Sponsor
Randy Weber
Representative · R-TX
Representative · R-TX
Official title: To amend title 49, United States Code, to improve the safety of pipeline transportation, and for other purposes.
Introduced June 18, 2026 by Randy Weber · Last progress June 18, 2026
The bill increases funding, enforcement clarity, procedural protections, and operational predictability to boost pipeline and transportation safety and reliability, but it also shifts costs to industry/consumers, narrows some federal oversight, expands confidentiality and criminal liability risks, and may reduce regulatory flexibility—trading broader public oversight and some transparency for targeted funding and industry relief.
Pipeline operators, local governments, and nearby communities gain new, dedicated funding (approximately $90M annually across accounts) to support pipeline safety programs, inspections, underground storage safety, and grants, improving prevention and response capacity.
States, utilities, excavators, and homeowners benefit from adopting national one-call/locating best practices (marking, positive response, training), which should reduce underground-utility damages, service interruptions, emergency repairs, and improve worker safety.
Clearer, higher statutory penalties and updated penalty amounts for covered violations increase enforcement certainty and create stronger deterrents against safety violations, potentially improving public transportation and pipeline safety.
Rural communities, local governments, and taxpayers face increased safety and environmental risk because excluding short piping and certain rural gas‑gathering activities from federal coverage removes federal oversight and may leave gaps in leak detection, response, and enforcement.
Dedicating fee revenue and redirecting Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund dollars to specific program administration and grants raises costs for the pipeline industry (likely passed to consumers) and reduces the pool available exclusively for future oil‑spill cleanup or claims, limiting fiscal flexibility.
Broad confidentiality protections and FOIA exemptions for the voluntary information‑sharing system can withhold important safety data from public scrutiny and prohibit use of VIS data in civil or regulatory enforcement, reducing transparency and limiting evidence available to hold operators accountable.
Based on analysis of 11 sections of legislative text.
Strengthens pipeline safety law by updating penalties, adding procedural protections, creating a confidential data-sharing VIS, setting FY2027–2031 authorization levels, and requiring State one-call leading practices.
Updates and strengthens federal pipeline safety law by raising certain civil-penalty amounts, clarifying which piping is excluded from federal gathering-line rules, tightening language about benefits considered in program decisions, and lengthening procedural protections for respondents in enforcement cases. It creates new timelines and transparency requirements for special-permit (waiver) processing, expands the prohibited conduct for attacks on pipelines to include impairing operations, authorizes multi-year funding levels for pipeline safety and related grant programs for FY2027–2031, creates a confidential voluntary information-sharing system to collect and analyze safety data, and requires States to adopt specified "leading practices" for one-call (811) damage-prevention programs with federal reporting and grant-evaluation changes.