulemaking on driver assaults, which is a growing issue. when will f.t.a. issue this rulemaking? ms. flowers: well, the first thing that we've done is that our transit advisory committee on safety has done a study on operator assaults and given us some best practices and recommendations preventing and mitigating transit worker assaults. so that's going to be the basis for us putting together our proposed rulemaking. and so we're currently gathering information and input from the transit community as well as unions to inform this rulemaking. so we're in the process right now of working on that.

mr. lipinski: thank you. i want to probably come back to you later on this after the hearing but thank you for that. i just want to say this morning -- i'm a red line rider. wake up. there are two places there's single tracking. a report of an arcing incident. i said i'm getting on my bike to ride the 17 miles down to capitol hill because i don't know when i'm going to get in. i think metro in so many ways is unfortunately an embarrassment in our nation's capital. but it needs to work. so i'm not here to just tear things down. we need the system to work. i think the region needs to come up with a dedicated funding source for metro. we can't do anything here in congress about it but i think it's something the region needs to do. but there is a changing of the -- we need to change the way people act within the system, the whole culture and it's difficult do. i think you, mr. wiedefeld, for the things you have done so far. i want to ask -- i know the march 16 shutdown caused a significant inconvenience to many of the region's commuters.

but they released a series of safety directives to metro. among them were things that appeared to be routine maintenance including removing debris, replacing insulators and rail cover boards so i'm concerned about metro's efficiency in conducting inspection and repair, especially given the safe track plan is about to begin. i want to be sure if metro causes serious disruption in people's daily lives that you

will be using the time to accomplish all the required maintenance. so first, were f.t.a.'s findings in may a result of the march 16 shutdown or were those findings the result of previous inspections or what -- what was the may f.t.a. findings, where did those come from? mr. wiedefeld: i think they reflected, again, the lack of ongoing maintenance and the ability to get out there and do that and that's why the safe track has the impacts it has because physically to get out there and do the level work we need to do -- because it's not just one thing. mr. lipinski: but did you know -- the may findings a result of -- are those things that were found on the march 16 shutdown or -- mr. wiedefeld: no, in the march 16 shutdown we were looking at the power cables issue because that was -- mr. lipinski: so you focused on that one thing? mr. wiedefeld: we were focused on that because of the l'enfant incident. mr. lipinski: will it be in compliance with all federal safety orders, recommendations? mr. wiedefeld: it will be. that's the plan. the plan is not just to meet it but we have to go beyond it and we have to maintain it. it's one thing to get out there and do all the repairs, but if we don't keep doing that, then we're going to be right back to where we were. mr. lipinski: and one thing very quickly. i noticed -- i live -- i take the red line. i hear the red line going by, unfortunately, all the time where i sleep when i'm out here. i heard for months a click cadillac of every -- click clack every time a wheel set went over the track for months and one morning they say there is a broken rail just south of the grover metro stop. i said i could have told you a long time ago there was a problem there.

there seems to be something wrong in the culture. an operator should have said, hey, there's something wrong here. and that's all part of changing the culture here where everyone is part of trying to make this system run well. and that's something that really needs to change. there's a lot of work that needs to be done. we're going to be watching it but we need to make the system work. thank you. i yield back. mrs. comstock: thank you. and i now recognize myself for five minutes. i wanted to highlight an issue i raised in my opening statement. i think i talked about with mr. wiedefeld and ms. flowers that our average costs at metro are higher, according to the federal transit authority documents that i'm reading are operating expenses per vehicle revenue, mile are 124% of the average. up to operating expense per passenger is 151%. i think that works out to some of the hourly rates of track walker of $36 an hour and would bens -- with benefits $53 an hour. track repairs, $42 an hour and benefits up to $58 and that's davis-bacon prevailing rates,

