Bills Introduced – 10-20-15

With both the House and Senate in session yesterday there were 20 bills introduced. Of those only one will be of specific interest to readers of this blog:

HR 3763 Surface Transportation Reauthorization and Reform Act of 2015 Rep. Shuster, Bill [R-PA-9]

News reports indicate that this is the bill that has been coordinated between the House and Senate transportation committees. The ‘deadline’ for passing this bill is October 31^st (though that might get yet another short term extension to allow this bill through the legislative process. The official copy of the bill is already available. It was co-sponsored by the Ranking Member of both the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and the Ranking Member of the Highways and Transit Subcommittee, so there will be significant bipartisan support for this bill when it comes to the floor.

A quick review of the table of contents show the following items of potential interest in Title VII, Hazardous Material Transportation:

• Sec. 7003. National emergency and disaster response.

• Sec. 7005. Wetlines.

• Sec. 7010. Thermal blankets.

• Sec. 7011. Comprehensive oil spill response plans.

• Sec. 7012. Information on high-hazard flammable trains.

• Sec. 7013. Study and testing of electronically-controlled pneumatic brakes.

• Sec. 7014. Ensuring safe implementation of positive train control systems.

I’ll have more details on this bill later.