Surface Transportation Board Reauthorization Act of 2015
Public Law 114-110 · S. 808 · 114th Congress · began in the Senate
Signed by Barack Obama (D) on Dec 18, 2015 · Transportation and Public Works
Sponsor: Sen. John Thune (R-SD)
Cosponsors (1): Sen. Bill Nelson
Passage votes
- HouseVoice vote
- SenateUnanimous consent
Data notes
The final version of the law, as each chamber passed it. A chamber that passed it by voice vote or unanimous consent has no count. “Method not stated” means the record does not say how the chamber voted. Where the record has a member-by-member vote, the “Who voted for it” section shows who voted yea.
Summary
The Congressional Research Service’s plain-language summary of what the law does.
Surface Transportation Board Reauthorization Act of 2015
(Sec. 3) Removes the Surface Transportation Board from the Department of Transportation (DOT) to establish it as an independent U.S. agency.
Repeals the requirement that DOT provide administrative support for the Board.
(Sec. 4) Increases Board membership from three to five members.
Increases from two to three the minimum number of Board members who must have professional standing and demonstrated knowledge in the fields of transportation, transportation regulation, or economic regulation.
Increases from one to two the minimum number of Board members who must have professional or business experience (including agriculture) in the private sector.
(Sec. 5) Authorizes a majority of Board members to hold a meeting not open to the public to discuss official business if:
• no formal or informal vote or other official agency action is taken,
• each individual present is a Board member or employee, and
• the Board's General Counsel is present.
Requires the Board to disclose topics and participants within two business days after any non-public meeting, unless the discussion relates to an ongoing proceeding, in which case the required disclosure is postponed till the date of the final Board decision.
(Sec. 6) Requires the Board to:
• establish a database of rail service complaints it has received, and
• post quarterly reports of rail rate reasonableness cases as well as rail service complaints it has received on its website.
(Sec. 7) Reauthorizes appropriations for FY2016-FY2020 for the Board.
(Sec. 8) Allows a rail carrier's agent to be located outside of Washington, DC.
(Sec. 9) Grants the DOT Inspector General authority to review only the financial management, property management, and business operations of the Board to determine its compliance with federal laws, rules, and regulations. Authorizes appropriations.
(Sec. 11) Requires the Board to:
• maintain one or more simplified and expedited methods for determining the reasonableness of challenged rail rates in cases where a full stand-alone cost presentation is too costly, given the value of the case; and
• maintain procedures to ensure expeditious handling of challenges to the reasonableness of rail rates.
Prescribes time limits for Board review of rail rate reasonableness cases, including:
• 150 days for discovery,
• 155 days for development of the evidentiary record,
• 60 days for submission of a closing brief, and
• 180 days for a final Board decision.
Authorizes the Board to extend a timeline after a request from any party or in the interest of due process.
Repeals certain rail service contract limitations involving the transportation of agricultural commodities.
(Sec. 12) Authorizes the Board to investigate rail carrier and pipeline carrier violations on its own initiative as well as on complaint (as under existing law). Prescribes requirements for investigations commenced on the Board's own initiative.
(Sec. 13) Requires the Board to establish a voluntary binding arbitration process to resolve rail rate and practice disputes.
(Sec. 14) Directs the Government Accountability Office to study rail rate contract proposals containing multiple origin-to-destination movements.
(Sec. 15) Directs the Board to report to Congress on whether:
• current large rate case methodologies are sufficient, not unduly complex, and cost effective; and
• sound economic alternative methodologies exist, or could be developed, to streamline and expedite large rate cases.
Requires the Board to make quarterly reports to Congress on its progress toward addressing the issues raised in each unfinished regulatory proceeding, regardless of whether the proceeding is subject to a statutory or regulatory deadline.
(Sec. 16) Requires Board standards and procedures for establishing revenue levels for rail carriers to be adequate for the infrastructure and investment needed to meet the present and future demand for rail services.
(Sec. 17) Declares that nothing in this Act may be construed to affect any suit commenced by or against the Board, or any proceeding or challenge pending before it, before the enactment of this Act.
Committees
The committees the bill was sent to, and what each did with it.
Data notes
A committee links to its page only where it exists in the current Congress; older and renamed committees are named without a link.
Related bills
The record lists no related bills.
Data notes
Related bills are identified by the Congressional Research Service, the House and the Senate: companion and identical bills, bills with similar text, bills that were folded into this law, and rules that brought it to the floor. A bill that is itself a public law in this site’s data links here; the others link to Congress.gov.
Timeline
From introduction to signing, newest first: the committees, the floor and the president. 18 actions.
- Dec 18, 2015Became lawBecame law · Became Public Law No: 114-110.
- Became lawBecame law · Signed by President.
- Dec 15, 2015FloorFloor · Presented to President.
- Dec 10, 2015FloorFloor · Motion to reconsider laid on the table Agreed to without objection.
- FloorFloor · On motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill Agreed to by voice vote.
- FloorFloor · DEBATE - The House resumed debate on S. 808.
- FloorFloor · DEBATE - The House proceeded with forty minutes of debate on S. 808.
- FloorFloor · Considered under suspension of the rules.
- FloorFloor · Mr. Shuster moved to suspend the rules and pass the bill.
- Jun 23, 2015FloorFloor · Held at the desk.
- FloorFloor · Received in the House.
- Jun 19, 2015FloorFloor · Message on Senate action sent to the House.
- Jun 18, 2015FloorFloor · Passed Senate without amendment by Unanimous Consent.
- May 21, 2015CalendarCalendar · Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 94.
- CommitteeCommittee · Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Reported by Senator Thune without amendment. With written report No. 114-52.
- Mar 25, 2015CommitteeCommittee · Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Ordered to be reported without amendment favorably.
- Mar 19, 2015CommitteeCommittee · Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
- IntroducedIntroduced · Introduced in Senate
Data notes
Every action the Library of Congress lists for the bill, from introduction to signing, plus the dated committee hearings. The source lists many steps twice (the chamber’s own entry and the Library of Congress copy, or a presidential and a became-law entry with the same words); those are shown once. Amendments are listed in their own section.
Amendments
No amendments to this bill are on record.
Data notes
Amendments offered to this bill in either chamber, as the Library of Congress records them: each with a status read from its last recorded step: agreed to, rejected, withdrawn, ruled out of order, fell with another amendment, or offered with no vote recorded (most Senate amendments are only ever offered). The wording of each amendment is the source’s. Amendments to amendments and amendments to other bills are not listed.
Official record
The bill’s full text is on Congress.gov. Data through Oct 7, 2026.