STB’s Schultz Confirmed; Kloster Not (UPDATED 12/19)
The Senate Dec. 18 voted 53-43, along party lines, to confirm STB member Michelle A. Schultz to a second two-year term on the five-member agency.
Author: Frank N. Wilner
Commentary
UP-NS: Already, a Two-Words Debate
The level of granularity in evaluating thousands of pages of a merger application prompted William H. Tucker, when a member of Surface Transportation Board (STB) predecessor Interstate Commerce Commission in 1967, to equate the regulatory process with “a trial for first degree homicide.”
Commentary
Is a UP-NS ‘Fix’ In? Don’t Bet on It!
WATCHING WASHINGTON, RAILWAY AGE DECEMBER 2025 ISSUE: Union Pacific (UP) CEO Jim Vena’s September pilgrimage to the Oval Office—where Republican POTUS 47 picked his corporate pocket for a cash contribution toward a
Commentary
Primus, Late of STB, Alleges Racial Bias
Democrat Robert E. Primus, fired Aug. 27 from the Surface Transportation Board (STB) by Republican POTUS 47, alleges in an amended legal challenge filed in federal district court Dec. 4 that the
BNSF to STB: First Cure UP’s ‘Old Harms’
In advance of the Surface Transportation Board (STB) evaluating a Union Pacific (UP)-Norfolk Southern (NS) merger application (yet to be filed), rival BNSF wants a separate proceeding to examine, with remedies, its
Commentary
Omissions, Errors Flaw Rail Study
The late Henry G. Manne, a pioneer in melding the academic disciplines of economics and law through a lens favoring free markets and reduced government regulation, gained international acclaim through creation of
Sens. Cruz, Cantwell Support STB Nominee Schultz
The Senate Commerce Committee on Nov. 19 recommended Senate reconfirmation of Republican Michelle A. Schutz to a second five-year term on the Surface Transportation Board (STB). Her renomination is now ripe for
STB UPDATE: Schultz, Not Yet Kloster
The Senate Commerce Committee will meet in executive session Wednesday, Nov. 19, to vote on whether to recommend for Senate confirmation numerous POTUS 47 nominees, including Republican Michelle A. Schultz, who is
STB Nominees Endure Partisan Politics
What was expected to be a low-key Senate Commerce Committee confirmation hearing Nov 6 on the nomination of two Republicans to serve on the independent (from the Executive Branch) Surface Transportation Board (STB) took a dark turn into partisan politics.
Commentary
Why Not a Merger Timeout?
WATCHING WASHINGTON, NOVEMBER 2025 ISSUE: Perhaps the gutsiest-ever regulatory agency decision was the Surface Transportation Board’s (STB) 2001 imposition of a railroad merger moratorium. Its architect was then-STB Chairperson Linda J. Morgan.