This report reviews the history of federal programs for pipeline safety and security, key policy issues, and recent developments leading up to P.L. 112-90. Although the Act contains over 30 substantive sections, this report focuses only on a subset of provisions of key interest in recent congressional debate.

This report covers ways in which the 112th Congress can introduce relevant legislation to safeguard pipelines that transport natural gas, oil, and other hazardous liquids across the United States. While an efficient and fundamentally safe means of transport, many pipelines carry materials with the potential to cause public injury and environmental damage; the networks are also widespread and vulnerable to accidents and terrorist attack.

Addresses a variety of challenges and solutions within the transportation security sphere in order to protect our transportation systems • Provides innovative solutions to improved communication and creating joint operations centers to manage response to threats • Details technological measures to protect our transportation infrastructure, and explains their feasibility and economic costs • Discusses changes in travel behavior as a response to terrorism and natural disaster • Explains the role of transportation systems in supporting response operations in large disasters • Written with a worldwide scope

Congress possesses broad regulatory powers, including the power of complete or partial preemption of state and local regulatory powers. Congress rarely enacted preemption statutes before the twentieth century, but since the 1960s such interventions have grown significantly in number, now totaling over seven hundred, and have transformed the nature of the American federal system. In Innovative Congressional Minimum Standards Preemption Statutes, Joseph F. Zimmerman provides the background and history of this critical transformation, classifying the forms these federal interventions have taken, with a focus on statutes dealing with such environmental issues as water and air quality, restoration of surface-mined areas, and still other areas that, collectively, have produced a revolution in relations between Congress and the states. Contrary to public perceptions of preemption being one-sided and heavy-handed, Zimmerman details the many variations present in these statutes that accommodate state and local interests, allowing for administrative and policy flexibility, and a generally cooperative relationship between states and localities and federal administrative agencies.

Protecting Transportation: Implementing Security Policies and Programs provides a thorough overview of transportation security in the United States, with a focus on policy. The book coversall major transportation modes and puts the American security system into perspective against other national and international systems. Author R. William Johnstone, a transportation security expert and member of the 9/11 Commission staff, discusses how the current transportation security system came to be and how it is performing. Whether you are a current or aspiring transportation security professional, a policymaker, or an engaged citizen, Johnstone's presentation equips you to understand today's issues and debates on a problem that affects every member of the global community. Transportation security has evolved in the years since 9/11 from a relatively modest, sporadic undertaking into a multi-billion dollar enterprise employing tens of thousands. Protecting Transportation describes how that system is organized, funded, and implemented. - Fosters critical thinking by reviewing the development and evaluation of key transportation security programs - Clarifies security issues in the context of civil liberties, federal spending, and terrorist incidents in the United States and globally - Considers the "inputs of security policy, including laws, regulations, and programs; and the "outcomes, such as enforcement, effectiveness metrics, and workforce morale