$23 an hour. and with benefits $30 an hour. can we use outside contractors and can we change whatever we need to in the labor contract in order to expedite this so we can use outside contractors that are able to provide the same service at a lower cost, basically at the davis-bacon prevailing wage rates and get this expedited with that kind of expertise? mr. wiedefeld: we can under the current contract we can't replace workers with contractors but if we have and that's what we're doing. in effect we're bringing in workers above and beyond what our current work force can do. so that's how i can bring an outside contractor. mrs. comstock: are they getting paid this contract rate you have with the existing employees or can they be brought in and get these $30 rates or do we have contractors that will come in and work for lower rates during this expedited time when we're trying to save money, get things back online, we can deal with the contracting things later but i just want to make sure we can take advantage of this opportunity to save some money here and have workers who can help with that? mr. wiedefeld: i can provide that to committee. mrs. comstock: we have people that would like to help there. let's see if we can expedite that.

then on the technology front, as i mentioned in my opening statement, have -- excuse my language here. have you seen the metro blog called unsuck metro? i hope you are all familiar with that. certainly i could tell you a lot of the staff on the hill are familiar with it and the federal employees.

ho are we using technology? i looked at that this morning and throughout the hearing. one of their major questions they do want to know is about this rape incident, about the crime. so i would like you to address that. but also wanted to address in terms of technology, why don't we -- in the interest of transparency -- and to enable all of your riders to assist in some of the things that mr. lipinski talked about, how can we plug into the system and go in and see -- here's where all the recent crimes have been by station. we should be able to have. we have the technology at very low cost. if this blog can do this, certainly we can do it at little to no cost. i've spoken to technology companies that are doing this and other metro areas around the country and this technology enables us to look at the safety pictures. you know, while you're out there fixing it you get the picture. you have the time stamp of the person working on it so there's a lot of accountability. that could go up online for a lot of us can see and the -- and can we have it online today?

as they disappear, we can see them disappear. we can see new ones online. in your interest of transparency, can you commit to providing that as well as using the technology? mr. wiedefeld: yes, do i commit to that. with the safe track program, that's what we're creating, is the ability to monitor what we're doing. that's what the care report is about. the customer accountability report is what we put out every month. we update what we're doing so people can see where we're on that. to be frank, i want to work with outside vendors and just the community in general that have that knowledge in the technology world. it's awfully hard for us to create that within the structure we have. it's also something that's not core to our mission. i think we have a lot of people in this region. if we could tap in -- and you've seen it evolve. rather than -- we have to think of ways to team with them, not ways to push them away. so that is something that i made very clear that i want to bring those people to the table because they have the knowledge, they have the skill base. and, again, just open it up. we have nothing to hide. it is what it is. and now we have to start to attack it. mrs. comstock: and we talked about this with ms. flowers last week when your staff came in, too, and if we had the ability for the public to see something, like mr. lipinski said, lock it in the system, have it time stamped. we have the technology. if someone had seen that fire that day, taken the picture and sent it in, are your folks tracking that and saying, ok, this is a picture that just came in from the station, it's time

stamped, it lines up, you don't have to send anyone out to the station to verify that. you got a picture that is time stamped and does that and i can give that to you as well as someone who is paid $50 an hour to do it. so the time lapses we have shouldn't be occurring given we have the technology to -- really, when you look at the fatality that occurred, most of what we know about it occurred from people using their cell phones and giving us that information. and let's make sure we are using that to maximum effect and that your staff isn't creating new methods but is taking advantage of that. mr. wiedefeld: i agree. i want our staff to basically do things before it gets to the point where they have to take a photo of it. an example i gave to the managers when i saw them, at new carrollton station in front of a cabinet, an emergency cabinet that puts it on the track to rescue people, our vendor parked a very large equipment piece in front of it. that shouldn't happen. i shouldn't be taking photos of that. that's something our employees see and say, that's wrong, fix it.

