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Railroad Responsibility Act of 2025
To amend title 49, United States Code, to provide States the authority to limit blocking grade rail crossings, and for other purposes.
Summary
This bill allows states to enact laws limiting how long railroad carriers can block grade-level rail crossings where roads intersect with railroad tracks. The bill creates an exception to federal railroad preemption, which currently prevents states from regulating most railroad operations. Under this measure, states and the District of Columbia may adopt laws, regulations, or requirements to restrict the duration that railroads can block these crossings. The bill does not change federal preemption in other areas of railroad regulation. The measure addresses concerns about traffic delays and emergency response times caused by blocked crossings.
AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.
Sponsor (1)
Actions (3)
- Jan 14, 2025 Referred to the Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials. · house
- Jan 13, 2025 Referred to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. · house
- Jan 13, 2025 Introduced in House
Similar bills (6)
Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.
Text versions (1)
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Full text
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
January 13, 2025
Mr. Davidson introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
A BILL
To amend title 49, United States Code, to provide States the authority to limit blocking grade rail crossings, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the “Railroad Responsibility Act of 2025”.
SEC. 2. STATE AUTHORITY TO LIMIT BLOCKING GRADE RAIL CROSSINGS.
(a) General Jurisdiction of Surface Transportation Board.—Section 10501(c)(3) of title 49, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:
“(C) State Authority To Limit Blocking Grade Rail Crossings.— Notwithstanding any other provision of law, this title does not preempt a State from the adoption or enactment of any law, regulation, order, or other requirement related to limiting the duration that a railroad carrier may block a grade rail crossing.”.
(b) Preemption.—Section 20106(a) of title 49, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:
“(3) State Authority To Limit Blocking Grade Rail Crossings.—
“(A) In general.—Notwithstanding any other provision of law, this title does not preempt a State from the adoption or enactment of any law, regulation, order, or other requirement related to limiting the duration that a railroad carrier may block a grade rail crossing.
“(B) State defined.—In this paragraph, the term ‘State’ means a State of the United States and the District of Columbia.”. <all>
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