we cannot go back to a time when the only safety data that was purchased at the cost of human life. in wake of recent judicial decisions or disclosure of voluntary supply safety information, and the use of accident investigation report in civil litigation and criminal prosecutions around the world, we believe there is a need for legislative protection against the release of use and voluntary self disclose reporting programs. we are calling for the creation of a legislative, qualified exception. from discovery of voluntary disclosed reporting programs similar to that which is provided in u.s. law against discovery and use of cockpit and field service for recording and transcript are the foundation recommends legislative protection of such information against disclosure in any judicial proceedings, except that the court may allow limited discovery if it decides the requesting party has demonstrated a unique need for the information and that the party will not receive a fair trial absent the information. in the event any discover is permitted, the foundation encourages that it only be m

it would promote a reduction in health care errors by allowing patients safety data related to disputesbe collected by patient safety organizations to improve the quality of health care. errors by providing data to be collect and analyzed by patient safety organizations to improve the quality of health care so if fits in what we're doing right now. and we to do know that the curr litigation system doesn't work for the patients and the doctors. for the patients it takes too long, the doctors never know where they stand. we spend billions of years on unnecessary medicine that can even be harmful. one of the things possible under this amendment would be medical courts where there would be a series of courts where the judges were familiar with medical litigation and would keep track of relative awards that are made right now under our current system, one person is hurt and they get the right jury, they get the right lawyer, whatever the combination is and they get a huge award. another person has exactly the same thing happen to them. they don't get that jury or that lawyer or that combinat

it is protected at used as safety data, we should be able to find a way to make the system safer and that is our shared goal. >> just about every service company i call on the telephone, bank or whatever, is going to say this call may be monitored for quality purposes, you can't prove what you don't measure. to assume that this will monitor potential problems over the lifetime of a pilot is like assuming the same thing for and airplane. i am a little concerned that you consider that a band-aid. to you consider getting the records, keeping records of pilots over their career, is that a band-aid? >> are we going to compare apples with apples? which training school did they come out of? you don't want to create a system where go to x, y, z training school because they don't flinch anybody, you don't want anything on your record, or the one them to go to the hardest school where they push you to your limits, push you to a failure not of a check ride, but all these are maneuvers we must be trained in over and over whether they are emergencies or back to basic flying skills. you don't want

if it is protected and used as safety data, then we should be able to find a way to make the system safer, and that is our shared goal. >> just about every service company i call on the telephone now is going to say this call may be audited for quality purposes. you cannot improve which you do not measure. to assume that one time training scheme is going to monitor potential problems over the lifetime of a pilot's is like assuming the same thing for an airplane, so i am a little concerned that you consider that a band aid. do you consider getting -- keeping records of pilots over their career a band-aid? >> are we going to compare apples with apples? which training school did they come out of? you don't want to create a system where you tell them to go to a certain training school because they will not fail anybody, or do you want them to go to the hardest school out there where they push you to your limits? all these are maneuvers that we must be trained in over and over, whether they are emergencies or back to basic flying skills. so you do not want to create a system that finds a way t

safety data is an invaluable commodity. but if compromises the results can be catastrophic. in wake of recent judicial decisions and the use of investigation reports and civil litigation and criminal prosecutions around the world, we believe there is a need for protection against use of voluntary self-disclosed programs. we're calling for legislative qualified reporting programs similar to that which is provided in u.s. law and discovery and in recordings and transcripts. the foundation recommends legislative against disclosure in any proceedings except that the court may allow limited discovery ing party has demonstrated a unique information-- need in the party would not receive a fair trial ebsen the information. in the event any discoveries permitted the foundation urges that only be made available to a party and a protective order and not made available to the public. we believe this legislative protection is absolutely necessary and will save lives. with regard to the issues of pilot training fatigue and anti-issing programs including those raised by the colgan crash we

other means to enhance safety and improve airline operations, we agree with mr. make, data collection and analysis programs, we need to share that information across the industry and modify our practices to make sure the best practices are being used by the entire finely of airlines. to make these reports more readily understandable, additional legislative protection will be needed to limit the use of data in civil liability cases and to insure the information is used to increase safety. the best safety device on any airplane is a well-trained, well rested, highly motivated pilot. a strong safety culture must be instilled and consistently reinforced from the highest levels within an airline and among its cochair regional partners. thank you for the opportunity to address you. i will be happy to take any questions. >> thank you very much, captain of the 11. now we will hear from scott mauer, a representative of the families of continental flight 37. mr. mauer, your daughter, lauren, was a passenger on that flight and it is likely difficult for you to speak publicly on these

the collection and analysis of data recorded during flights improves safety. second, apply aviation safety programs that have voluntary reporting of safety issues as they come to the attention of employes on regional airlines that currently do not have a program. third, identify advanced training best practices of mainline carriers to be used by regional carriers. fourth, we need a centralized data base of pilot records to give airlines easy access to complete information about applicants, from the time the very beginning. fifth, let's see if the fda needs to increase compliance with the sterile cockpit rule and what measures it should use to do that. sixth, let's examine flight crew preparedness when pilots report to work. this means looking at crew member commuting. if this means examining flight and duty time issues, i think that is perfectly appropriate, but tie it to the commuting side of the equation. as long as any examination is based on science, not anecdote. each of these initiatives can and should be achieved in short order. we're looking for door w

