A major step happened this week in the movement to pass once in a generation railroad safety reforms. The House Transportation & Infrastructure (T&I) Committee on Thursday added the BLET and Teamsters Rail Conference-championed Railway Safety Act of 2026 to Surface Transportation Reauthorization legislation known as the BUILD America 250 Act.
The Railway Safety Act, in an earlier version sponsored by Vice President J.D. Vance while a Senator from Ohio, got an extra boost this week when President Donald J. Trump urged Republicans to support the “very important” rail safety bill in a post to Truth Social. The bill also had broad support from the committee’s Democratic members.
“I am asking all Republicans to vote YES when this Bill comes up as an Amendment in the Transportation Committee this week,” Trump wrote. “We must not delay any further on this very important matter!”
The Railway Safety Act was added to the BUILD America 250 Act via a bipartisan amendment from Representatives Troy Nehls (R-TX), Chris DeLuzio (D-PA), Rob Bresnahan (R-PA), Dina Titus (D-NV), Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ) and Emilia Sykes (D-OH).
“Passage of the Railway Safety Act as part of the Surface Transportation Reauthorization bill represents three years of hard work by BLET and the Teamsters Rail Conference and is a big step in the right direction,” said Mark Wallace, President of the BLET and the Teamsters Rail Conference. “Thank you to the bipartisan sponsors of the Railway Safety Act amendment: Representatives Nehls, DeLuzio, Bresnahan, Titus, Van Drew, and Sykes for pushing this important legislation. And thank you to President Trump and Vice President Vance for their continued leadership on rail safety.”
The Railway Safety Act is vital to ensuring that devastating train derailments like the one in East Palestine don’t happen again and includes key BLET and Teamsters Rail Conference priorities like a two-person crew requirement, ensuring that high hazard trains carrying hazardous materials have the proper safety protocols in place, regulating wayside detectors to ensure they work properly, and ensuring that locomotive and rail car inspections are done thoroughly without time pressure to rush the inspections.
The Railway Safety Act languished in Congress for three years before President Wallace met with Vice President Vance in August 2025 to talk about reigniting the effort to get the Vice President’s legislation passed. President Wallace and First Vice President Gary Best then took up the mantle and met with legislators earlier this year. The Senate reintroduced the Railway Safety Act in February, and the House of Representatives quickly followed suit.
BLET and the Teamsters Rail Conference will now work to secure passage of the Railway Safety Act in the full House of Representatives while improving other parts of the BUILD America 250 Act that affect BLET members.
The big railroads and the Association of American Railroads had vigorously opposed the inclusion of the safety legislation and blamed unions, in particular the BLET and the Teamsters, for their defeat.
For more information see this article from The Hill newspaper.
