Letters

Rep. Troy Nehls (R-TX), Chairman of the Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials Subcommittee, led fellow T&I Committee Republicans in urging the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) and the Biden Administration to immediately return to prioritizing the continued testing of automated track inspection (ATI) safety technology.

The Committee Members wrote to FRA Administrator Amit Bose to reinstitute its previous longstanding policy of approving waivers to encourage freight railroads’ testing of ATI, which has been shown to decrease accidents, identify new safety issues, and free up safety inspectors to focus on other important duties.  The Members also asked the FRA to specifically approve a waiver requested by BNSF Railway Company.  The FRA previously denied this request, but in March, a Federal Appeals Court vacated the agency’s waiver denial.

The T&I Republicans who joined Chairman Nehls in sending the letter are Reps. Rick Crawford (R-AR), Daniel Webster (R-FL), David Rouzer (R-NC), Doug LaMalfa (R-CA), Dusty Johnson (R-SD), Tracey Mann (R-KS), Rudy Yakym (R-IN), Brandon Williams (R-NY), Mike Ezell (R-MS), John Duarte (R-CA), and Aaron Bean (R-FL).

The Members requested information from the FRA regarding the agency’s process for considering and determining waiver requests, as well as efforts to further promote and implement safety technologies, such as ATI.  While this information was initially requested in June of 2022, the agency did not provide substantive responses to all questions asked of it.

Read the full letter here.