I 

115TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 5691 

To direct the Secretary of Transportation to establish a program to provide 

grants to carry out projects to reduce railway noise levels that adversely 

impact schools located in urbanized areas, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

MAY 7, 2018 

Mr. CROWLEY introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 

Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure 

A BILL 

To direct the Secretary of Transportation to establish a 

program to provide grants to carry out projects to reduce 

railway noise levels that adversely impact schools located 

in urbanized areas, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Peaceful Learning Act 

5 of 2018’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 

2 (a) IN GENERAL.—Except as otherwise specifically 

3 provided, in this Act the definitions in section 5302 of title 

4 49, United States Code, shall apply. 

5 (b) ADDITIONAL DEFINITIONS.—In this Act, the fol6 lowing additional definitions apply: 

7 (1) LOCAL EDUCATIONAL AGENCY.—The term 

8 ‘‘local educational agency’’ has the meaning given 

9 that term in section 9101 of the Elementary and 

10 Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 7801). 

11 (2) RAIL OPERATOR.—The term ‘‘rail operator’’ 

12 means an owner or operator of a fixed rail public 

13 transportation facility. 

14 (3) RAILWAY NOISE.—The term ‘‘railway 

15 noise’’ means noise caused by a fixed rail public 

16 transportation facility. 

17 (4) SCHOOL.—The term ‘‘school’’ means an ele18 mentary school or a secondary school (as those 

19 terms are defined in section 9101 of the Elementary 

20 and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 

21 7801)). 

22 SEC. 3. RAILWAY NOISE STUDY. 

23 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of Transportation 

24 shall enter into an agreement with the National Academy 

25 of Sciences to conduct a study on railway noise in the 

26 United States. 


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1 (b) CONTENTS OF STUDY.—In conducting the study, 

2 the National Academy of Sciences shall examine— 

3 (1) the threshold of railway noise at which 

4 health begins to be affected; 

5 (2) the effectiveness of noise abatement pro6 grams for railway noise on the property of a school; 

7 (3) the impacts of railway noise on schools; and 

8 (4) the noise assessment practices of the De9 partment of Transportation and whether such prac10 tices fairly and accurately reflect the burden of noise 

11 on communities. 

12 (c) REPORT.—Not later than 12 months after the 

13 date of the agreement entered into under subsection (a), 

14 the National Academy of Sciences shall transmit to the 

15 Secretary a report on the results of the study. Upon re16 ceipt of the report, the Secretary shall transmit a copy 

17 of the report to the appropriate committees of Congress. 

18 SEC. 4. NOISE MEASUREMENT AND EXPOSURE SYSTEMS. 

19 Not later than 12 months after the date of submis20 sion of the report under section 3, in consultation with 

21 the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agen22 cy and Government, State, and interstate agencies that 

23 the Secretary of Transportation considers appropriate, the 

24 Secretary shall by regulation— 


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1 (1) establish a single system of measuring rail2 way noise that— 

3 (A) has a highly reliable relationship be4 tween projected railway noise exposure and sur5 veyed reactions of individuals to noise; and 

6 (B) is applied uniformly in measuring rail7 way noise near urbanized areas; 

8 (2) establish a single system for determining 

9 the exposure of individuals to railway noise in ur10 banized areas, including noise intensity, duration, 

11 frequency, and time of occurrence; and 

12 (3) based on the findings of the report required 

13 under section 3, determine minimum standards for 

14 railway noise levels on the property of a school lo15 cated in an urbanized area. 

16 SEC. 5. NOISE EXPOSURE MAPS. 

17 (a) SUBMISSION AND PREPARATION.—Not later than 

18 12 months after the date of issuance of regulations under 

19 section 4, each rail operator shall submit to the Secretary 

20 of Transportation a noise exposure map showing any areas 

21 of nonconforming railway noise levels (based on the stand22 ards developed under section 4) that— 

23 (1) adversely impact a school located in an ur24 banized area; and 


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1 (2) are caused by operations of the rail oper2 ator. 

3 (b) REVISED MAPS.—If a change in the rail oper4 ations of rail operator described in subsection (a) estab5 lishes a substantial new nonconforming noise level on the 

6 property of a school located in an urbanized area, or sig7 nificantly reduces nonconforming noise levels on the prop8 erty of such a school, that is not reflected in the noise 

9 exposure map, the rail operator shall submit a revised 

10 noise exposure map to the Secretary showing the new non11 conforming noise levels or noise level reduction. 

12 SEC. 6. NOISE COMPATIBILITY PROGRAMS. 

13 (a) PROGRAM SUBMISSION.—A rail operator that 

14 submitted a noise exposure map under section 5 may sub15 mit a noise compatibility program to the Secretary of 

16 Transportation after— 

17 (1) consulting with public agencies and plan18 ning authorities in the area covered by the map; and 

19 (2) notice and an opportunity for a public hear20 ing. 

21 (b) CONTENTS OF PROGRAM.—A program submitted 

22 under subsection (a) shall state the measures the rail oper23 ator has taken or proposes to take to reduce existing non24 conforming noise levels on the property of a school and 

25 prevent creating additional nonconforming noise levels in 


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1 the area covered by the map. The measures may include 

2 constructing barriers or acoustical shielding and sound3 proofing of schools subject to a nonconforming noise level. 

4 (c) APPROVALS.—The Secretary shall approve or dis5 approve a program submitted under subsection (a) of this 

6 section not later than 180 days after receiving it. The Sec7 retary shall approve the program if the program— 

8 (1) is reasonably consistent with achieving the 

9 goal of reducing nonconforming noise levels on the 

10 property of a school and preventing the introduction 

11 of additional nonconforming noise levels on the prop12 erty of a school; and 

13 (2) provides for necessary revisions because of 

14 a revised map submitted under section 5. 

15 (d) GRANTS.—The Secretary may incur obligations 

16 to make grants from amounts available under section 8 

17 to carry out a project under a part of a noise compatibility 

18 program approved under subsection (c). A grant may be 

19 made to a rail operator submitting the program to carry 

20 out the program directly or in cooperation with— 

21 (1) a local educational agency of a school that 

22 is subject to nonconforming noise levels; or 

23 (2) a unit of local government in the area sur24 rounding the school that has nonconforming noise 

25 levels. 


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1 (e) FEDERAL SHARE.—The Federal share of a 

2 project for which a grant is made under subsection (d) 

3 is 80 percent of the cost of the project. 

4 SEC. 7. NONADMISSIBILITY OF NOISE EXPOSURE MAP AND 

5 RELATED INFORMATION AS EVIDENCE. 

6 No part of a noise exposure map or related informa7 tion described in section 5 that is submitted to, or pre8 pared by, the Secretary of Transportation and no part of 

9 a list of land uses the Secretary identifies as normally 

10 compatible with various exposures of individuals to noise 

11 may be admitted into evidence or used for any other pur12 pose in a civil action asking for relief for noise resulting 

13 from the operation of a fixed rail public transportation fa14 cility. 

15 SEC. 8. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 

16 There are authorized to be appropriated from the 

17 Mass Transit Account of the Highway Trust Fund under 

18 section 5338 of title 49, United States Code, such funds 

19 as may be necessary to carry out this Act. 

Æ 


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