POTUS 47 has nominated Republican Richard Kloster to fill a vacant seat at the Surface Transportation Board (STB) and renominated Republican Michelle A. Schultz to a second term. The Sept. 11 nominations require Senate confirmation beginning with a Senate Commerce Committee hearing and ending with a Senate floor vote.
If confirmed, Kloster would fill a seat vacant since the May 2024 retirement of Democrat Martin J. Oberman and expiring Dec. 31, 2028. Schultz’ second term would expire Nov. 30, 2030. By statute, STB members may serve only two terms for a maximum of five years each, although they may remain a maximum of 12 months beyond term expiration if a successor has not been Senate-confirmed.
As a Democratic seat on the five-person STB remains vacant following POTUS 47’s controversial firing of Robert E. Primus in August, it is likely that Senate Democrats will seek to slow the process for Republicans Schultz and Kloster. Typically, Republican and Democratic nominees are paired for Senate floor vote confirmations, and the pairings are not necessarily nominees for the same agency. This is not a typical situation, given Primus’ firing amidst near unprecedented congressional political wrangling and firings of other independent regulatory agency Democrats by the Republican President.
The STB is five-member independent regulatory agency with its chairperson (currently Republican Patrick J. Fuchs, 36) named by the President from among sitting STB members. The STB’s political majority matches that of the President’s party. That explains why Republican Kloster was nominated to fill Democrat Oberman’s vacant seat.
The STB’s fifth seat is held by Democrat Karen J. Hedlund, 76, whose first term expires Dec. 31. If not renominated to a second term, she could remain until Dec. 31, 2026. Unanswered questions are whether federal courts will find Primus’ firing unlawful and return him to a second term that expires Dec. 31, 2027 (Primus, age 55, having said he will contest the firing); and whether POTUS 47 will renominate Hedlund to a second term or choose another Democrat.
Significantly, there is no quorum requirement at the STB, meaning—and this previously occurred twice—the STB could function as a single-member agency. With a headline-grabbing merger (Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern) expected (formal applications may not be filed until Oct. 29), both the political composition of the STB and its number of filled seats is consequential.
If the STB accepts a formal merger application, it would have until February 2026 to do so, and the decision as to allowing or denying the merger would not occur until at least early 2027. Fuchs’ second term expires Jan. 14, 2029; and the currently vacant Primus seat expires Dec. 31, 2027.
Kloster, 67, is president and founder of rail equipment consultancy Integrity Rail Partners, Inc. He has an extensive career in rail fleet management as well as experience with Class I and short line railroads. He is an executive board member of the National Industrial Transportation League and sits on the board of the Railway Supply Institute. Kloster earned undergraduate and graduate degrees from Northern Illinois University and the University of Alabama in marketing.
Kloster told Railway Age in July—when it was learned he was being considered for nomination—that his strength is “considerable time” over his career working with railroads and shippers. Kloster began his railroad career with Chicago & North Western Railway (now part of Union Pacific) in October 1980, which he recalls was the same week President Jimmy Carter signed into law the Staggers Rail Act that delivered partial economic deregulation to railroads. His first job, he says, was a “car department apprentice.”
Schultz, 53, nominated to her first term by POTUS 45 and sworn-in on Jan. 11, 2021, previously was general counsel to the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA), where she also was director of legislative affairs. She earned an undergraduate degree from Penn State, a master’s degree in government administration from the University of Pennsylvania and a juris doctor degree from Widener University Law School.