it works, the collection and analysis of data recorded during flight safety improve safety. second applied aviation safety action programs which encourage voluntary reporting of safety issues and events that come to the attention of employes to those regional airlines that don't currently have such a program. third, identify advanced training best practices of mainline carriers to be used by regional carriers. is in a kewpie program in the jargon. fourth, we need to have a centralized database of pilot records to give airlines easy access to complete information about applicants from the time in the very beginning of their flying career. fifth, let's see if the faa is to increase compliance with the sterile cockpit rule and what measures it should use to do that. sixth, let's examine a flight crew prepared mess when pilots report to work, this means looking at crewmember commuting. if this means examining flight and duty time issues, i think that is perfectly appropriate but tied to the commuting sight of that equation. as long as an examination is based on science, not anec

other means to enhance safety and improve airline operations, we agree with mr. may. data collection and analysis programs such as foqa. we need to share that information across the industry and then modify our practices to make sure that the best practices are being used by the entire family of airlines. in order to allow those programs to grow and make these report more readily at table, additional legislative protections will be needed to limit the use of a sap and foqa data and satellite are the cases and to ensure that information is used to increase safety. the best safety device on an airplane is a well-trained, well rested, highly motivated pilot. a strong safety culture must be instilled and consistently reinforced from the highest levels within an airline, and among its co- shared regional partners. thank you for the opportunity to address your. i will be ready to take any questions. >> thank you very much, captain prater. and finally we will hear from mr. maurer, who is a representative of the families oof continental flight 3407. mr. maurer, i know that your da

and the adam walsh child protection and safety act of 2006, which created a national sex offender public data base. and it's because of that work over the years that that rate is up to 97% today. now despite all that has been accomplished, i'm sure there's much more that can be done, should be done. i congratulate the center for its 25th anniversary. i congratulate it for its work on behalf of so many child recoverries today. and let this resolution remind us there is nothing more important than the safety of our nation's children and that the national center for missing and exploited children has done such great work in this regard. madam chair, i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new york. tonchingtonching i continue to reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from pennsylvania. mr. platts: i'm honored to yield to the distinguished the gentleman from california, mr. lungren, who played an important role in the foundation and formation of the national center for missing and exploited children in 1984, as much time as

our strategic safety initiative, including the exploration -- there is a lot of new signs out there on fatigue. the possibility of exploring fatigue testing, let's start gathering the data. let's start testing people for fatigue. we have the ability to do that now, but we do not currently. we would strongly urge it. >> i think that we know. i have read enough sleep studies to know that if people do not have enough sleep, and i am not disputing that testing is good, but the bottom line is, if they do not have enough sleep because they are sitting in an airport and have not slept the night before because they are flying from far away and do not have enough money to pay for a hotel room, i think you are want to have problems. i was glad that administrator babbitt this money is -- this money is going to propose a new rolrule. i wanted to talk about the deicing issues, because that was clearly an issue here. the first officer told the pilot in the crash, i have never seen icing conditions. i have never the ice. i have never experienced any of that. this was clearly a factor in the crash. our regional aircraft more susceptible to problems associated with eisenger and some of

safety initiative. including the exploration, this is a lot of science out there on fatigue. and the possibility of exploring fatigue testing. let's start gathering the data, let's start testing people for fatigue. we have the ability to do that now, but we don't currently and we would strongly urge it to him that well, i think that we know. i have read enough sleep studies to know that as people don't have enough sleep and i am not at all disputing that testing is good and find more details about long fight in short flies is good, but the bottom line is if they don't have enough sleep because they are sitting in an airport and haven't slept because they are not having enough money to pay for a hotel room i think you're going to have problems so i was glad that administrative babbitt this past monday said he would propose a new role of private -- pilot rest requirement which would be helpful. i wanted to talk briefly about the deicing issues because that was clearly an issue here. i think was at the first officer told the pilot in this crash, i have never seen icing conditions, i have never deiced, i have never experienced any of that. and this was clearl

safety initiative. including the exploration, this is since there is a lot of new sites out there on fatigue. and the possibility of exploring fatigue testing, let's start gathering the data. let's start testing people for fatigue. we had the ability to do that now, but we don't currently. and we would strongly urge it. >> i think that we know, i've read enough sleep study to know that if people have -- don't have enough sleep, and i'm not at all disputing that testing is good and finding more details out about long flights, short flights is good but the bottom line is they don't have enough sleep because they are sitting there in an airport and they haven't slept the night before because they are flying from far away and they don't have enough money to pay for a hotel room. i think you're going to have a problem so that's what i was glad that administrator this past monday said he is going to propose a new rule on pilot rest requirements which i think would be very helpful. i wanted to talk briefly about the deicing issues because that was clearly an issue here, i think that the first officer told the pilot in the trash i have never seen icing conditions. i have never de

caused the fatal accident was an older model, that the federal safety officials have recommended for replacement. it did not have the data recorder or modern improvements to stand up to a collision, and it may have been two months behind in its scheduled maintenance. metro officials are replacing these aging cars that date back to the 1970's. these costly replacements are being made but at pace too slow. funding shortfalls have caused metro make repairs instead of replacing aging equipment or structures throughout the syst system. last year, madam president, i visited the shady grove station and witnessed firsthand how they literally are using wood planks and iron rods to prop up station platforms. they have been forced to make such accommodations to keep the system running in the safest possible manner. the washington metrorail system is the second busiest commuter rail system in america, carrying as many as a million passengers a day. it carries the equivalent of the combined subway ridership of bart in san francisco, marta in atlanta, septa in philadelphia each day. but more than three decades after the first train st