In the News

The Senate’s failure to pass an immigration reform proposal last week casts a spotlight on the House, where Speaker Paul Ryan has pledged to take up legislation next month. ... In the House, conservative Republicans are pushing the GOP leadership to try to pass a bill sponsored by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va. The Goodlatte bill incorporates the Trump framework but adds many other conservative immigration reform provisions and does not provide a clear pathway to citizen... Read more

Amtrak has just increased the urgency to install positive train control throughout the NJ Transit system. If NJ Transit does not make the Dec. 31 deadline, Amtrak will not let the state’s commuter trains ride on its tracks. In short, it won’t matter whether the dual Hudson River rail tubes are “one-tracking” into Penn Station. No NJ Transit trains would be able to get into midtown Manhattan. Amtrak CEO Richard Anderson did not sound like he was bluffing last week. In the wake of several fatal cr... Read more

In an effort to combat so-called “drive-by” lawsuits, Representative Jeff Denham (R-Turlock) is pushing to create better ADA access. Specifically, Denham addressed the U.S. House of Representatives supporting the guidelines for the American with Disabilities Act to be translated into multiple languages. “If you want businesses to comply with the law, you have to give them the opportunity to comply,” Denham said in his address on the House Floor. ... “We’ve heard a lot of these stories about smal... Read more

The U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee held a hearing on Feb. 15 examining the implementation of Positive Train Control (PTC). ... Rep. Jeff Denham (R-CA), chairman of the Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines and Hazardous Materials, said, "From its inception a decade ago, Congress and stakeholders anticipated that the PTC mandate would be a daunting undertaking. PTC had never been implemented on such a large scale, and has never required such a high level of interoperability... Read more

As badly as things have gone for immigration legislation in the Senate, it's not looking any easier in the more conservative House. Republican leaders there are scrambling to find enough GOP votes to pass a measure that's even more restrictive than a proposal by President Trump that flopped spectacularly in the Senate on Thursday. Compounding those divisions are pressures from some of the House's most conservative members, who are casting the effort as a pivotal test for Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis... Read more

California is home to the largest population of DACA recipients in America, with about one-third of them calling our state home. For many of them, it’s the only home they have ever known. As we approach yet another deadline in Washington, the time has come to provide them permanent certainty. For too long, the government has asked hundreds of thousands of young people to put their lives on hold while Congress plays politics with their futures. Last month, we — along with Rep. Will Hurd, R-Texas ... Read more

A decade after Congress ordered the nation’s railroads to install an automatic braking system that could have prevented more than 130 train wrecks, industry officials said Thursday most lines will need two more years to finish the job. ... Thursday’s hearing came after four train wrecks in the past two months, two of which could have been prevented if PTC had been operative, investigators say. It also would have prevented the two deadliest crashes since Chatsworth: the 2013 crash of a Metro-Nort... Read more

The House on Thursday passed legislation that would ease the enforcement of regulations against businesses that fail to be accessible to people with disabilities. The bill, the ADA Education and Reform Act, would change the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act to give businesses accused of being inaccessible a grace period to fix structural problems with their facilities before they can be sued. Under the law, businesses must abide by specific regulations so that people with disabilities, includ... Read more

A panel of lawmakers on Thursday admonished the nation’s railroads and the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) to meet a fast-approaching deadline to enact a key train safety feature that could have prevented two recent Amtrak crashes. “If you have a timeline, we want to see that timeline. If you have questions, or concerns or impediments, we want to know what those are,” Rep. Jeff Denham (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Transportation Committee Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines and Hazard... Read more

The chair of a congressional committee on Thursday urged U.S. railroads and transit agencies to meet a looming deadline to install an anti-crash technology called positive train control after a series of recent crashes. "I think the American public is tired of excuses," Representative Jeff Denham, a Republican who chairs the panel that oversees railroads, told a hearing on railroad safety. "Ignoring a congressional mandate again won't be tolerated." The technology known as PTC automatically stop... Read more