Files
republic-os/legal/us/code/title-49/chapter-201/section-20104.md
T
Fabio 76b8ec33a7 Legal corpus: the complete U.S. Code (59,740 sections, all 53 titles)
Ingested titles 12–51 and 54 from OLRC USLM XML @119-100 (the whole Code
now, uniform edition; Title 53 is reserved/empty). LegalText 11,221 ->
59,740; repo total 105,704 records. Deterministic (byte-identical rerun,
verified on Title 42's 8,356 sections); make check green. make
legal-us-code default now covers every title.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-06 10:51:44 -04:00

4.7 KiB
Raw Blame History

type, title, description, jurisdiction, corpus, kind, title_number, title_name, chapter_number, chapter_name, section, citation, status, release_point, release_date, source, source_url, source_identifier, source_file, source_hash, raw_snapshot_hash, text_hash, retrieved_at, confidence, tags
type title description jurisdiction corpus kind title_number title_name chapter_number chapter_name section citation status release_point release_date source source_url source_identifier source_file source_hash raw_snapshot_hash text_hash retrieved_at confidence tags
LegalText 49 U.S.C. § 20104 Emergency authority us united_states_code code_section 49 TRANSPORTATION 201 GENERAL 20104 49 U.S.C. § 20104 current 119-100 2026-06-26 official https://uscode.house.gov/download/releasepoints/us/pl/119/100/xml_usc49@119-100.zip /us/usc/t49/s20104 data/legal/raw/us/code/title-49/usc49.xml 1c1d1723b577758d19a95d8564bd17ed045bab8f9ce1ea4eb1f009344a4833c5 0786acdd244d8f42c5a8e8ed1ec2a8dcb47dd0e02a286752710a20745702a4fb f6babec263b762ff0955b46b19871ca3bae61781fd946dfd48293d71d1266b0c 2026-07-04 official
legal
us-code

49 U.S.C. § 20104 - Emergency authority

Text

(a) Ordering Restrictions and Prohibitions.— (1) If, through testing, inspection, investigation, or research carried out under this chapter, the Secretary of Transportation decides that an unsafe condition or practice, or a combination of unsafe conditions and practices, causes an emergency situation involving a hazard of death, personal injury, or significant harm to the environment, the Secretary immediately may order restrictions and prohibitions, without regard to section 20103(e) of this title, that may be necessary to abate the situation.

(2) The order shall describe the condition or practice, or a combination of conditions and practices, that causes the emergency situation and prescribe standards and procedures for obtaining relief from the order. This paragraph does not affect the Secretarys discretion under this section to maintain the order in effect for as long as the emergency situation exists.

(b) Review of Orders.— After issuing an order under this section, the Secretary shall provide an opportunity for review of the order under section 554 of title 5. If a petition for review is filed and the review is not completed by the end of the 30-day period beginning on the date the order was issued, the order stops being effective at the end of that period unless the Secretary decides in writing that the emergency situation still exists.

(c) Civil Actions To Compel Issuance of Orders.— An employee of a railroad carrier engaged in interstate or foreign commerce who may be exposed to imminent physical injury during that employment because of the Secretarys failure, without any reasonable basis, to issue an order under subsection (a) of this section, or the employees authorized representative, may bring a civil action against the Secretary in a district court of the United States to compel the Secretary to issue an order. The action must be brought in the judicial district in which the emergency situation is alleged to exist, in which that employing carrier has its principal executive office, or for the District of Columbia. The Secretarys failure to issue an order under subsection (a) of this section may be reviewed only under section 706 of title 5.

(Pub. L. 103272, § 1(e), July 5, 1994, 108 Stat. 864; Pub. L. 110432, div. A, title III, § 304, Oct. 16, 2008, 122 Stat. 4879.)

Notes

Historical and Revision Notes RevisedSectionSource (U.S. Code)Source (Statutes at Large) 20104(a)45:432(a), (d).Oct. 16, 1970, Pub. L. 91458, § 203, 84 Stat. 972; restated Oct. 10, 1980, Pub. L. 96423, § 3, 94 Stat. 1811. 20104(b)45:432(b), (c). 20104(c)45:432(e). In subsection (a)(1), the words “or both” are omitted as surplus. The words “immediately may order restrictions and prohibitions . . . that may be necessary to abate the situation” are substituted for “may immediately issue an order . . . imposing such restrictions or prohibitions as may be necessary to bring about the abatement of such emergency situation” to eliminate unnecessary words. In subsection (a)(2), the words “or a combination of conditions and practices” are added for consistency with paragraph (1). The words “(as determined by the Secretary)” are omitted as surplus. The last sentence is substituted for 45:432(d) (last sentence) for clarity. In subsection (b), the words “the Secretary” are added for clarity. In subsection (c), the words “issue an order” are substituted for “seek relief” for consistency in this section. The words “The action must be brought in the judicial district” are substituted for “for the judicial district” for consistency in the revised title.

Editorial Notes

Amendments2008—Subsec. (a)(1). Pub. L. 110432 substituted “death, personal injury, or significant harm to the environment” for “death or personal injury”.