Rail Customer Coalition asks Senate Committee to fill open STB Board seats

As has been the case more often than not in recent years, the Surface Transportation Board (STB), an independent adjudicatory and economic-regulatory agency charged by Congress with resolving railroad rate and service disputes and reviewing proposed railroad mergers, continues to operate with no more than three of the five board members filled by Congress.

That is a situation that needs to change, according to the Rail Customer Coalition (RCC), a large coalition of trade associations representing the manufacturing, energy, and agricultural industries reliant on railroads.

In a letter to the United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, the RCC said it strongly supports the confirmation of Michelle A. Schultz and Robert Primus to serve as STB Board members.

Schultz was nominated to be an STB Board member in March 2018 by President Trump. Schultz currently serves as a deputy general counsel at the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA), as per her bio on www.whitehouse.gov. And the bio added that before joining SEPTA in 2006, she was an associate with a law firm in Philadelphia.  Schultz has also clerked for the Superior Court of Pennsylvania and the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 

And President Trump nominated Primus, a longtime Democrat Congressional staffer, in September 2019.  

A Railway Age report noted that Primus would fill a seat left vacant by former STB member and Democrat Debra L. (Deb) Miller—a seat that will expire Dec. 31, 2022, and Schultz would gain the second of the 2015-created seats, with a term expiring exactly five years from the date of Senate confirmation.

The RCC’s letter explained that the confirmation of Schultz and Primus will allow the STB to “live up to its obligations under the Staggers Act and continue to pursue sensible reforms that will benefit everyone,” noting that “such reforms will increase access to competitive freight rail service and market-based rates, while cutting red tape and allowing the Board to operate more effectively. We look forward to working with your office to confirm these well-qualified nominees, and to advance reforms that will help keep our economy moving.”

In a separate 2018 letter the RCC penned to the White House, it highlighted how Congress unanimously passed the STB Reauthorization Act of 2015 to help improve how the STB operates, and the Board has initiated a number of steps to modernize overly burdensome procedures.  RCC explained that these reforms are aligned with the pro-growth goals of the White House for many important sectors of the U.S. economy, explaining they will help ensure that commodities, including grain, coal, minerals, energy, fertilizer, forest products, steel, and manufactured goods, can be shipped efficiently to both domestic and international markets.

STB Chairman Ann Begeman said at the 2018 RailTrends conference that staffing to full levels remains an ongoing issue for the STB.

“The STB is one of the smallest federal agencies,” she said. “We have 112 people and need about 140. I certainly wish we could have $25,000 sign-on bonuses like some railroads have done. We are working hard to fill positions and are awaiting…new Board member positions to get confirmed, and I look forward to working with all three of them.”