Rockefeller’s Must-See TV

To get the unvarnished view of a top Senate committee chairman venting his frustration, to see how serious he is in threatening a long-running fight to toughen rail regulations, you might need to see the replay of Sen. Jay Rockefeller's Sept. 15 performance in a Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee hearing on national rail policy.

Be warned: It's long, with an extended intermission. If pressed for time, you can catch some highlights in his opening remarks and the hearing's last 15 minutes. That would be enough to show you how passionate the West Virginia Democrat is about his rail reform bill, though you'd miss lots of meaty stuff throughout.

While he blasted railroads for lack of cooperation on his legislation, Rockefeller also said "I love railroads. I mean, they're wonderful, and they are efficient and they are cleaner. But they also have to be fair to everybody . . . all the rest of it is just window dressing unless they are fair to captive shippers."

His committee released a hard-hitting staff report shortly before the hearing that accused railroads of trying to poor-mouth a solidly profitable industry to win advantage with regulators. The rail industry rejects those assertions, but Rockefeller said he found the results "shocking" and "revealing" and wanted to use stronger language.

Rockefeller did not hold back much. He said he thinks some rail executives are trying to run out the clock "because they may do better in the next elections" and are hoping that "maybe Jay isn't going to be chairman," so they can outlast his bill. "But it's not going to work out that way in the Senate," he predicted.

He talked of railroads having shown "ownership" of federal agencies that were supposed to regulate rail-shipper relations in the years since railroads were largely deregulated by the 1980 Staggers Act. He told Surface Transportation Board Chairman Daniel R. Elliott that some of Elliott's predecessors "were working for the railroads" while they were regulators.

Even in his own show, not everything went his way. Some committee members cautioned the chairman about pursuing legislation that could hurt railroads financially, and one chided him for not sending out the staff report until about two hours before the hearing. Rockefeller also conceded he may not get his bill through the Senate this year, but vowed to keep at it anyway.

Ever since he reached the Senate in 1985, rail regulatory reform has been Rockefeller's goal, and he thought that as chairman since the start of 2009 he could get it done. Only half joking, he told Elliott that "I've finally gotten to be chairman after 127 years, and by golly I'm going to solve this problem, if it's the last thing I do on earth."

-- Contact John D. Boyd at jboyd@joc.com.