House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee Chair Sam Graves (R-Mo.) announced on Jan. 21 a reshuffling of the deck chairs for two subcommittees. Following the appointment of Rep. Rick Crawford (R-Ark.) to serve as Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Daniel Webster (R-Fla.) will now serve as Chair of the Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials, replacing David Rouzer (R-N.C.), who moves to Chair of the Subcommittee on Highways and Transit. Rouzer replaces Crawford, who now is Vice Chair of the full T&I Committee..
Webster now succeeds Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Tex.) as Rail Subcommittee chair. Nehls still chairs the Subcommittee on Aviation.
Serving as Ranking Members (“Senior Democrats”) on, respectively, on the Railroad and Transit Subcommittees are Dina Titus (D-Nev.) and Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), T&I Ranking Member Rick Larsen (D-Wash.) announced Jan. 16.
“Our subcommittee chairs for the 119th Congress have a strong track record of proven leadership, experience and demonstrated legislative expertise,” said Graves when the original appointments were announced. ““Five of our six subcommittee chairs are returning members of T&I’s leadership team from the 118th Congress who heavily contributed to the Committee’s success over the past two years, and I’m excited to add a new member to our lineup of subcommittee leaders. ”All six of our chairmen will play critical roles in our committee’s agenda as we work to ensure a stronger, safer, and more efficient transportation and infrastructure network for our country.”
In one of its first acts, the Rail Subcommitee released H.R. 192, the Amtrak Executive Bonus Disclosure Act. Introduced by Rouzer, the bill requires Amtrak to publicly disclose salary bonuses given to Amtrak executives annually. Specifically, the legislation requires Amtrak to notify and brief Congress 30 days before it awards any executive bonuses and to publicly disclose any executive bonuses that have been awarded through a notice in the Federal Register, along with an explanation of the metrics and criteria used to determine the bonuses.
