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NRC Column
The National Railroad Construction & Maintenance Association, Inc. 410 1st Street, S.E. Suite 200 Washington D. C. 20003
Tel: 202-715-2920 Fax: 202-318-0867 www.nrcma.org info@nrcma.org
Every Day Is Railroad Day for the NRC
Once a year, professionals from across the railroad industry travel to Washington, D.C., to make the case for railroads with their elected officials in Congress. Railroad Day on the Hill provides an opportunity to listen, learn and connect with others and to share our tremendous story.
Due to the COVID pandemic, this year Railroad Day on the Hill spanned two days—April 13 and 14—and was held virtually. Nearly 400 industry professionals from Class 1 and short line railroads, unions, contractors, and suppliers joined together to advocate on behalf of our industry with U.S. Senators and Representatives and staff from about 300 congressional offices.
While Railroad Day provides immeasurable benefits, it tells only a portion of the NRC’s advocacy efforts on behalf of our members. The NRC is on the front lines representing railway contractors and suppliers before Congress and with federal agencies all year long.
COVID-19 safety and relief—Those efforts were particularly evident just over a year ago when the NRC collaborated with lawmakers and regulators to ensure railway contractors and suppliers were protected and deemed “critical infrastructure workers” and had access to PPE and vaccines.
Increased investment in infrastructure—Congress is currently discussing far-ranging proposals for sizable investments in infrastructure. The NRC is providing expertise to Congress and U.S. DOT to help formulate and refine legislation to increase federal funding for rail infrastructure investments, which we also believe will stimulate the economy, job growth and additional infrastructure investment by states, localities, and private-sector partners.
Balanced freight rail regulatory framework—The NRC supports maintaining the market-based regulatory framework for freight railroads overseen by the Surface Transportation Board. This framework protects rail customers by providing an approach to address service concerns while allowing freight railroads to manage their assets and pricing without overt government intervention.
Truck size and weight limits—The NRC backs upholding the existing federal truck size and weight maximums to help maintain highway safety and to limit the damage trucks cause to our highway infrastructure.
T-HUD appropriations accounts for rail infrastructure investment— The NRC is continuing to support robust rail infrastructure investment to improve safety, efficiency, reliability, and rail access to ports, including FRA and Intercity Passenger Rail, FTA New Starts, and the U.S. DOT RAISE & INFRA Discretionary Grant programs
Flexibility for contractors—The NRC is always championing the causes of its rail contractor members on the Hill by promoting ideas to help their bottom lines. Some examples include working with the FRA on regulatory relief, helping to keep the 45G Short Line Tax credit permanent so short line railroads can continue re-investing in their critical infrastructure, harmonizing environmental permitting processes, and many other ongoing efforts.
The NRC is pursuing an aggressive advocacy agenda, but we can’t do it without participation and support from our members. Your story matters. With COVID-19 hopefully behind us later this year, we will cultivate additional opportunities to connect our members with regulators and elected officials. We hope to see much more of that in the future.
