The BLET and Teamsters Rail Conference applauded the recent action by the House Appropriations Committee to urge the Surface Transportation Board (STB) to conduct a rigorous review of the proposed Union Pacific-Norfolk Southern (UP-NS) merger. BLET and the Rail Conference worked with partners in the Stop the Rail Merger Coalition to include the language in the FY2027 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (THUD) Appropriations bill, which was included in the Committee’s bipartisan markup of the bill.
The language on page 112 of the Appropriations Committee report bill directs the STB to conduct a rigorous and comprehensive review of the proposed transaction to ensure it delivers substantial public benefits, enhanced competition for rail shippers, and protections for the U.S. economy and consumers.
The committee also reaffirmed the STB’s revised 2001 merger rules, which set a high bar for Class I merger proceedings. Those rules require merger applicants to not only preserve rail-to-rail competition but offer enhanced competitive options for railroad shippers.
“This report language sends another clear signal from Members of Congress that the proposed UP-NS merger must be subject to the highest level of regulatory scrutiny in order to protect against anti-competitive harms, ensure rail shippers have new and enhanced rail-to-rail competitive options should the transaction move forward, and evaluate whether further concentration in the rail industry is necessary and in the public interest,” said the Stop the Rail Merger Coalition. “We applaud continued Congressional oversight of this proposed merger, because the U.S. economy cannot afford a costly deal that drives up prices for rail shippers and consumers, weakens the workforce, and destabilizes the nation’s supply chain.”
The BLET and Teamsters Rail Conference are founding members of the Stop the Rail Merger Coalition, which represents a broad cross section of business, labor, and consumers. The coalition asserts that the proposed merger will threaten workers, reduce competition, hurt supply chains, and increase costs for manufacturers, farmers and consumers.
Locomotive photos by Cory Rusch, BLET Division 659