This week, the House will consider seven or more appropriations bills for FY2022, including the Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development title which covers transportation and infrastructure programs and also fund agencies like the DOT, FRA, and STB. If the "minibus", which will include many but not all of the funding bills for the next fiscal year, passes the House it will then go to the Senate which hasn't taken action on appropriations yet this term. The 2021 fiscal year ends in just under ten weeks.

The House also passed the INVEST in America Act, its new version of the surface transportation legislation reauthorization, by a mostly party line vote at the beginning of July. The bill makes a number of funding increases and policy changes, but is unlikely to pass in its current form, and was used by Senate Majority Leader Schumer as the shell for the potential Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework last week in a failed effort to bring that negotiation to the Senate floor.

Last month, the Bipartisan Framework reached a tentative agreement and was celebrated at a White House press conference but has since faltered when deadlines came into play for legislative text to be finalized. Negotiators appear to once again have landed on an agreement, though nothing has passed a vote yet. If the vote does fail, the work of the bipartisan group could be rolled into a budget reconciliation package that the Democrats are planning alongside the infrastructure bill. A reconciliation bill can't include as much policy but only requires 51 votes to pass the Senate.

On July 9th, President Biden signed a wide-ranging Executive Order on competition in the economy which had major implications for the rail industry and was quickly panned by some rail industry groups.

Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman DeFazio wrote a letter to the STB urging them to reject the proposed voting trust in the CN-KCS merger, expressing his view that the trust would not be in the public interest and reduce competition.

My background was in the chemical industry, but I saw an opportunity to utilize recycled polymers to provide a more sustainable future for rail and infrastructure projects. Trojan was formed over 20 years ago in the UK and led to TroTrof Composites in N. America providing recycled polymer lineside cable trough.

Being able to work with major projects to drive innovation. Taking a design idea from concept to a completed product and seeing it being used to build rail projects round the world whilst keeping plastic out of landfill.

When not coming up with the latest product ideas I enjoy biking in the Alps and travel.

The industry must embrace new ideas to provide a sustainable and lower carbon impact future. We can't simply carry on doing the same just because that's what's always been done.  As technology progresses the railways of the future need to adapt and utilize these advances.

REMSA provides a great insight into the wider rail market and allows us to develop new connections across the industry.

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Each month, REMSA features one of its members in the rail industry as our Member of the Month. If you are interested in participating or nominating someone your company, please contact Madeleine Stern at stern@remsa.org.

REMSA has hosted nearly 50 grassroots events with member companies since the program was launched in 2015. Press releases detailing past events can be found here.