PSI Sci
New here? Follow the money and the votes · Not sure of your district? Find your U.S. House member · Find your state legislators

S. 1462: Eliminating Dangerous Oil Cars and Ensuring Community Safety Act

Before you vote › Federal bills

S. 1462: Eliminating Dangerous Oil Cars and Ensuring Community Safety Act

114th Congress · introduced 2015-05-22 · Transportation and Public Works · Latest: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

federal

Follow this bill, step by step

  1. Where it came from: introduced 2015-05-22 · official record
  2. Who proposed it: Sen. Schumer, Charles E. [D-NY] · what a sponsor is
  3. What happened next: no floor votes in our records yet. Why?
  4. Where it stands now: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Not final yet: this can still change. We check for updates every day.
  5. If it becomes law and spends money: follow the money to money laws, then agencies and contracts and grants.

What does this mean?

Official title

Eliminating Dangerous Oil Cars and Ensuring Community Safety Act

Plain summary

Eliminating Dangerous Oil Cars and Ensuring Community Safety Act This bill replaces general requirements for design standards of the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) for pressurized tank cars with a retrofitting requirement for certain tank cars. No rail carrier may ship on or after a specified deadline any hazardous material (hazmat) in any tank car under DOT-111 (Department of Transportation specification for a non-pressurized rail tank car) or non-jacketed Casualty Prevention Circular (CPC)-1232 (new rail tank car standards for transporting crude oil or ethanol), unless the tank car has been retrofitted in accordance with the DOT-117 specification design established by the May 2015 final rule for the safe transportation of flammable liquids by rail. DOT shall establish and begin enforcing a national maximum volatility standard for the transport of crude oil by rail or by barge. The bill sets a maximum speed for any train carrying more than 10 cars, including at least one hazmat-carrying DOT-111 or unjacketed CPC-1232 tank car that has not been so retrofitted, of 40 miles per hour while traveling through a county (or county equivalent) with a population density of greater than 20 persons per square mile. In addition to certain other required track inspections, each rail carrier shall conduct, on main line routes it owns or for which it has been assigned maintenance responsibility, and over which 1 or more high-hazard flammable trains are operated: 2 additional inspections for internal defects of all rail in Classes 3, 4, and 5 for every 40,000,000 gross tons transported on such lines, or annually, whichever interval is shorter; and 4 track geometry inspections each calendar year. Beginning on December 1, 2018, each rail line over which tank cars carrying crude oil or ethanol travel shall be equipped with a positive train control system. Each rail carrier that transports crude oil, petroleum, or other hazardous products by rail shall develop comprehensive oil spill response plans. The FRA shall develop a program to audit such response plans to ensure that they include comprehensive procedures for: preventing or mitigating a substantial threat of a worst-case discharge of such products resulting from a rail accident or incident, and responding to and cleaning up such a discharge. The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration shall revise specified spill response planning thresholds to require comprehensive response plans to effectively provide for a carrier's ability to respond to worst-case discharges resulting from accidents involving unit trains or blocks of tank cars transporting oil and petroleum products. Each rail carrier shall: establish a system through which employees may anonymously report circumstances or incidents that endanger the safety of railroad operations, and provide specified information to the FRA and the county emergency management contact (or equivalent) immediately after the derailment of any high hazard flammable train the carrier operates.

Congressional Research Service summary (Introduced in Senate), quoted unchanged (nonpartisan). Read the source.

What a vote does

A “Yea” vote

If it passes both chambers and is signed, it becomes law.

A “Nay” vote

If it is not passed, current law stays as it is.

PSI Sci description of the legislative step (not an opinion).

What does this mean? (plain words)

Official text

Eliminating Dangerous Oil Cars and Ensuring Community Safety Act

Source: Congressional Research Service summary (Introduced in Senate)

AI explanation – may be wrong, check the official text

No AI explanation yet. It takes up to a minute to write and is then saved for everyone.

Limited to a few requests an hour per person.

The strongest published arguments

Arguments for (supporters)

Needs sources: no published arguments on this side yet. We only show items backed by a published source. Suggest one.

Arguments against (opponents)

Needs sources: no published arguments on this side yet. We only show items backed by a published source. Suggest one.

Alternatives

Needs sources: no published alternatives yet (for example a different bill, a law instead of an amendment, or keeping current law). We only show items backed by a published source. Suggest one.

How did my representative vote? · This bill's floor votes

Officials and money

Sponsor: Sen. Schumer, Charles E. [D-NY] · 6 cosponsors

Cost estimate: No cost estimate published yet.

Cosponsors on this site

Richard J. Durbin (D-IL), Kirsten E. Gillibrand (D-NY), Bernard Sanders (I-VT), Jeff Merkley (D-OR)

Sponsor's campaign money: Sen. Schumer, Charles E. [D-NY] reported raising $1.2 million (2025–2026). Details. Shown for context only; it does not mean any donor supported this bill.

No linked floor roll calls in our collected records yet. This does not mean the bill has never had a vote. Check the official bill history.

Words on this page, explained (2)
Bill
A proposed law. It becomes law only if it passes the legislature and is signed by the president or governor (or a veto is overridden).
Rulemaking
The process agencies use to write regulations that carry out laws passed by Congress or a legislature. Usually an agency publishes a proposed rule, takes public comments, then publishes a final rule.

Plain meanings written from linked sources. All words.

Sources

Record fed-us-cong114-s1462 · catalog fed-us-congress-bills-cong114 · updated 2026-11-15 by psicol fed-bills-cong114