News and Media

Reported by Stephen Groves and Josh Funk for AP News. Congress responded to the fiery train derailment in eastern Ohio earlier this year with bipartisan alarm, holding a flurry of hearings about the potential for railroad crashes to trigger even larger disasters. Both parties agreed that a legislative response was needed. Yet six months after…

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Reported by Lillianna Byington and Andrew Small for Bloomberg Government. Today marks six months since a train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio drew national attention to rail safety — and workers want the anniversary to jump-start action. “On this somber occasion, rail labor unions once again renew our calls for safety reforms,” the Transportation Trades…

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Reported by Matthew Santoni for Law 360 In contrast, the Transportation Trades Department of the AFL-CIO, representing U.S. freight rail workers, issued a statement on the anniversary of the derailment supporting additional regulations. “Rail companies have lobbied to evade or weaken safety provisions, such as the two-person crew minimum staffing standard in legislation pending before…

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The Railroad Retirement Board’s (RRB) ability to process retirements and sickness benefits for railroad employees and retirees “living in every state and every congressional district” would be “severely” impacted by the limitation on RRB’s administrative funding included in the fiscal year (FY) 2024 House Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (Labor-HHS) appropriations…

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Reported by Bill Stephens for Trains. Incoming Union Pacific CEO Jim Vena will not get a honeymoon with rail labor when he begins leading the railroad on Aug. 14. Local SMART-TD leaders and the Transportation Trades Department of the AFL-CIO were critical of the company’s selection of Vena, who served as UP’s chief operating officer…

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Reported by Lillianna Byington and Andrew Small for Bloomberg Government. The August recess might not be much of a break for anyone working on FAA reauthorization as lobbying and staff negotiations in Congress race against a September deadline. Despite the aviation agency battling flight delays, staff shortages, and stalled tech upgrades, the Senate left town…

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Reported by Lillianna Byington and Diego Areas Munhoz for Bloomberg Gov. Nearly 6% cut to some railroader benefits hits post-pandemic Congress faces tough path despite bipartisan support A recent cut in railroad workers’ sickness and unemployment benefits has made bedfellows of usually-adversarial groups—railroad companies and their employees—now pushing Congress to fix an issue that could…

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Reported by People’s World. In just two weeks, thanks to federal infrastructure funds from legislation last year—and coordination by state, federal, and local officials plus round-the-clock work from unionists—the collapsed I-95 bridge in Philadelphia was replaced and reopened, thus solving a major transportation bottleneck in the Northeast U.S. But if the House’s ruling Republicans have…

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