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Title 49 — Transportation

Part A · Chapter 203 — Safety Appliances

§ 20306. Exemption for technological improvements

Statutory text

(a)

General.—

Subject to subsection (b) of this section, the Secretary of Transportation may exempt from the requirements of this chapter railroad equipment or equipment that will be operated on rails, when those requirements preclude the development or implementation of more efficient railroad transportation equipment or other transportation innovations under existing law.

(b)

Conditions for Exemption.—

The Secretary may grant an exemption under subsection (a) of this section only on the basis of—

(1)

findings based on evidence developed at a hearing; or

(2)

an agreement between national railroad labor representatives and the developer of the new equipment or technology.

Legislative history

Reconstructed from this section’s Code source credit and amendment notes, resolved against the local Statutes at Large. Editorial notes are evidence, not the law that made the change.

  1. Pub. L. 103–272 § 1(e) · 108 Stat. 745

    Enacted · 49 U.S.C. § 20306

    (Pub. L. 103–272, § 1(e), July 5, 1994, 108 Stat. 883.)

    Source evidence

    Code source credit
    (Pub. L. 103–272, § 1(e), July 5, 1994, 108 Stat. 883.)

    Enacted provision · exact public law section
    Section 1. subtitles ii, ii, and v-x of title 49, united states code (a) Certain general and permanent laws of the 49 USC prec. 101 note. United States, related to transportation, are revised, codified, and enacted by subsections (c)–(e) of this section without substantive change as subtitles II, III, and V–X of title 49, United States Code, “Transportation”. Those laws may be cited as “49 U.S.C. ________”. (b) Title 49, United States Code, is amended by striking the table of subtitles at the beginning of the title and substituting the following new table of subtitles: “Subtitle “I. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION “II. OTHER GOVERNMENT AGENCIES “III. GENERAL AND INTERMODAL PROGRAMS “IV. INTERSTATE COMMERCE “V. RAIL PROGRAMS “VI. MOTOR VEHICLE AND DRIVER PROGRAMS “VII. AVIATION PROGRAMS “VIII. PIPELINES “IX. COMMERCIAL SPACE TRANSPORTATION “X. MISCELLANEOUS (c) Title 49, United States Code, is amended by striking subtitle II, except that chapter 31 (comprising sections 3101–3104) of subtitle II is redesignated and restated as chapter 315 (comprising sections 31501–31504) of subtitle VI of title 49, as enacted by subsection (e) of this section. (d) Title 49, United States Code, is amended by adding the following immediately after subtitle I:

1 of 1 references resolved to an enrolled provision

Notes

historicalAndRevision
Historical and Revision Notes
RevisedSectionSource (U.S. Code)Source (Statutes at Large)
2030645:1013.May 30, 1980, Pub. L. 96–254, § 117, 94 Stat. 406.

In subsection (a), the words “Notwithstanding any other provision of law” and “the mandatory requirements of” are omitted as surplus. The words “existing law” are substituted for “the existing statutes” for consistency in the revised title.

In subsection (b), the words before clause (1) are added because of the restatement. Clause (1) is substituted for “after a hearing and consistent with findings based upon evidence developed therein” to eliminate unnecessary words. In clause (2), the words “an agreement” are substituted for “expressions of agreement” to eliminate unnecessary words.

Credits

(Pub. L. 103–272, § 1(e), , 108 Stat. 883.)

Parsed from the official OLRC USLM XML in data/usc_all/usc49.xml · release point 119-108 · OLRC build 2026-05-04

USLM identifier /us/usc/t49/s20306