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6/2/2025
The Surface Transportation Board late last week issued a decision removing the agency’s Final Offer Rate Review (FORR) rule.
The board's deregulatory action follows a unanimous decision by the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals vacating the rule, which the STB initially adopted in December 2022 in a 3-to-2 decision, with then-board member and current Chairman Patrick Fuchs and board member Michelle Schultz dissenting.
The court found that the board lacked the statutory authority to prescribe rates through FORR and that FORR ran afoul of certain requirements for formal adjudications under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), STB officials said in a press release.
On Nov. 4, 2024, the board petitioned for a panel rehearing and a rehearing "en banc," challenging only the court’s finding that the FORR process was subject to the APA’s requirements for formal adjudications. The petition did not challenge the court’s finding that the board lacked the statutory authority to implement FORR.
The board's petition for rehearing was denied, and the board declined to appeal. To review the board's decision on the FORR rule, click here.