A recent hearing before the United States Surface Transportation Board (STB), the country’s primary rail regulator, offers a sobering example of what might happen when a regulatory body deviates from its mandate.
The STB held a hearing on “Urgent Issues in Freight Rail Service” on April 26. Given the depth of the country’s ongoing supply chain crisis, skyrocketing inflation indices, plummeting markets, and worldwide instability affecting sectors of all types, including the nation’s freight train enterprises, this was an important topic to have. However, based on the grandstanding and theatrics directed at the witnesses throughout the hearing, it appears that the generally staid federal regulator may have succumbed to the fabled “Beltway Fever,” which causes so many in D.C. to focus on soundbites rather than content.
I’m no stranger to theatrics in the hearing chamber as a former member of Congress. It’s fair to say that the committee rooms on Capitol Hill have seen their fair share of pranks over the years, whether it’s a backbencher with a creative visual aide and an ax to grind or a senior member toying with an expert witness.
It’s not ideal, but this is what comes with the territory. After all, Capitol Hill is all about politics. For better or worse, congressional hearings are as much about scoring points for the cameras and people back home as they are about deep dives into complex legislation.
However, whereas this type of drama has come to be expected on Capitol Hill, where the work is intrinsically and unavoidably political, it is considerably less typical in regulatory hearings. In this day of extreme partisanship, it is critical to maintaining environments that allow for the fair and dispassionate assessment of issues critical to our nation and its future. The loss of the opportunity to engage in such impartial debates in front of regulatory authorities would be devastating to the policymaking process.
James Foote, CEO of Class I railroad CSX, one of the nation’s largest and most important freight rail carriers, spoke at the last STB hearing. During the hearing, Foote was the only Class I CEO to testify. Other railroads sent highly qualified officials to give their perspectives, but only CSX sent its CEO to the STB’s hearing chamber for the discussion.
However, rather than viewing the hearing as an opportunity to ensure that the rail sector is performing to its full capacity, the session descended into a seemingly never-ending sequence of questions that felt far more like passionate advocacy than the even-handed job of a regulator.
For example, perhaps too lured by the presence of a CEO to stay focused on the task at hand, STB member Robert Primus engaged in numerous lines of questioning that were more meant to embarrass or disparage Foote than to provide helpful information to the conversation. That’s a tragedy, given how important freight rail is to our country’s capacity to navigate turbulent economic times.
Primus, whose current tenure on the board expires at the end of the year, was most likely auditioning to prove he could be a good enough attack dog to deserve another term on the STB. Unfortunately, the line of questioning stretched beyond Primus to his STB colleagues as well, who may have done so in an effort to remain in the good graces of an administration that has a love-hate relationship with the freight rail business.
As a result, the hearing felt more like a political tarring and feathering of a witness for the benefit of the cameras in the room than a meaningful regulatory session. Repetitive, leading questions gave no path forward for a good working session, and the resulting time in the hearing was clearly ineffective and borderline confrontational. This reality should cause alarm among people who are more concerned with the timely and efficient flow of freight than with political points.
The STB is not a political body by design. Its hearings aren’t meant to be a rallying point for STB members. They are intended to serve as a conduit for regulators, rail carriers, shippers, and other stakeholders to communicate and collaborate in order to handle problems and provide the best freight rail service possible.
Given the depth of the larger supply chain and workforce concerns confronting industries of all types in the country — including the nation’s freight rail companies — there is no better time for legislators to step up and give the solutions that Americans seek. Playing blame games and utilizing the bully pulpit to score political points will not address the issues that need to be addressed and will instead contradict the STB’s goal.
While the potential to effect genuine policy change in the aftermath of the recent freight rail hearing was likely missed, hopefully, the STB and other regulators can learn from this learning moment and return to providing the actual answers that our country demands.
