Long before President Trump signed his executive order calling on regulatory agencies to identify “outdated, unnecessary, or ineffective” regulations that “inhibit job creation,” one small government agency was already hard at work doing just that.

The Surface Transportation Board (STB) has broad economic oversight of the nation’s freight railroads. Because of the unique structure of our nation’s freight rail network and concentration of market power by a handful of railroads, the STB serves an indispensable role in addressing problems with rates and service where no effective rail-to-rail competition exists. In 2016, the board issued a proposal to revise outdated regulations that have effectively blocked farms and factories across the country for more than three decades from accessing competitive freight rail service. The STB’s proposal would cut bureaucratic red tape and provide market choices to rail customers that currently have no competitive transportation options.