Building Much Needed Rail Grade Separations Act of 2020
Latest action · Mar 13, 2020 Referred to the Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials.
Progress
Where this bill reached, and when. A stage with no date was not reached; one that failed a vote and later carried shows the date it carried.
- IntroducedMar 12, 2020
- Passed HouseNot reached
- Passed SenateNot reached
- To the PresidentNot reached
- Became lawNot reached
Summary
Building Much Needed Rail Grade Separations Act of 2020
This bill establishes a grade separation investment program to award competitive grants to certain entities for projects that
- separate railway-highway grade crossings,
- improve safety by reducing the number of deaths and injuries at rail-highway crossings,
- increase the efficiency and reliability of the movement of people and freight over rail-highway crossings,
- increase the capacity of the freight and passenger rail system,
- reduce the amount of noise from trains, and
- improve air quality and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from less idling at rail-highway crossings.
Among other requirements, the bill (1) requires grant awards for large projects (projects with total costs of greater than $100 million) to be at least $50 million, and for any other projects not less than $2.5 million; and (2) directs the Department of Transportation to consider a number of factors in awarding grants, including accident history at the rail-highway crossing over the last 10 years, the annual average daily traffic at the crossing, the likelihood of a collision based on the geometry of the crossing, and the number of critical facilities near the crossing.
Cosponsors
Members who signed on, in the order they did.
Committees 1
Where it was sent and what each committee and subcommittee did with it, in order.
| Chamber | Committee | What it did |
|---|---|---|
| House | Transportation and Infrastructure Committee | Referred Mar 12, 2020 |
| Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials Subcommittee | Referred Mar 13, 2020 |
Actions 3
Everything that happened, newest first.
- Mar 13, 2020Referred to the Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials.
- Mar 12, 2020Introduced in House
- Mar 12, 2020Referred to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.
Research
What has been written about this bill: committee reports, cost estimates, the sponsor’s authority statement, printed hearings and the Congressional Research Service’s work.
Constitutional authority
The sponsor’s statement, as printed in the Congressional Record, vol. 166, no. 48, March 12, 2020, page H1670.
Titles 2
Every title it has carried, official and short, at each stage.
- Official Title as Introduced
- To amend title 23, United States Code, to establish a dedicated, competitive highway-rail grade separation program, and for other purposes.
- Short Title(s) as Introduced
- Building Much Needed Rail Grade Separations Act of 2020
Subjects
Assigned by the Library of Congress. Policy area: Transportation and Public Works.
- Accidents
- Air quality
- Climate change and greenhouse gases
- Congressional oversight
- Economic development
- Environmental assessment, monitoring, research
- Government studies and investigations
- Noise pollution
- Railroads
- Roads and highways
- Transportation and Public Works
- Transportation programs funding
- Transportation safety and security
Text 1
Each version as it was printed, newest first.
- Mar 12, 2020Introduced in House
Everything here is as published by Congress: the summary is the Congressional Research Service's, the action wording is the clerks', and the subjects are the Library of Congress's. How far it got is read from the actions themselves, taking the most recent one of each kind, so a bill that failed a vote and later passed is shown as having passed. Records come from this bill on Congress.gov and govinfo.gov; cost estimates are the Congressional Budget Office's, and the hearings are the printed hearings GovInfo publishes, which can appear months after the hearing.
