HR 1674 Introduced
Hazmat Train Safety
Last month Rep Deluzio (D,PA) introduced HR 1674, the Railway Safety Act of 2023. The bill provides a variety of potential improvements for the shipment of hazardous materials by rail. Various funds are authorized to support some of the program proposed. The bill is very similar to S 576 that was introduced the same day as this bill.
Differences From S 576
This is not technically a companion bill to S 576; there are too many differences in the wording of this bill for it to be a companion bill. There are no significant policy differences between the bills, just changes in language to increase the clarity of the bill’s intent.
In §7 where the legislation makes changes to increase various civil penalties for hazardous material transportation violations, the House version adds the phrase “,as applicable,” following the phrase “of the person’s annual income or annual operating income” wherever that phrase occurs.
In §7(c) and §7(d) the House version corrects references to existing statutes at the beginning of each subsection by adding the phrase “of title 49, United States Code,’ after the section number.
In §8(a), the House version, after the words “Phase-Out Schedule.” inserts the following phrase: “Notwithstanding section 7304 of the FAST Act (49 U.S.C. 20155 note), beginning”. Section 7304 established the phase-out schedule for DOT-111 rail cars. What both versions of §8(a) are trying to do is to change the phase-out date of DOT-111 to May 1st, 2025 (instead of 2029) for the transport of Class 3 flammable liquids in Packing Groups II and III not otherwise specified in §7304(b).
In §10, the House version changes the title of the section to “Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements”, reflecting the title of 49 USC 22907 which §10 amends. This change precedes what is really a complete re-write of §10 with HR 1674 actually amending §22907(c) adding a new paragraph (17) providing for ‘research, development, or implementation of wayside defect detectors’ as an authorized use of the grant funds provided under §22907. The Senate version did essentially the same thing without changing §22907. There is one relatively minor policy difference in this section, S 576 provides that the authorized funds would “remain available until expended”. There is no such language in the House version, but §22907(j) does provide similar language for the grant funding outlined in that section, so HR 1674 probably does not need to include the language from §10(b)(2) in S 576.
Moving Forward
Neither Deluzio nor his sole cosponsor {Rep LaLota (R,NY)} are members of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee to which the bill was assigned for primary consideration. This means that there is probably not sufficient influence to see the bill considered in Committee. As with the Senate version, I would expect to see significant Republican opposition to the provisions of the bill because of the increased burdens the bill would put on railroads and hazmat rail shippers. This bill would likely not be recommended favorably out of Committee without significant revisions to the requirements in the bill.