that's the cultural change we have to get to. mrs. comstock: ok. and can we go back to the rape incident and report. why wasn't that made public at the time? why didn't we know about it? mr. wiedefeld: because it was solved within hours. we knew who the person was. they were pursuing the person. within hours we apprehended that person. we do report out all crime statistics quarterly at a minimum to the board where we go through every event that we have. mrs. comstock: can that also be reported -- have those crime

statistics on the website by station or by whatever way so we all know that immediately? i appreciate that it was solved quickly. i guess the criminal used a smart card, is that -- mr. wiedefeld: a combination of that and our tv cameras and things. mrs. comstock: while that was resolved quickly, the public at large didn't know about it and in reading the blog, that's something everyone's concerned about. so can we take those crime statistics, whether it's -- hey, there's somebody at capital south snatching purses, i understand cell phones being stolen are one of the most common things that happen at the stations because people are looking at them. they're not paying attention. someone snatches it. runs out the door. can we have those kinds of incidents per station reported so people know the stations they're going to, they can look, see what's going there in real time and just having all the statistics? and i think it will also help you in that way if we have that available is all of our transportation resources, universities that are looking at data, you will give them a vast amount of research data to help you do some work that you don't

have to pay for. mr. wiedefeld: no. we will provide that type of data. i think we have to put in context of we're just part of the community and a lot of these things happen around us. sometimes they happen on our property and sometimes they don't. so i think, you know, someone stealing someone's camera happens just as likely outside of our station as inside of our stations. mrs. comstock: i think the information is power for the customers. as you heard, people are becoming more afraid to use it. i want to mention in addition to our costs being higher, 120% to 150%, are you confident you can bring those costs down in the upcoming negotiations? mr. wiedefeld: we will -- we've started negotiations, obviously. we made a commitment to do that at the table. we are focusing on both wage, pension, health benefits and work rules.

so we will attack each one of those but it is in negotiation. it does go to arbitration. mrs. comstock: ok. i wanted to point out and emphasize given our costs are 120% to 150% higher, it's incredibly distressing that our performance believes 75% on-time performance now when your average transit system is up in the high 90's. so that's the disconnect people see and the concerns. thank you and i know i've run over my time here. i now recognize ms. esty for five minutes. ms. esty: thank you very much and i want to thank you all for joining us here today. as somebody who is a high school student, was in those metros when they were being built with my father was part of the construction team building them, i have particular interest in the legacy around how we maintain these systems. so a couple different questions. first, mr. wiedefeld, on the safety culture, who are you looking at, what organizations or what institutions do you think we should be looking at to have the safety culture that

needs to be instinct? it needs to be instinct and i believe it needs to be from the top. there should be no substitute for that. mr. wiedefeld: i spent 10 years running b.w.i. airport. it is just part of who you are when you think about safety in an airport. and i'm trying to instill that. that same sort of philosophy. it is who you are when you work at the transit agency of the ms. esty: i would agree. i think checklist manifesto is something that's baked into every decision that you make. and to empower workers to see that as their responsibility to get their there first, following

up on what subcommittee chair comstock said. you look at something called click it fix it which is doing something in the cities not as adversaries but advocates to making sure the highest priority situations are being dealt with now. having recently been in silicon valley, there are a lot of entrepreneurs who are very eager to try to help democracy work well. and i think we need to find some way to tap into their energy and their intellectual capital in a way that helps us go into the 21st century and not be tied so much in trying to update our computer systems that are three generations old. i think a number of us would be eager to try to help make those connections. for administrator flowers, we have an ongoing issue and it is not unique to transit about the excitement about developing a big new system, whether it's a bridge or road or an airport. we never put enough money aside for maintenance, for these heavily used transit systems that's absolutely essential, given what has happened here. do you have suggestions for how we insist that it is actually being spent as we go, that it cannot be postponed? because we know that is the political imperative is you'd rather go on and do something new, extend the system, whatever it is. maintenance is never exciting. it's not sexy but it is a disaster when the worst happens. do you have suggestions for us as to how to restructure the

deployment of that money or the incentives around it to ensure it gets spent as it needs to be as we go? that it cannot be was bone. ms. flowers: one of the criteria that we look at with the financial plans for new capital projects is to ensure that in the financial forecast that maintenance is included in that. and i think that is going to be critical. when you're constructing a new system you have to ensure that there's a way to sustain that system over a long period of time. those assets are built -- >> you can continue watching this hearing online. we'll have it up at c-span.org. we have to leave it now, though, to join the house gaveling soon for work on two bills.

