NRC activities update

摘要

NRC has always had a strong legislative program supporting the interests of the railroad contracting industry. This legislative season several bills that will directly affect rail contractors are in the works on Capitol Hill. The most urgent is H.R. 1020, also known as the Railroad Track Modernization Act of 2001. This legislation was initiated by the ASLRRA and is strongly supported by NRC. It is designed to provide federal support to shortline railroads so that they may upgrade their infrastructure to handle 286,000-pound rail cars. A similar bill failed to pass last year, due to objections by the Class Is and labor. This new bill carries the support of the large carriers as well as unions, and we feel it has an excellent chance of passing.