Editing Staggers Rail Act

{{Short description|1980 U.S. railroad deregulation bill}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=September 2017}}
{{Infobox U.S. legislation
| name = Staggers Rail Act
| fullname = A bill to reform the economic regulation of railroads, and for other purposes.
| acronym = 
| nickname =
| enacted by = 96th
| effective date = October 14, 1980
| public law url = 
| cite public law = {{USPL|96|448}}
| cite statutes at large = 
| acts amended = 
| title amended   = 
| sections created = 
| sections amended = 
| leghisturl = https://www.congress.gov/bill/96th-congress/senate-bill/1946/all-actions
| introducedin = Senate
| introducedbill = "Harley O. Staggers Rail Act of 1980" ([https://www.congress.gov/bill/96th-congress/senate-bill/1946/all-actions S. 1946])
| introducedby = [[Howard Cannon]] ([[Democratic Party (United States)|D]]-[[Nevada|NV]])
| introduceddate = October 29, 1979
| committees = [[United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation|Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation]]
| passedbody1 = Senate
| passeddate1 = April 1, 1980
| passedvote1 = [https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/96-1980/s580 91-4]
| passedbody2 = House
| passeddate2 = September 9, 1980
| passedvote2 = [https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/96-1980/h1143 337-20]
| conferencedate = September 29, 1980
| passedbody3 = Senate
| passeddate3 = September 30, 1980
| passedvote3 = [https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/96-1980/s968 66-2]
| passedbody4 = House
| passeddate4 = September 30, 1980
| signedpresident = [[Jimmy Carter]]
| signeddate = October 14, 1980
| amendments = 
| SCOTUS cases =
}}
[[File:Signing_of_the_Staggers_Rail_Act_of_1980.jpg|thumb|right|President [[Jimmy Carter]] signs the Staggers Rail Act into law on October 14, 1980. Representative [[Harley O. Staggers]], sponsor of the bill, stands to the president's right.]]
The '''Staggers Rail Act''' of 1980 is a [[United States federal law]] that [[deregulated]] the American [[railroad]] industry to a significant extent, and it replaced the regulatory structure that had existed since the [[Interstate Commerce Act of 1887]].<ref>Staggers Rail Act of 1980, {{USStatute|96|448|94|1895|1980|October|14|S|1946}}</ref>

==Background==
In the aftermath of the [[Great Depression]] and [[World War II]], many privately owned, operated, and funded for-profit railroads were driven out of business by competition from publicly owned, operated, and funded [[Interstate highways]], which almost always operated at a loss, and [[airline]]s, which often used airports and dispatchers (in this case [[air traffic control]] by the [[Federal Aviation Administration|FAA]]) funded by public money. Not restricted by the requirement to break even, cars and trucks use the highway system as constructed by the state, leading to the end of [[passenger train]] service on most railroads. [[Trucking industry in the United States|Trucking]] businesses had become major competitors by the 1930s with the advent of improved paved roads. After the war, they expanded their operations as the highway network grew and acquired increased market share of the [[cargo]] business.<ref name="Stover">{{cite book |title=American Railroads |last=Stover |first=John F. |year=1997 |edition = 2nd |publisher=University of Chicago Press |location=Chicago |isbn=978-0-226-77658-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R4vjgmic44QC }}</ref>{{rp|219}} Railroads continued to be regulated by the [[Interstate Commerce Commission]] (ICC) and a complex system for setting shipping rates.

The Staggers Act followed the [[Railroad Revitalization and Regulatory Reform Act]] of 1976 (often called the "4R Act"), which reduced federal regulation of railroads and authorized implementation details for [[Conrail]], the new northeastern railroad system.<ref>Railroad Revitalization and Regulatory Reform Act, {{USPL|94|210}}, {{USStat|90|31}}, {{USC|45|801}}. Approved February 5, 1976.</ref> The 4R reforms included allowance of a greater range for railroad pricing without close regulatory restraint, greater independence from collective rate making procedures in rail pricing and service offers, contract rates, and, to a lesser extent, greater freedom for entry into and exit from rail markets.

Although the 4R Act established the guidelines, the ICC at first, did not give much effect to its legislative mandates. As regulatory change began to appear from 1976 to 1979, including the phasing out of the collective ratemaking authority, most major railroads shifted away from their effort to maintain the historic regulatory system and came to support greater freedom for rail pricing, for higher and lower rail rates.

Major railroad shippers also continued to believe that they would be better served by more flexibility to arrive at tailored arrangements that were mutually beneficial to a particular shipper, and to the carrier serving a particular shipper. The judgments supported a second round of legislation.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Politics of Deregulation |last1=Derthick |first1=Martha |last2=Quirk |first2=Paul J. |year=1985 |publisher=Brookings Institution Press |location=Washington, DC |isbn=978-0-8157-1817-8 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/politicsofderegu00dert/page/14 14–16] |url=https://archive.org/details/politicsofderegu00dert|url-access=registration }}</ref>

==Summary==
The major regulatory changes of the Staggers Act were as follows:

* A rail carrier could establish any rate for a rail service unless the ICC were to determine that there was no [[effective competition]] for rail services.
* Rail shippers and rail carriers would be allowed to establish contracts subject to no effective ICC review unless the Commission determined that the contract service would interfere with the rail carrier's ability to provide common carrier service (a finding rarely made that is not apparent in the history of the rail industry thereafter).
* The scope of authority to control rates to prevent "discrimination" among shippers was substantially curtailed.
* Across-the-board industry-wide rate increases were phased out.
* The dismantling of the collective rate making machinery among railroads begun in 1976 was reaffirmed, with railroads not allowed to agree to rates they could perform on their own systems and were not allowed to participate in the determination of the rates on traffic in which they did not effectively participate.