one to ease permitting restrictions for using pesticides near waterways in order to combat the zika virus. and also a bill dealing with the safety of toxic chemicals used for commercial purposes. later, members begin work on the 2017 energy and water spending bill. live coverage of the house here on c-span. -- what they years are you using

and how are those going to be communicated? >> the things we produce, you can go online and monitor what we do. one of the things we have changed recently, we used to put on our performance based on how we managed it. we moved to a mechanism where as you tap in, you cap out, from a view.ommuters point of

here is what is really happening in our system and not some computer generated. >> i see my time has expired. thank you. >> now i will recognize ms. norton for five minutes. we all recognize that there are revenue, theces or usual mythical sources i mentioned from time to time from the side of rome. government, federal is never mentioned by you but it has been alleged that that is here.s really called for that in the last fast

act that we had just done, there was a 25 are sent increase in systems and that was something that as the ranking member, i find very hard or because there really is a difference between these systems and the newer ones. yet, what cannot be ignored is that metro had a 5% loss over the last five years. you are probably going to have more. i noted in something you said a few months ago that it was trying to help itself. it was looking for something business often does, incentives to re-attracted writers. two -- to re-attract riders.

if you left you could reenter at another time. some kind of pass. can you afford to put some of these incentives in place, in of so, what kind of the incentives are you looking at to help rid ttracted to metro? wiedefeld: tap-in tap out, so there is a 15 minute window. university pass. in effect, we are working with american university where they offer students a flat fee at the

getting of the year as part of their tuition or fees. of rationale is it is a lot nonpeak usage. we are trying to do things from an i.t. side. so people make educated decisions. continuing to do things like that, we have to balance it. on the other hand, we have to make sure we are flexing the times of today and not doing the same things we did in 1980 or 1990. >> is so you are putting those things out there. >> in yes. going back to some of the us whatst, can you tell

a track inspector position? what does it pay? weidefeld: i can get you the track figures, i just don't know. rep. comstock:: i know you are new. i think it is help hold to have that transparent and to know what these jobs pay in comparison. weidefeld: most of our operators are bus station manus -- managers.

it is about 15 in the country compared to other properties on behalf of the real side. orare basically about fifth sixth on the bus side will stop major properties. -- on the bus side. the major properties. fired, they'rees still getting their pensions and getting paid. we have legacy costs. that was one of the questions i asked you in terms of the policy. theirme goes toward pension. so when they have overtime in the system. we were trying to figure up what level of overtime there was throughout the system. you we ared why doing this accelerated repair there is inevitably going to be overtime, but that is why i would hope we would look to contracting out. we could avoid the overtime and long time legacy cost that

overtime currently would resent as well as being able to contract out at a lower cost. so i reemphasize. >> let me get back to with the facts on that. hat -- we abletock: what are to see in the transparency and labor process and what is being negotiated. you are going to have to negotiate this but really since we are partners in this, i think inis important that virginia, maryland, washington, negotiationsh the are and how we compare. what kind of information can we get on that? weidefeld: we will present that at the board. we have an agreement on both sides to do these negotiations. they are negotiations that we do

not want to make them public. we will take it to the board and public process. >> can it also be presented to to theongress and also public because feeding off that ability to the public, we have a lot of expertise out there. there are a lot of people who would like to compete in the space to give us a better product, more technologically accurate and if they are able to see in a more transparent way, that will give us more people coming over to talk to us, to talk to you. if we can have an open platform in whatever way we need to to get the information out to stop whether it be maintenance, what we are paying various contracts, paratransit you highlighted for us looking at other ways. as well as technology. weidefeld: again, we have to

