Congress News

U.S. Senate Committee to Vote on Bipartisan Rail Safety Bill

The U.S. Senate Commerce Committee on Wednesday will vote on sweeping bipartisan rail safety legislation prompted by a Norfolk Southern-operated NSC.N train derailment on Feb. 3 in Ohio. Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, a Democrat, said the legislation will mandate the …

Congress Eyes New Rules for Tech: What’s Under Consideration

WASHINGTON (AP) – Most Democrats and Republicans agree that the federal government should better regulate the biggest technology companies, particularly social media platforms. But there is very little consensus on how it should be done. Should TikTok be banned? Should …

Senate Leader Schumer Urges Federal Safety Probe into Freight Railroads

WASHINGTON —U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Wednesday urged the National Transportation Safety Board to launch an investigation into safety practices of all seven major freight railroads, following the East Palestine, Ohio derailment. The companies, in addition to Norfolk …

US Maritime Liability Rules Changed after 2019 Boat Fire

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Federal lawmakers have changed 19th-century maritime liability rules for accident victims and their families in response to the 2019 boat fire off the coast of Southern California that killed 34 people. The Small Passenger Vessel Liability …

Lawmakers Back Key Boeing 737 MAX Certification Deadline Waiver

WASHINGTON –– Boeing Co. won backing from Congress early on Tuesday to lift a looming deadline imposing a new safety standard for modern cockpit alerts for two new versions of the U.S. planemaker’s best-selling 737 MAX aircraft. The company had …

House Advances Giant Texas Storm Surge Project in Water Bill

HOUSTON (AP) — Fourteen years after Hurricane Ike ripped through thousands of homes and businesses near Galveston, Texas — but mostly spared the region’s oil refineries and chemical plants — the U.S. House of Representatives voted Thursday to authorize the …

Democratic Senators Press US Auto Agency on Safety Rules

WASHINGTON –– A group of 10 Democratic senators Tuesday urged U.S. auto safety regulators to move quickly to issue new regulations after traffic crash deaths hit a 16-year-high in 2021. Senators Ed Markey, Richard Blumenthal, Sherrod Brown, Dick Durbin, Jack …

US Supreme Court Weighs Barring Lawsuits Against Public Nursing Homes

WASHINGTON —U.S. Supreme Court justices on Tuesday signaled they were unlikely to broadly prevent people who depend on federal assistance programs including Medicaid from suing when states violate their rights even as they weighed barring a narrower class of cases …

Congress Wants to Hear What Twitter Whistleblower Has to Say

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. lawmakers are anxious to hear from Twitter’s former security chief, who has alarmed Washington with allegations that the influential social network misled regulators about its cyber defenses and efforts to control fake accounts. Leaders of several …

81% of Flood Insurance Policyholders Will See Rate Increases, Report Says

When the Federal Emergency Management Agency rolled out a major overhaul to its beleaguered National Flood Insurance Program last April, it promised that bigger, richer homes would bear the brunt of premium increases, while almost 90 percent of policyholders would …