00:00Back the balance of this time and the chair now recognizes the gentlelady from Colorado's first sister for five minutes for questions
00:06Thank you so much. Mr. Chairman, and thanks to all the witnesses
00:11Mr.. Black I'm peering around here to you
00:14you just said we should always have the eye on pipeline safety and
00:19You were talking about cyber, but I'm assuming you mean in in every respect pipeline safety is really critical for this country. Is that correct?
00:30I'm making sure you're looking at me Congresswoman. Yes, of course my plan safety is our goal and miss Miller
00:34I assume you would agree with that too. Mr.. Karen agree as well
00:38Mr.. Karen. Yes, I agree and Mr.. Moriarty. Yes, I do. Yeah, but it's sort of a fundamental
00:44As we are transporting more material through pipelines and many of them aging because of the administration's emphasis on oil and gas development
00:55We need to make sure that our pipelines are safe
00:58We need to figure out a way preferably in a bipartisan way to do that
01:03Statutorily and that's what we're talking about here today
01:06but but I
01:08Was recently reading an article in the Wall Street Journal and it talked about
01:14How the number of violation reviews has dropped by 95% in the first four months of this President Trump's second term
01:21Compared to the same period under President Biden and at number nine and a 93% drop compared to
01:29Donald Trump's first term and and at the same time the president has
01:35Said that he doesn't want enforcement in a lot of these areas and so I'm and so and and also of course, then there's doge
01:44unceremoniously
01:46unceremoniously just having these layoffs across government which we don't really know
01:52How how many of those people were laid off? I don't think at PHMSA
01:57But given the dramatic drop of open reviews of safety violations
02:02I'm not sure that that that means that there aren't
02:06Violations it just I think means that there aren't reviews so mr. Karam. I want to ask you isn't it true?
02:12That say significant pipeline incidents have not decreased over the past 20 years
02:19That is true
02:20So so let's talk about the Keystone pipeline leak in Kansas, which was just three years ago
02:26The largest offshore oil spill in almost a decade and the third major spill in five years. That was quite serious. Is that right?
02:34Yes, that was a lot of oil a lot of oil and then last year a
02:39Pipeline in Louisiana leak for almost to you to the two hours because there were no pipeline operators on site and the monitoring
02:49Equipment malfunction so so that meant many residents weren't even notified of the leak that was also pretty serious wasn't it?
02:57Yes, and and are there other examples of leaks that we're seeing that are that are just happening right now?
03:06Yes
03:08Yes, you can look at the NTSB open investigation docket and see lots of examples of what the NTSB is investigating
03:15Also, they're recently closed there was a million gallon
03:19Spill off the coast of Louisiana that they just completed their investigation of and
03:24Unfortunately, there's many many stories so reducing the numbers so so the fact there's fewer
03:30uh, safety violations that doesn't mean necessarily there's that many 95% fewer leaks
03:37correct
03:38um
03:38So so before the Trump administration took over FIMSA was already deemed to be understaffed and underfunded is that right?
03:48Yes, and then since
03:50President Trump took office more than half of the senior executive roles at FIMSA are empty due to a hiring freeze and buyout offers from doge
03:58Is that right?
04:00As as far as I know it is
04:02Okay, and and now the Trump administration's recent budget request would keep FIMSA's funding completely flat
04:09And is 16 million dollars less than the Biden administration's last proposed budget. Is that your understanding?
04:17I have not looked at the president's budget
04:19Okay, now so so if we if we have flat or reduced staffing
04:25What risk is that going to pose to public safety do you think?
04:29Well, I believe that FIMSA was already an under-resourced understaffed agency given the
04:35Huge charge that they have on pipeline safety and the the three million miles of pipeline
04:41We wanted to see significant increases to that funding and
04:46Seeing flat or reduced funding
04:48I can't imagine how that won't
04:50Will that help with inspection safety inspections?
04:54Um, I we would like to see that
04:56An increase in funding
04:57Would the decreased funding help with increasing safety inspections?
05:02No, my understanding is the the reductions in force the inspectors were protected from those reductions in force
05:09And they were not allowed to participate in that program
05:12But we haven't seen
05:14Um, any numbers on that, but I will say that beyond just inspectors that entire agency is dedicated to safety and they support inspectors
05:24they in sport support regulations and enforcement and
05:28So any reduction
05:30generally
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