This week, NITL joined with more than 75 other associations in sponsoring an ad in Politico thanking the U.S. Senate for confirming Patrick Fuchs and Martin Oberman to long-vacant seats on the Surface Transportation Board.
The STB has been operating for more than a year with just two of its five seats filled, hampering the agency’s ability to address ongoing freight rail issues and advance overdue regulatory reforms. In April 2018, the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee approved the nomination of Fuchs, a senior staff member of the committee; four months later, the committee also approved Oberman, a former chairman of Chicago’s commuter rail system, Metra. The full Senate approved Fuchs and Oberman on January 2 by voice vote.
The ad thanking the Senate was prepared by the Rail Customer Coalition, a group of associations representing manufacturing, farming, and other sectors of the economy. RCC members (including NITL) are major users of freight rail, accounting for more than half of the total volume of cargo shipped by rail and generating more than three quarters of the revenues collected by the railroads.