quarterman, phmsa sent its rule for rail car standards to omb for review. i know your agency is working diligently to finalize the rule. it's a complex task. can you tell me when the final rule will be completed? >> i cannot tell you when the final rule will be completed. i can tell you what the process is. the process is that it goes over -- >> i kind of know the process. i'm just wondering -- >> i can assure you, senator, that we're working very hard to get the rule out as soon as humanly possible. it's a first priority for secretary fox, and for me. so we are working as hard as we can to get the rule out as soon as possible. >> there's currently about 228,000 d.o.t. 111 rail cars carrying a wide range of products, including hazardous and nonhazardous materials. roughly 92,000 are used to move flammable liquids yet only about 14,000 of these are built to the latest industry safety standards. miss quarterman, considering the large number of the d.o.t. 111s in the fleet, is phmsa considering different rules on what product is being shipped? and would such a

quarterman raised, and i emphasized earlier, which is that standards need to be sufficiently high. they need to be enforced rigorously, and that penalties have to provide a deterrent to violation of them. she rightly emphasized the need for increased penalties when they fail to provide a deterrent to violation of safety standards. the experience of metro north, i think, provides a national poster railroad in culminating years of neglect and systematic and cultural failure in a series of catastrophic incidents costing lives and injuries as well as dollars, and i think that a lot of eyes were opened by a series of reports, most significantly in the connecticut post, that detailed the actions of significant penalties over a period of time, 2004 and 2013 where most of the penalties were in the range of $5,000 or $10,000. the total was around $220,000 for a series of defects in procedures and operations that were -- one of them, for example, applied to robert luten. a metro north worker killed on the tracks near westhaven with a senseless and needless neglect of safety by metro north. t

and now administrator quarterman, thank you for being here. >> good morning. chairman blumenthal, ranking member blunt and members of the subcommittee, thank you for inviting me here today to testify on the pipeline and safety material administration's progress, in implementing the hazardous safety provisions of map 21. i'm also delighted to discuss the ways the grow america act will further improve upon the efforts of fmsa and the department to enhance the safety of our nation's hazardous materials transportation system. safety is the top priority of secretary fox, the department of transportation, phmsa and its sister modes. all of us at d.o.t. appreciate your dedication, and leadership in advancing hazardous materials transportation safety. for a relatively small agency, with limited resources, the staff at phmsa works diligently to protect the american public and the environment from hazardous materials transportation incidents and have made great strides in implementing the provisions of map 21. since map 21's enactment in 2012, phmsa has met or will meet