U.S. Rep. Sam Groves (R-MO) joined U.S. Reps. Rodney Davis (R-IL) and Rick Crawford (R-AR) in calling for a review of a railcar contract from the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA).
Groves, the ranking member of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, said there were questions regarding whether SEPTA’s contract with China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation MA (CRRC MA) met federal Buy America guidelines. Davis, the ranking member of the House Subcommittee on Highways and Transit, and Crawford, the ranking member of the House Subcommittee for Hazardous Materials, joined Grove in sending a letter to the Department of Transportation’s Inspector General (IG).
“It has come to our attention that the state-owned China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation MA (CRRC MA) is fully building passenger railcars in China and plans to ship them to SEPTA—apparently in contrast with FTA’s Buy America requirements for rolling stock procurement,” the Congressmen wrote. “[W]e are concerned whether CRRC MA has met the Buy America requirements so far over the course of this contract and if CRRC MA will be able to meet these requirements as the contract progresses.”
Federal requirements state that SEPTA must ensure that a certain percentage of the components and subcomponents for rolling stock, like railcars, are produced in the United States and assembled in the United States. The lawmakers said that recent reports in the Philadelphia Inquirer raised questions regarding whether the SEPTA-CRRC MA contract met those requirements.
The lawmakers asked the IG to examine how FTA and SEPTA are certifying the Buy America requirements, how FTA and SEPTA determine the total value of foreign components to meet the Buy America requirements, and whether any foreign components in the CRC MA contract are undervalued against their domestic market rate in the United States.
“It’s now more important than ever that we are prioritizing manufacturing in America, especially in the transportation sector – that’s why my colleagues and I sent a letter to the Department of Transportation to ensure that our Buy America requirements are being followed and that federal funds are not being used to procure goods from State-Owned Enterprises run by the Chinese Communist Party,” Davis said.
CRRC MA is a subsidiary of CRRC Corporation Limited (CRRC), an entity the Department of Defense has designated as a company tied to the Chinese military. Officials said that over the past eight years, CRRC has secured more than $2.6 billion in U.S. taxpayer-supported transit contracts to provide passenger railcars for the cities of Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago, and Los Angeles.