WASHINGTON – U.S. Sen. Olympia J. Snowe introduced legislation Tuesday to provide a unified, coordinated federal response in transportation policies in the case of a national emergency.

The bill is designed to resolve issues identified by local officials after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, according to Snowe, who is a member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation.

“Congress is already taking steps to safeguard our airports and our skies – but should there be another terrorist attack attempted on our soil in the future, there is no guarantee that aviation will be the targeted mode of transportation,” said Snowe, a member of the Surface Transportation Subcommittee. “We must not take chances. Instead, we must take steps to ensure that all our modes of transportation are coordinated in the event of an emergency.”

Snowe’s legislation, the National Emergency Coordination Act of 2001, would establish a Federal Emergency Transportation Team within the U.S. Department of Transportation. The new agency would be responsible for coordinating domestic transportation during a national emergency, including aviation, maritime and port security, and surface transportation – including rail. The team would coordinate transportation-related responsibilities with other agencies during an emergency, and could serve as a point of contact within the DOT for the new Office of Homeland Security established by President Bush.

The bill will centralize authority to:

. Coordinate national transportation and the transportation-related activities of all federal agencies during an emergency;

. Disseminate critical transportation-related information during an emergency;

. Develop and notify appropriate federal, state and local authorities of uniform emergency transportation security standards to be followed during an emergency and to ensure those standards are followed; and

. Establish uniform national transportation “emergency” standards, and notify federal, state and local agencies about transportation-related security threats in the event of an emergency.

Snowe said she decided to introduce the legislation after meeting last week with transportation officials in Maine.

“During my meetings, these officials expressed serious concerns about security coordination among different modes of transportation. Apparently, drastically differing standards of safety and security were used by federal officials in different cities during the attacks,” Snowe said.