S. 918 · 110th Congress
Federal Railroad Safety Accountability and Improvement Act
Key: what the circles and colors mean
Each circle is a bill. The ring fills as it moves through Congress:
Under the number: the Yea · Nay count of its final (or latest) recorded vote. On a member's page, the small badge is how that member voted: Y Yea / Aye, N Nay / No, P Present, – Not voting.
Gold and violet are only for Yea and Nay; they never mean a party. A member's party is the letter on their photo.
Never voted on. It didn't reach a floor vote before the 110th Congress ended, so it expired. A bill has to be introduced again to be considered in a new Congress.
D
LautenbergSponsor · by request1 cosponsor · 1 R
1 signed on when it was introduced; the rest joined later. Cosponsors who withdrew aren't shown.
Federal Railroad Safety Accountability and Improvement Act - Authorizes appropriations for FY2008-FY2011 for the railroad safety program, including a safety risk reduction program to be implemented as part of such program.
What it does: CRS summary · Introduced in Senate · Mar 19, 2007
Federal Railroad Safety Accountability and Improvement Act - Authorizes appropriations for FY2008-FY2011 for the railroad safety program, including a safety risk reduction program to be implemented as part of such program. Eliminates the authority of the Secretary of Transportation (or state Secretary) to prescribe investigative and surveillance activities to enforce rail safety regulations and orders.
Prohibits public disclosure of railroad safety risk reduction program records.
Requires railroad carriers and states to report to the Secretary, and update periodically, unreported highway-rail (including non-vehicular pathway-rail) grade crossings and public highway-rail (including non-vehicular public pathway) grade crossings within the United States.
Urges the development of new technology to prevent loss of life and injuries at highway-rail grade crossings.
Sets forth requirements: (1) prohibiting the judicial review of railroad safety regulations or orders on the ground that they impact security; (2) authorizing the Secretary to waive compliance of such regulations and orders if there is an emergency event, it is in the public interest, and consistent with railroad safety; (3) authorizing the Secretary to monitor railroad radio communications to prevent rail accidents, or as part of an accident investigation; (4) authorizing the Secretary to prohibit individuals who have violated hazardous material transportation safety laws from performing safety-sensitive functions in the railroad industry until specified conditions are met; (5) repealing and reserving codified federal hours of service laws, requiring the conversion of such laws to regulations, and authorizing the Secretary to amend such regulations to prevent and mitigate fatigue in individuals performing safety-critical train related duties; (6) establishing maximum number of hours a train employee may be on duty; and (7) authorizing the Administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration and designated employees access to criminal history records of railroad employees.
Written by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. All summary versions on Congress.gov
About this bill and sources
Official title: Federal Railroad Safety Accountability and Improvement Act
Latest action (Mar 19, 2007): Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
Policy area: Transportation and Public Works · Origin: Senate · Introduced: Mar 19, 2007
Official page on Congress.gov · Bill text (GovInfo) · Status record (XML)
No recorded floor vote found.