BNSF News

House Judiciary Committee Approves Antitrust Bill

2009-09-24

The House Judiciary Committee last week approved by voice vote H.R. 233, the "Railroad Antitrust Enforcement Act." Sponsors of the bill, including Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), asserted that the bill enjoys wide support, but several members of the committee voiced significant reservations at the markup.

The bill aims to repeal the railroads' limited antitrust exemptions in areas already regulated by the Surface Transportation Board (STB), clearing the way for the courts to get involved in complex rail regulatory issues.

Railroad management and labor have argued that H.R.233 would create a confusing regulatory scheme that subjects railroads to multiple layers of government oversight, leading to duplicative and potentially contradictory oversight of the rail industry.

Earlier this year, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved similar legislation. In June, an attempt to bring the measure to a vote by the full Senate was beat back after railroads, rail advocates and community leaders joined Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) to voice strong opposition to considering the bill. Rockefeller, while a co-sponsor of the antitrust bill, agreed with the railroads that antitrust law must be carefully harmonized with the overall regulatory regime covering the rail industry. He is currently working on a comprehensive rail regulatory and antitrust reform bill.

Under the current regulatory system, freight railroads are subject to almost all antitrust laws, including those that prohibit agreements to set rates, allocate markets or unreasonably restrain trade. But like many other industries, railroads have a few extremely limited federal antitrust exemptions. In those cases, the STB has authority.

The rail regulatory system was designed to protect rail customers and promote safer, more efficient and more integrated rail service.

The STB is the successor agency to the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC), which was abolished in the ICC Termination Act of 1995.

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