The Surface Transportation Board on May 6 approved, by unanimous vote, a voting trust for Canadian Pacific’s proposed merger with Kansas City Southern. “The Board finds that formal Board review of the voting trust agreement proposed for use in connection with this transaction is warranted and determines that the proposed arrangement is acceptable with certain modifications,” STB wrote in Docket No. FD 36500.
Robert Primus was sworn in as a new member of the Surface Transportation Board on Jan. 7, with House Majority Whip James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.) presiding.
Robert Primus and Michelle Schultz, whose confirmation as the fourth and fifth members of the U.S. Surface Transportation Board have been on hold for months, were confirmed by the U.S. Senate late on Nov. 18. They are expected to be sworn in shortly, giving the STB its full complement of five members, a number set by the 2015 Surface Transportation Board Reauthorization Act.
On 74 acres in central Virginia, there graze for commercial production some two-dozen Himalayan yaks—a largely fat-free, shaggy, handlebar-horned and oft cantankerous animal first imported to North America during the 19th century. If the connection of yak and its fat to transportation economic regulation is not obvious, blame your youth, as more than half a century has passed since the Great Yak Fat Caper of 1965 entered railroad lore—a dirty-trickster’s fraud now indelibly stained on the Interstate Commerce Commission’s (ICC) reputation, and, by association, its Surface Transportation Board (STB) successor.
For 54 weeks beginning in 2003, Roger Nober was the lone member of the Surface Transportation Board (STB), tormented that if he discussed cases with himself he would violate the Government in Sunshine Act, which prohibits a quorum from discussing anything of substance outside a properly noticed public meeting.
Nearly 11 months into the Administration of Donald J. Trump, leadership appointments at the three federal regulatory agencies of significant importance to railroads—the National Mediation Board, Federal Railroad Administration and Surface Transportation Board—have yet to be finalized.
In its Third-Quarter 2017 report to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation-Subcommittee on Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Infrastructure, Safety and Security, the Surface Transportation Board provided an update on no fewer than nine pending STB regulatory proceedings, “matters that may be of interest”:
The Surface Transportation Board (STB) is looking to revisit and modify its longstanding rules on ex parte* communications in informal rulemaking proceedings, which up until recently have mostly been prohibited.
Former Surface Transportation Board (STB) chairman and now STB member Dan Elliott announced Sept. 25 he is resigning Sept. 30 to join, in early October, the Washington, D.C., office of the law firm, Connors & Winters, whose specialization is employee compensation, health and benefit plans, and employment law.
As a perfect scene does not a great movie make, ideal legislation cannot deliver its intent absent proficient administration.
