Sponsors (2)
The bill clarifies who counts as a yardmaster, which should improve enforcement and rights for those clearly covered but risks excluding similar workers and prompting short-term legal disputes over the new definition.
Yardmaster employees gain an explicit statutory definition, making it clearer who is covered and reducing ambiguity for employers and agencies in enforcement and compliance.
Yardmaster employees see workplace rights and protections become easier to apply and enforce because a clearer statutory definition helps courts and regulators identify who is covered.
Some rail workers who perform similar duties could lose statutory protections if the new definition is narrower than prior interpretations.
Rail workers and railroads may face short-term legal uncertainty and increased litigation as courts interpret the amended statutory language.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Adds a statutory definition of "yardmaster employee" and updates chapter 211 wording and the chapter table so yardmasters are explicitly covered by that chapter's text.
Introduced June 24, 2025 by Salud Carbajal · Last progress June 24, 2025
Adds a short title and changes federal railroad law to define and explicitly cover "yardmaster employees" in chapter 211 of title 49. The bill inserts a statutory definition for yardmaster employees (those who supervise and coordinate trains and engines inside a rail yard), updates related wording throughout the chapter, and revises the chapter table of sections to reflect the change. The change is primarily definitional and editorial: it clarifies who counts as a yardmaster under chapter 211 and updates cross-references and headings so that existing protections, duties, or regulatory language in that chapter expressly apply to yardmaster employees.