(WASHINGTON) – Following the Senate’s passage of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2025 (NDAA), the Teamsters, and our affiliated railroad unions, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) and the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes (BMWED), celebrate the inclusion of the Railroad Employee Equity and Fairness (REEF) Act within the bill.

Unlike most private sector workers, railroaders receive unemployment and sickness benefits through the Railroad Retirement Board under the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act. Regrettably, these benefits have been subject to Congressional budget sequestration for years. This has meant that rail workers lose a percentage of their earned benefits – 5.7% this year – which are instead returned to the federal government instead of put in the hands of railroaders in need.

“The passage of the REEF Act is a long time coming. Too long, to be honest. But finally, we have lifted this unfair deduction off our deserved unemployment and sick benefits,” BMWED President Tony D. Cardwell said. “Under the guise of austerity and sequestration, politicians targeted our fully funded federal benefits, raiding tens of millions of dollars from those railroaders who needed it most. But Rail Labor never quit fighting, continually taking our cause to Capitol Hill to push for the removal of this improper deduction, leaning on lawmakers from both parties to get this unjust situation rectified. Today’s decision is the result of that work and the BMWED is thankful that the REEF Act is finally the law.”

“It is unconscionable that the most vulnerable rail workers, those who lose their job or are unable to work due to illness or injury, have spent over a decade watching their benefits be stolen from them when they were needed most” said Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien. “The inclusion of the REEF Act in the NDAA marks an end to a terrible injustice against our railroad brothers and sisters. We celebrate this historic victory today and will fight to ensure that Teamsters railroaders are never unfairly targeted again”. 

The REEF Act was included in the NDAA following an aggressive lobbying campaign led by the Teamsters and the Rail Conference, in close coordination with the bill sponsors. To that end, the Teamsters enthusiastically thank Senators Fischer (R-NE), Klobuchar (D-MN) and Brown (D-OH), and Representatives Schakowsky (D-IL), Fitzpatrick (R-PA), Larsen (D-WA) , Bacon (R-NE), Garcia (D-IL) and Stauber (R-MN) for their tireless efforts in working to finally enact the REEF Act, as well as the nearly 100 additional bipartisan cosponsors between both chambers. We look forward to the bill’s imminent enactment.