Train Wreck Legislation Demonstrates the Need for Public Testimony
By Brad Galbraith
Shutting out Oklahomans’ voices in the legislative process leads to uninformed public policy. A recent hearing of the House Transportation Committee serves as just one example of the testimony deficiency in Oklahoma’s legislative process.
The committee recently considered House Bill 1048, sponsored by Representative Kerbs, which requires private railroads to maintain at least “two crewmembers in the control compartment of the lead locomotive unit of a train.”
Limited to the knowledge and testimony of the bill’s sponsor and the Secretary of Transportation, the committee unanimously voted to approve a simple bill that it believed was an innocuous codification of current standards that would protect public safety indefinitely into the future.
