Skip to main content
H.R. 8012 119th Congress House

HOWIE Act

Official title: To require the Secretary of Transportation to issue regulations requiring a rail carrier to report certain damage if such carrier has a reasonable suspicion th… Show full official titleShow less

Official title: To require the Secretary of Transportation to issue regulations requiring a rail carrier to report certain damage if such carrier has a reasonable suspicion that an action carried out by the carrier caused such damage.

Introduced: March 19, 2026 Introduced by: Michael Lawler Republican · New York See on congress.gov
Transportation and Public Works
Sign in to write a letter Sign in to watch
 Everywhere this bill has been 3 steps
Introduced
In committee
Reported out
Passed House
Passed Senate
To President
Became law
Mar 20, 2026
Referred to the Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials.
Mar 19, 2026
Referred to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.
Mar 19, 2026
Introduced in House
 Ask about this bill AI · grounded in the bill text

Have a question about what this bill does? Ask in plain English; the answer is drawn from the bill's actual text and official record, and it'll tell you when something isn't in the text rather than guess.

AI answers can be imperfect; always confirm against the full bill text.

What's happening now March 20, 2026

Referred to the Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials.

 Plain-English summary Congressional Research Service

Helping Oversee and Ward off Infrastructure Emergencies Act or the HOWIE Act

This bill directs the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) to revise current railroad accident reporting requirements to include additional causes of damage. Specifically, FRA must require a railroad to report a train accident that results in damage if the railroad has a reasonable suspicion that an action carried out by the railroad caused the damage. An accident includes any incident that causes a fire, including a brush fire, alongside a railroad track.

 Bill text 1 version

Source documents hosted by congress.gov.

 Committees of jurisdiction 2
 Lobbying activity 4

Registered lobbyists who named this bill in their disclosure filings. Source: federal Lobbying Disclosure Act filings.

  • BNSF RAILWAY COMPANY
    for BNSF RAILWAY COMPANY · District of Columbia · 3rd Quarter 2026 (July 1 - Sep 30)
  • CSX CORPORATION
    for CSX CORPORATION · District of Columbia · 2nd Quarter 2026 (Apr 1 - June 30)
  • BNSF RAILWAY COMPANY
    for BNSF RAILWAY COMPANY · District of Columbia · 2nd Quarter 2026 (Apr 1 - June 30)
  • BNSF RAILWAY COMPANY
    for BNSF RAILWAY COMPANY · District of Columbia · 1st Quarter 2026 (Jan 1 - Mar 31)

Bodies those filers lobbied

A filing lists the bills it worked on and the parts of government it contacted in separate sections, so these are the bodies those filers named anywhere in the filing, not a per-bill breakdown.

Cite this page click to expand
APA
U.S. Congress. (2026). H.R. 8012: HOWIE Act. 119th Congress. Open America. https://openamerica.io/bill/119-HR-8012/
MLA
"H.R. 8012: HOWIE Act." 119th Congress, 2026, Open America, https://openamerica.io/bill/119-HR-8012/.
Bluebook (legal)
H.R. 8012, 119th Cong. (2026), https://openamerica.io/bill/119-HR-8012/.
Markdown link
[H.R. 8012: HOWIE Act](https://openamerica.io/bill/119-HR-8012/)
Report a problem