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Americans for Tax Reform and a coalition of 23 other organizations sent a letter to President Trump and congressional leaders on Thursday expressing strong opposition to the so-called “Railway Safety Act.”
The Railway Safety Act, reintroduced by congressional Democrats earlier this year, is a handout to union bosses disguised as a transportation safety bill. Provisions such as mandated unionized staffing increases and limits on the usage of technological advancements would do nothing to help rail safety, but it would put more union dues in the pockets of union bosses while adding billions of dollars in new costs for American consumers.
In the letter, the coalition outlines the risks of the Railway Safety Act, such as “raising freight costs, slowing the movement of energy commodities, and discouraging the very innovation needed for safer, more efficient rail operations.” The groups “urge a disciplined, evidence-based approach to rail regulation” while “avoiding unnecessary new burdens that lack empirical support.”
Read the full letter here or below:
April 16, 2026
President Donald J. Trump
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
CC:
The Honorable Mike Johnson
Speaker of the House
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515
The Honorable John Thune
Senate Majority Leader
United States Senate SD-511
Washington, DC 20510
Dear Mr. President,
America’s energy sector is entering a period of renewed pressure. Rising electricity demand, geopolitical instability, expanding domestic manufacturing, and the rapid growth of energy intensive technologies such as artificial intelligence and advanced computing are increasing the importance of reliable energy production and delivery across the United States.
Your Administration has emphasized strengthening American energy security, expanding domestic production, and revitalizing U.S. manufacturing. Achieving these goals will depend not only on continued investment in energy development—including oil and natural gas, electric power generation, mining, and refining—but also on the strength of the transportation networks that connect these resources to consumers and industries.
Energy production and freight transportation are deeply interconnected. Pipelines, railroads, ports, barges, and trucking networks form the backbone of the tangible economy, moving enormous daily volumes of crude oil, refined products, natural gas liquids, coal, chemicals, agricultural inputs, and critical minerals that power homes, factories, supply chains, and exports. Affordable and reliable energy is fundamental to economic growth, household budgets, manufacturing competitiveness, job creation, and national security.
Policymakers are rightly focused on strengthening domestic supply chains for critical minerals and materials essential to energy technologies and advanced manufacturing. These efforts require resilient logistics networks capable of moving large volumes safely and efficiently.
These systems demand substantial long-term investment and operate in dynamic global markets. Stability and predictability in the regulatory environment are therefore essential. Yet regulatory actions that significantly increase the cost or complexity of moving energy commodities can reverberate throughout supply chains. This will raise energy prices, harm electricity reliability, undermine manufacturing competitiveness, and limit the availability of essential materials.
Rail transportation, in particular, plays a vital role in connecting energy producers, mines, manufacturers, and export terminals. Unfortunately, the proposed Railway Safety Act illustrates the danger of imposing significant new operational mandates without clear evidence of improved safety outcomes.
The Act’s two-person crew mandate, for example, ignores extensive data showing no connection between crew size and accident rates. Railroads safely reduced crews from three or more members through the 1990s as technology advanced, and overall accident rates improved. Federal reviews in 2016, 2019, and the Federal Railroad Administration’s own 2024 rulemaking suggested there is no causal evidence justifying the mandate. European systems operate safely with one-person crews while maintaining lower fatality rates than in the United States. Codifying today’s standard in statute would lock in current practices and block future technology-driven improvements.
The Act would also mandate fixed spacing for wayside hot-box detectors, roughly every 15 miles, rather than the current average of 25 miles, and rigid stop rules. This would cost the rail industry $1.1 to 2.2 billion, nearly double the number of detectors, and raise installation, maintenance, and false-positive expenses. Bearing defects caused only 1.3% of derailments from 2020 to 2025. More importantly, the mandate would freeze today’s technology and discourage the adoption of superior real-time on-board sensors and telematics that detect a broader range of failures earlier. Similar concerns apply to proposed speed limits for high-hazard trains, as most derailments occur in rail yards at about 5 mph and are driven by human factors, track defects, or equipment failures rather than excessive speed. Additionally, minimum inspection-time requirements that would turn safety into bureaucratic checklists rather than outcome-focused processes.
These provisions risk raising freight costs, slowing the movement of energy commodities, and discouraging the very innovation needed for safer, more efficient rail operations—directly undermining your goals of energy security, domestic manufacturing revival, and supply chain resilience.
As your Administration and Congress work to strengthen American energy leadership, we respectfully urge a disciplined, evidence-based approach to rail regulation. Avoiding unnecessary new burdens that lack empirical support will help ensure these shared national priorities remain achievable.
We appreciate your focus on American energy security and economic competitiveness and look forward to working constructively with your Administration and Congress on policies that promote reliability, innovation, and long-term growth.
Signatories:
Tom Pyle, President, American Energy Alliance
Alex Stevens, Manager of Policy and Communications, Institute for Energy Research
Melissa Simpson, President, Western Energy Alliance
Jerry R. Simmons, President & CEO, Domestic Energy Producers Alliance
Daniel C. Turner, Founder & Executive Director, Power the Future
Amy Cooke, President, Always On Energy Research
Grover Norquist, President, Americans for Tax Reform
Iain Murray, Senior Fellow, Competitive Enterprise Institute
Phil Kerpen, President, American Commitment
David Williams, President, Taxpayers Protection Alliance
Ryan Ellis, President, Center for a Free Economy
Jeffrey Mazzella, President, Center for Individual Freedom
James Taylor, President, The Heartland Institute
Nick Loris, President, C3 Solutions
Kristen Walker, Senior Policy Analyst for Energy and Transportation, American Consumer Institute
Daniel J. Mitchell, President, Center for Freedom and Prosperity
Paul Gessing, President, Rio Grande Foundation
Matthew Kandrach, President, Consumer Action for a Strong Economy
John Droz Jr., Founder, Alliance for Wise Energy Decisions
Seton Motley, Founder and President, Less Government
Jon Sanders, Director of the Center for Food, Power, and Life, The John Locke Foundation
John Hinderaker, President, Center of the American Experiment
Yaël Ossowski, Deputy Director, Consumer Choice Center
Audrey Lane, President, Garden State Initiative
