Reported by James Baratta for The American Prospect.
Like many federal agencies, the Department of Transportation (DOT) uses advisory committees, primarily to help draft safety regulations for the freight rail, passenger rail, and trucking industries. The panels are composed of experts in the field and key stakeholders for both industry and its workers.
And now they’ve all been fired.
In a statement provided to the Prospect, a DOT spokesperson claimed the panels “are long overdue for a refresh,” adding they “have lost sight of the mission” and are “overrun with individuals whose sole focus is their radical DEI and climate agenda.” The agency’s main contention? Some committees “have not held a single meeting in over a year, while others have not produced recommendations or advisory reports.”
Transportation Trades Division, AFL-CIO (TTD), the largest transportation labor federation in the U.S., contends this blame is misplaced.
“You need to actually have meetings,” TTD president Greg Regan told the Prospect. “The agency has to set the agenda, call the meetings, and ask for input.”
Roy Morrison, safety director at the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes Division (BMWED), had served on RSAC since 2017. In an interview with the Prospect, he explained that the biannual meetings are functionally “the last step” in the rule- and policymaking process: “All the work is really done in the working groups.” RSAC had eight working groups covering a wide range of safety issues, but their work has been at a standstill.
“There’s been a lack of engagement from the FRA,” Michael Baldwin, president of the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen (BRS), told the Prospect. “It’s been pretty quiet, and I’d say nonfunctioning for at least a year.”
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