Review - HR 8417 Introduced – Railcar Tracking

 Back in April, Rep Moolenaar (R,MI) introduced HR 8417, the Keeping China Off the Rails Act. The bill would amend 49 USC 20171 expand the current prohibition on new railcars having sensitive technology from ‘covered countries’ to include existing cars in the rail fleets. No new funding is authorized by this legislation. 

Moving Forward  

Neither Moolenaar, nor his sole cosponsor {Rep Gottheimer (D,NJ)}, are members of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee to which this bill was assigned for consideration. This means that there is unlikely to be sufficient influence to see this bill considered by the Committee. I suspect that many shippers, and their congressional supporters, would object to the cost of replacing foreign-made technology on their fleets. Thus, I do not think that there would be sufficient support for this bill to be favorably reported if it were considered. 

For more information on the provisions of this bill, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/hr-8417-introduced-railcar-tracking - subscription required.