Articles Tagged with ''Surface Transportation Board''

The Surface Transportation Board on Monday told four major railroads that their plans for improving shipping delays were inadequate and ordered the companies to provide key information the agency demanded in May.

U.S. corn wet mills that produce key ingredients for food are seeing their opportunity for growth and a chance to steal back market share from China stifled because of persistent railroad delays that have become the focus of intense criticism on Capitol Hill and the White House.

The Surface Transportation Board, looking to end rail delays that have snarled agricultural shippers, ordered four major railroads on Friday to  submit service recovery plans and to temporarily report biweekly on their progress in making improvements.

The UK sent its top agriculture official to the U.S. this week in an effort to lay the groundwork for an eventual trade agreement with the U.S.

Democrats struggling to deal with voter concerns about inflation are using a cattle markets reform bill to make the case that corporate CEOs are to blame for rising prices.

Agricultural shippers should not have to pay the price for increasingly unreliable railway service that is pushing American farmers and ranchers to the breaking point, Deputy Agriculture Secretary Jewel Bronaugh said Tuesday at an emergency hearing held by the Surface Transportation Board.

The Senate Agriculture Committee holds a long-awaited hearing this week on a bill to mandate more negotiated trading in the cattle markets, and then the panel launches its preparation for the next farm bill with a field hearing Friday in Michigan, the home state of Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow.

A coalition of farm and food industry groups is appealing to the Surface Transportation Board to take several steps that the organizations say could lower rail rates and ease shipping backlogs.

Major railroads are under attack by the ag industry, which says lack of personnel is hampering shipments and raising costs for companies forced to rely on secondary freight options.

One of the lead sponsors of a bill to reform cattle markets says the measure will get a hearing – and a vote – in the Senate Agriculture Committee in coming weeks.