Political divisions may cause Democrats to attempt a procedural block on a floor vote as they are infuriated that POTUS 47 has almost exclusively been nominating Republicans for senior government posts while firing Democrats already holding office.
However, Republicans in 2025 reinterpreted Senate rules to allow nominees to move in a large group without a previously typical pairing of Republican nominees with Democratic nominees. This reinterpretation—a practice reducing opportunities for political obstruction—allowed Republican Michelle A. Schultz to be confirmed to a second five-year term in December as one of more than 80 Republican nominees and no Democrats. This contrasts with Senate floor confirmation in May 2024 of Republican Chairperson Patrick J. Fuchs to a second term where he was paired with Democrat Jennifer Homendy, who is now chairperson of the National Transportation Safety Board.
Among POTUS-47 fired Democrats—with no cause shown as is required by statute—was STB member Robert E. Primus, in a second term not expiring until Dec. 31, 2027. Primus alleges his August 2025 firing by POTUS 47 was unlawful. A federal district court has yet to rule. An appeal by either Primus or the Administration is likely following that decision. And it is not clear whether a court has authority to order reinstatement should Primus prevail on the unlawful firing claim.
Nor has POTUS 47 taken steps to ensure the STB’s current lone Democrat, Karen J. Hedlund, will remain. Her first term expired in December, leaving her in a maximum 12-month holdover period with no sign she will be renominated or that another Democrat will be named as her successor.
This is concerning. Two of the more significant rail regulatory decisions in generations—a major rail merger and a rulemaking overturning four decades of agency precedent—are on the STB’s voting agenda. They could be decided by just two members—both Republicans—if Kloster is not confirmed, Hedlund departs and a Democratic successor is not nominated and confirmed, and Primus is not returned to office or a Democratic successor to Primus is not nominated and confirmed.
The two sitting Republicans are Fuchs, whose second and final (by statute) term expires Jan. 14, 2029, and Schultz, whose second and final term expires Nov. 30, 2030. The STB governing statute contains no quorum requirement and has twice functioned in the past with but one member while awaiting reinforcements.
If the STB accepts an expected second merger application from Union Pacific (UP) and Norfolk Southern (NS)—the first rejected in January as incomplete; a revised version expected by April 30—the agency will be voting by mid-2027 on allowing the first U.S. Atlantic-Pacific transcontinental railroad to be created.
Expected earlier for a final vote is an STB-initiated rulemaking on easing the process by which shippers may obtain, at a currently single-railroad served facility, access to a second railroad to provide competitive rail service. So-called Reciprocal Switching creates, in theory, rate and service competition. It would be available to all rail shippers, not just captive shippers defined as lacking effective transportation alternatives to rail.
While the proposed UP-NS merger has received substantial public attention, the pending rulemaking—“Eliminating Regulatory Barriers to Competition: Review of Part 1144, Docket No. 788”—is also consequential. If finalized—Fuchs, Schultz and Hedlund expressed their support in calling for public comment—the new rule would repeal an existing one shippers consider the antithesis of a promise made to them by Congress in 1980 (Staggers Rail Act). The promise was to protect against railroad market power abuse. The rule targeted for repeal requires that shippers demonstrate railroads are engaging in anticompetitive conduct before those shippers become eligible for Reciprocal Switching relief. Shippers—agricultural, chemical, energy and manufacturing—have never been able to meet the burden.
While the former Interstate Commerce Commission once had 11 members—reduced in 1983 to five—successor STB was created in 1995 with three members. That number soon collided with the 1976 Government in Sunshine Act prohibiting an agency majority (just two when only three members) from discussing official business in a non-public setting.
The 2015 Surface Transportation Board Reauthorization Act increased STB membership to five, allowing a minority (two members) to discuss case issues under specific conditions. The provision was co-authored by Thune (then Commerce Committee chairperson) and senior committee Democrat Bill Nelson of Florida, with drafting by Fuchs, who then was a senior committee staff member.
Restoration of a five-person Board would enhance the ability of STB members to learn directly from peers their thought process and logic underpinning their concerns or likely vote. Such ability could be especially productive at the STB as, in this era of extreme political divide, there is remarkable collegiality among Republicans Fuchs and Schultz and Democrat Hedlund. Kloster has shown no inclination to upset that chemistry.
Although STB members—when their number is fewer than five—are still able to communicate second-hand through staff, the one-on-one process is considered most productive. In considering competition enhancing measures, there are complex ancillary issues such as the STB’s non-working rate reasonableness standards, including the Stand-Alone Cost (SAC) and Three-Benchmark processes, and application of a revenue adequacy constraint, all of which are ripe for merger-approval conditions. In many respects, the STB functions much as a multi-member judicial panel where collaboration among decision-makers improves decisional quality.
In this regard, the diversity of STB-member disciplines is noteworthy—Fuchs, with a Senate Commerce staff background; Schultz, an attorney with a small-business background and experience in commuter rail labor relations and lobbying; Hedlund, with a transportation consulting background; and Kloster, skilled in rail equipment supply.
Kloster is president and founder of rail equipment consultancy Integrity Rail Partners, Inc. He has an extensive career in rail fleet management as well as experience with Class I and short line railroads. He is an executive board member of the National Industrial Transportation League and sits on the board of the Railway Supply Institute. He earned an undergraduate degree in business from Northern Illinois University and a master’s in marketing from the University of Alabama.
Kloster told Railway Age in July 2025 that his strength is “considerable time” working with railroads and shippers. He had early employment with Chicago & North Western Railway (now part of Union Pacific)—beginning, he said, as a “car department apprentice” the same week in 1980 that President Carter signed into law the 1980 Staggers Rail Act.
If confirmed, Kloster will fill a seat vacated by former STB Chairperson and Democrat Martin J. Oberman, who retired in May 2024. With Republican POTUS 47’s inauguration in January 2025, the swing seat became available to a Republican.
Although Kloster and Schultz went before the Senate Commerce Committee together in November 2025, only Schultz was reported-out favorably. No vote was taken on Kloster, with sources saying it had to do with “paperwork delay.” Kloster’s still-open nomination was returned to the White House at the close of the first session of the 119th Congress in December. POTUS 47 nominated him a second time in January 2026. A second confirmation hearing was not held, and Commerce Committee Chairperson Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) scheduled the successful March 12 Commerce Committee vote.
The Commerce Committee on March 12 also favorably reported the nomination of Republican Michael Graham to a second term on the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). Earlier this year, the Senate confirmed to a first term on the NTSB Republican John DeLeeuw to replace Democrat Alvin Brown, who was fired by POTUS 47. Brown, as Primus, has challenged in court the legality of the firing. Should Brown prevail in court, there would be, theoretically, two people occupying the same NTSB seat.
Also fired by POTUS 47 at the five-member NTSB was Republican member Todd Inam, but his March 6 firing was, according to the White House, for cause, following allegations Inam was, as reported by Politico, guilty of “alcohol use at his job, harassment of staff and a host of other issues.” Inman denies the allegations. Currently serving on the NTSB are Democratic Chairperson Homendy, Republican Graham, Republican DeLeeuw (not yet sworn in) and Democrat John Chapman.
At the three-member National Mediation Board, Democrat Deirdre Hamilton is contesting in court her firing by POTUS 47, leaving that agency with one Republican (Loren E. Sweatt) and one Democrat (Linda Puchalla).
Railway Age Capitol Hill Contributing Editor Frank N. Wilner is author of “Railroads & Economic Regulation,” available from Simmons-Boardman Books, www.railwayeducationalbureau.com/product/ railroads-economic-regulation-an-insiders-account/, 800-228-9670.
