I 
110TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 1516 
To authorize appropriations for activities under the Federal railroad safety 
laws for fiscal years 2008 through 2011, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MARCH 14, 2007 
Mr. OBERSTAR (for himself, Mr. MICA, Ms. CORRINE BROWN of Florida, and 
Mr. SHUSTER) (all by request) introduced the following bill; which was 
referred to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure 
A BILL 
To authorize appropriations for activities under the Federal 
railroad safety laws for fiscal years 2008 through 2011, 
and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Federal Railroad Safe-
ty Accountability and Improvement Act’’. 
SEC. 2. AMENDMENT OF TITLE 49, UNITED STATES CODE. 
Except as otherwise expressly provided, whenever in 
this Act an amendment or repeal is expressed in terms 
of an amendment to, or a repeal of, a section or other 
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provision, the reference shall be considered to be made to 
a section or other provision of title 49, United States 
Code. 
SEC. 3. TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
The table of contents for this Act is as follows: 
Sec. 1. Short title. 
Sec. 2. Amendment of title 49, United States Code. 
Sec. 3. Table of contents. 
TITLE I—AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS AND 
ESTABLISHMENT OF SAFETY RISK REDUCTION PROGRAM 
Sec. 101. Authorization of appropriations and establishment of safety risk re-
duction program. 
Sec. 102. Protection of railroad safety risk reduction program information. 
TITLE II—HIGHWAY-RAIL CROSSING SAFETY 
Sec. 201. National crossing inventory. 
Sec. 202. Fostering introduction of new technology to improve safety at high-
way-rail grade crossings. 
Sec. 203. Authority to buy promotional items to improve railroad crossing safe-
ty and prevent railroad trespass. 
TITLE III—RULEMAKING, INSPECTION, AND ENFORCEMENT 
AUTHORITY 
Sec. 301. Railroad security. 
Sec. 302. Emergency waivers. 
Sec. 303. Railroad radio monitoring authority and general inspection authority. 
Sec. 304. Authority to disqualify individuals from performing safety-sensitive 
functions in the railroad industry based on their violation of 
hazardous material transportation law. 
Sec. 305. Technical amendments regarding enforcement by the Attorney Gen-
eral. 
Sec. 306. Unified treatment of families of railroad carriers providing integrated 
railroad operations. 
Sec. 307. Hours of service reform. 
Sec. 308. Amendment to the movement-for-repair provision. 
TITLE IV—MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS 
Sec. 401. Technical amendments to eliminate unnecessary provisions. 
Sec. 402. Alternate names for chapters of subtitle V, part A. 
Sec. 403. Federal rail security officers’ access to criminal history and other law 
enforcement records, systems, and communications. 
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TITLE 
I—AUTHORIZATION 
OF 
APPROPRIATIONS 
AND 
ES-
TABLISHMENT 
OF 
SAFETY 
RISK REDUCTION PROGRAM 
SEC. 101. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS AND ES-
TABLISHMENT OF SAFETY RISK REDUCTION 
PROGRAM. 
(a) AMENDMENT.—Section 20117(a) is amended— 
(1) in subsection (a)(1), by striking ‘‘chapter’’ 
and substituting ‘‘part and to carry out responsibil-
ities under chapter 51 as delegated or authorized by 
the Secretary’’ and by striking subparagraphs (A) 
through (F); 
(2) by striking subsection (a)(2); and 
(3) by redesignating subsection (a)(1), as 
amended by this Act, as subsection (a), and insert-
ing the following at the end: 
‘‘(1) $180,722,000 for the fiscal year ending 
September 30, 2008. 
‘‘(2) Such sums as may be necessary for fiscal 
years 2009 through 2011.’’. 
(b) AMENDMENT.—Section 20117, as amended by 
this Act, is further amended by inserting at the end a new 
subsection (f) as follows: 
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‘‘(f) SAFETY RISK REDUCTION.—Not more than 
$2,363,000 of the $180,722,000 for fiscal year 2008 and 
such sums as may be necessary for fiscal years 2009 
through 2011 are authorized to be appropriated to the 
Secretary for a safety risk reduction program to be imple-
mented as part of the railroad safety program. The safety 
risk reduction program shall require each railroad to sys-
tematically evaluate safety risks, manage those risks, and 
implement measures to eliminate or mitigate risks in its 
processes and procedures. The safety risk reduction pro-
gram, which requires different skills than the activities 
previously undertaken in the railroad safety program, 
shall be undertaken in addition to the current railroad 
safety program.’’. 
SEC. 102. PROTECTION OF RAILROAD SAFETY RISK REDUC-
TION PROGRAM INFORMATION. 
(a) AMENDMENT.—Chapter 201 as amended by this 
Act is further amended by adding the following two new 
sections: 
‘‘§ 20118. Prohibition on public disclosure of required 
railroad safety risk reduction records 
‘‘Notwithstanding section 552 of title 5 or any other 
provision of law, except as necessary for enforcement of 
any provision of Federal law by the Secretary or by an-
other Federal agency, the Secretary shall not disclose pub-
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licly any part of any record (including, but not limited to, 
a railroad carrier’s analysis of its safety risks and its 
statement of the mitigation measures it has identified with 
which to address those risks) that the Secretary has ob-
tained pursuant to a regulation or order under this chap-
ter that requires the establishment, implementation, or 
modification of a railroad safety risk reduction program 
if the record is required to be— 
‘‘(1) supplied to the Secretary pursuant to that 
safety risk reduction program; or 
‘‘(2) made available for inspection and copying 
by an officer, employee, or agent of the Secretary 
pursuant to that safety risk reduction program. 
‘‘§ 20119. Discovery and admission into evidence of 
certain reports and surveys 
‘‘Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no part 
of any report, survey, schedule, list, or data compiled or 
collected for the purpose of identifying, evaluating, plan-
ning, or implementing a railroad safety risk reduction pro-
gram pursuant to a regulation or order under this chapter 
(including, but not limited to, a railroad carrier’s analysis 
of its safety risks and its statement of the mitigation 
measures with which it will address those risks) shall be 
subject to discovery or admitted into evidence in a Federal 
or State court proceeding, or considered for another pur-
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