do that within the context of negotiation. that is federal law. ms. flowers, do you have anything to add to that that we might be able to do to help you and how you approach this? ms. flowers: we thank you for your support through the fast act to and map 21 and expanding authority. we have the challenges of the additional authority and like everyone else at the table, funding for that authority is one of the challenges we have. look for the support through the appropriation process to provide us with the necessary resources that are needed to do our jobs. ms. gosar: i am running out of

comstock: i wanted thank you fornd continuing to update us. i understand that right now we have 46 positions allocated for the controllers. but, there are currently 19 vacancies. is that still accurate? mr. weidefeld: people are still in training but a will get on the floor. comstock: i stated that before, but washingtonian magazine kind of gave the account of that. it was seen as a source of the

problems. what sets of you taken so far in will you take forward to correct a lot of the problems? weidenfeld: i have a new and newthe department people to bring new skill bases. my chief safety officer will go in there and give ways they can be drilling. answer is all of the above, not just one thing. but clearly, management is part of it. appreciate all of your time and your attention to this important matter. allink you have heard from of our colleagues in the region as well is the chairman and members who have been involved in the issues for years. is a large measure of

appreciation and goodwill for what you are doing and the faculty of the task ahead. i think it is very important that as long as where able to stay united and work with you on fixing this, i know we were problems and disagreements on the road but as much as we can keep it together and where you can come to us and tell us tools you do not have as you run into blockages were you can say, you know, we could do this faster and i could keep my one-year deadline or even shorten the one-year deadline if i get have this authority from congress or if we could change this law. if there are legislative changes we need or things you are not able to do under current rules, please let us know if you're not getting the kind of support from wherever, we need to know. and i would also invite the listening public and those who go on blogs of whatever name, that you let us know your experience. take those pictures.

when i was on the transportation committee in the statehouse, people would send me pictures of road problems, i would be able to send them right to be. -- right to v-dot. on trainsople everyday dealing with things. take this pictures. what them up will stop get that attention. because whether it is supervisors or anyone else, there's no one to run to. it is there. problemsrking on these in a diplomatic way celeb would ask all of us to be partners in helping you do your job falls thank you. i ask unanimous consent that the -- that theoday's record remain open for 15 days. for additional comments and information and for asking witnesses to be included in the hearing, without objection it is

no otherd and if members have anything to add, the subcommittee stands adjourned. -- [gavel out]

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announcer: tsa administrator peter neff injured testifies today on his agency's recent surge in waiting time for passengers. at 10:00 a.m. eastern on c-span three. >> this sunday night on q&a, u.s. historian talks about various events in united states history. in june 1998 as a newly-minted senate hysteria in. -- senate historian. havelleagues that i would lots of time to read and get comfortable but within a few weeks the house decided to impeach clinton and we got very busy very quickly. deal ofd to do a great research on presidential impeachment.

we had not had an impeachment and tom daschle really wanted to follow historical president as much as he could. >> that is sunday on cuba and a. >> this weekend, the national libertarian party holds its convention in florida. he candidates face one another in a debate and sunday it chooses its presidential and vice president shaw nominees. see it saturday at 9:00 eastern and sunday at 8:45 eastern here on c-span. >> madam secretary, we probably proudly give 72 of our delegate votes to the next president of the united states.

♪ announcer:. live today on c-span, "washington journal" is next. noon, the house continues work on the energy and water projects bill. coming up in 45 minutes, georgia congressman buddy carter, a former pharmacist, on his work in congress to fight opioid and prescription drug abuse. then come as men jim mcgovern on food policy in the united states and the government hearing on

food waste. magazine features james bovard on the war on terror since 2000 and one. ♪ host: good morning, everyone. bloomberg reporting that paul ryan is set to endorse donald trump. that could come this week. the hill reporting this morning that democrats are thinking about replacing debbie wasserman schultz as the democratic chairwoman c. long securityt lines at airports. the house resources committee will be