HR 7076 Introduced – Electronically Controlled Breaks

Last week Rep. Herrera-Beutler introduced HR 7076, the Oil and Flammable Material Rail Transportation Safety Act. The bill would require DOT’s Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety Administration (PHMSA) to re-instate 49 CFR 174.310 requirements for electronically controlled pneumatic (ECP) brakes on high-hazard flammable unit trains (HHFUT) operating in excess of 30-mph.

Those ECP requirements were removed by PHMSA in a final rule on September 25^th, 2018. That action was required by Congress in §7311 of the FAST Act (PL 114-94, 129 Stat. 1601) after PHMSA published the new regulatory impact analysis (RIA) (.PDF Download) required by that act that showed that the costs of the ECP requirement significantly outweighed the benefits (see pgs 78-9 of the RIA).

Section 2 of the bill would nullify that rulemaking and return the ECP brake requirements to §174.310.

Moving Forward

Herrera-Beutler is not a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee to which this bill was assigned for consideration. This means that she is unlikely to have the influence necessary to have the bill considered in Committee.

There would be significant railroad opposition to this bill which means that it would likely draw major opposition in Committee and on the floor of the House if it were to make it that far. The bill is extremely unlikely to be considered in the 115^th Congress and would not pass if it were.

Commentary

This is an unusual bill to be proposed by a Republican, but her district is well known for its concern about the oil trains moving through the area, so the bill makes good sense from a campaign perspective in that district. I doubt that there is any downside in corporate support because of the introduction of this measure since the railroads would certainly understand that this bill will not go anywhere in this Congress.

HR 1571 Introduced – Oil Train Fire Training Grants

Last week Rep Herrera-Beutler (R,WA) introduced HR 1571, the Fire Department Proper Response and Equipment Prioritization Act. The bill would require FEMA to give high priority to grants for incident response training for crude oil and ethanol train accidents.

The bill is essentially the same as HR 4765 that was introduced in the 114^th Congress. That bill saw no action, mainly because Herrera-Beutler was not in a position to influence the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee to take up the bill. Since she is still not a member of that Committee (to which the bill was assigned for consideration) it is very unlikely that the Committee will take up the bill in this session.

The only way that this bill has a chance of making it into law during this session is for its provisions to be added to either the DHS spending or authorization (if that bill actually happens) bill. Herrera-Beutler is a member of the Appropriations Committee, so that it is possible that this could be included in the DHS spending bill. She is not a member of the House Homeland Security Committee so adding it to an authorization bill would have to come in the form of an amendment if/when the bill is considered in the House.