The Act also had provisions allowing the Commission to require access by one railroad to another railroad's facilities if one railroad had effective "bottleneck" control of traffic. The provisions dealt with "reciprocal switching" (handling of railroad cars between long-haul rail carriers and local customers) and [[arrangements between railroads#Trackage rights|trackage rights]]. However, the provisions did not have as much effect as the others mentioned.

==Sponsor==
The act was named for [[Harley Staggers]] (D-WV), who chaired the [[House Committee on Energy and Commerce]].

==Impact==
[[File:Freight rail fares.jpg|thumb|Percent change in freight rail fares since Staggers Act deregulation.]]
Studies of the rail industry showed dramatic benefits for both railroads and their users from the alteration to the regulatory system.<ref name="Stover" />{{rp|253–4}} According to studies by the Department of Transportation's Freight Management and Operations, railroad industry costs and prices were halved over a ten-year period, the railroads reversed their historic loss of traffic (as measured by ton-miles) to the trucking industry, and railroad industry profits began to recover, after decades of low profits and widespread railroad insolvencies.<ref name="AAR1">Association of American Railroads, Washington, D.C. (2011). [http://www.aar.org/~/media/aar/Background-Papers/The-Impact-of-Staggers.ashx "The Impact of the Staggers Rail Act of 1980."]</ref> In 2007 the [[Government Accountability Office]] reported to [[United States Congress|Congress]], "The railroad industry is increasingly healthy and rail rates have generally declined since 1985, despite recent rate increases.... There is widespread consensus that the freight rail industry has benefited from the Staggers Rail Act."<ref>{{cite book |title=Freight Railroads: Updated Information on Rates and Competition Issues |last=Hecker |first=JayEtta Z. |date=September 25, 2007 |publisher=U.S. Government Accountability Office |location=Washington, DC |page=6 |url=http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-07-1245T }} Testimony Before the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, House of Representatives. Report No. GAO-07-1245T.</ref>

The [[Association of American Railroads]], the principal railroad industry trade association, stated that the Staggers Act has led to a 51 percent reduction in average shipping rates, and $480 billion has been reinvested by the industry into their rail systems.<ref name="AAR1"/>

==Related deregulatory legislation==
The Staggers Act was one of three major deregulation laws passed by Congress in a two-year period, as the cumulative result of efforts to reform transport regulation begun in 1971, during the [[Presidency of Richard Nixon|Nixon administration]]. The other two laws were the [[Airline Deregulation Act]] of 1978 and the [[Motor Carrier Act of 1980]]. This legislation in effect superseded almost a century of detailed regulation begun with the establishment of the ICC in 1887. The [[Interstate Commerce Commission Termination Act]] of 1995 abolished the ICC and created its successor agency, the [[Surface Transportation Board]], an administrative affiliate of the [[United States Department of Transportation]].<ref>U.S. Surface Transportation Board. Washington, D.C. [http://www.stb.dot.gov/stb/about/overview.html "Overview of the STB."] Accessed November 4, 2010.</ref>

==See also==
* [[History of rail transport in the United States]]

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

== Further reading ==
* {{cite journal |last1=Moore |first1=Thomas G. |date=November–December 1988 |title=Rail and Truck Reform: The Record So Far |journal=Regulation |pages=57–62 }}
* {{cite book |title=The Best Transportation System in the World: Railroads, Trucks, Airlines, and American Public Policy in the Twentieth Century |last1=Rose |first1=Mark H. |last2=Seely |first2=Bruce E. |last3=Barrett |first3=Paul F. |year=2006 |publisher=Ohio State University Press |isbn=978-0-8142-1036-9 |series=Historical Perspectives on Business Enterprise }}
* {{cite book|last1=United States. Congress. House.|title=The 35th Anniversary of the Staggers Rail Act: Railroad Deregulation Past, Present, and Future: Hearing before the Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials of the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, House of Representatives, One Hundred Fourteenth Congress, First Session, May 13, 2014|date=2014|publisher=Government Publishing Office|location=Washington, D.C.|url=https://purl.fdlp.gov/GPO/gpo63149|access-date=November 24, 2015}}
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{{cite book |title=Braking the Special Interests: Trucking deregulation and the Politics of Policy Reform |last=Robyn |first=Dorothy L. |authorlink= |year=1987 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |location= |isbn=978-0-226-72328-0 |page= |pages= |url=https://archive.org/details/brakingspecialin00roby|url-access=registration }} -->
<!-- Dead link:
[https://web.archive.org/web/20071018143938/http://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/freight/theme_papers/final_thm8_v4.htm From Economic Deregulation to Safety Regulation]  Department of Transportation comprehensive study detailing effects of rail deregulation on railroads, and indicating transport deregulation over all transport modes reduced distribution costs in the United States from about 14% of gross domestic product to under 11% -->

{{Presidency of Jimmy Carter}}
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[[Category:United States railroad regulation]]
[[Category:United States federal transportation legislation]]
[[Category:1980 in American law]]
[[Category:1980 in rail transport]]
[[Category:96th United States Congress]]
[[Category:History of rail transportation in the United States]]