[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1033 Introduced in House (IH)]







110th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1033

To direct the Secretary of Transportation to establish a grant program 
to improve railroad safety by providing funds for the construction and 
 maintenance of fencing and other protective structures along railroad 
                    tracks, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           February 13, 2007

  Mr. Weiner introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
             Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To direct the Secretary of Transportation to establish a grant program 
to improve railroad safety by providing funds for the construction and 
 maintenance of fencing and other protective structures along railroad 
                    tracks, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as ``Ari's Law''.

SEC. 2. ESTABLISHMENT OF RAILROAD SAFETY GRANT PROGRAM.

    (a) Grants.--The Secretary of Transportation (hereafter referred to 
as the ``Secretary'') shall establish a grant program to improve 
railroad safety by providing funds to eligible entities to construct 
and maintain fencing and other protective structures along railroad 
tracks.
    (b) Eligible Entity.--For the purposes of this Act, ``eligible 
entity'' means any of the following:
            (1) A unit of local government who owns or controls land 
        along a railroad right-of-way.
            (2) Any other person providing railroad transportation.
    (c) Grant Conditions.--
            (1) Certification required.--In order to receive a grant 
        under the program for a fiscal year, an eligible entity must 
        certify to the Secretary, at such time and in such form as the 
        Secretary may require, that--
                    (A) the eligible entity will monitor or inspect all 
                of the fencing and other protective structures along 
                railroad tracks within the entity's jurisdiction not 
                less frequently than once per week; and
                    (B) the eligible entity will repair any deficiency 
                in the fencing and other protective structures within 2 
                weeks of finding or being notified of such deficiency.
            (2) Period of applicability.--An eligible entity that 
        receives a grant shall monitor and repair fencing and other 
        protective structures, as described in subparagraphs (A) and 
        (B) of paragraph (1), for the period beginning with the receipt 
        of grant funds and ending 10 years after the date on which all 
        grant funds received under the program by the entity have been 
        expended.
    (d) Railroad Defined.--For the purposes of this Act, ``railroad'' 
means any form of nonhighway ground transportation that runs on rails 
or electromagnetic guideways.
    (e) Authorization of Appropriations.--
            (1) Grants.--For grants under this section, there is 
        authorized to be appropriated $20 million for fiscal year 2008 
        and each succeeding fiscal year.
            (2) Continuing availability of amounts appropriated.--
        Amounts appropriated pursuant to the authorization under 
        paragraph (1) shall remain available until expended.

SEC. 3. STUDYING AND REPORTING ON BEST PRACTICES FOR RAILROAD SAFETY.

    (a) Study of Best Practices.--The Administrator of the Federal 
Railroad Administration shall study the best practices for railroad 
safety related to the construction, monitoring, and repair of fencing 
and other protective structures along railroad tracks.
    (b) Report.--Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of 
this Act, the Administrator shall submit a report of the findings from 
the study conducted in subsection (a) to Congress.
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