The democratic member of the US Surface Transportation Board, which President Donald Trump released in front of the group, has ever filed a lawsuit that put his release as illegal.
Robert Primus, who had served on the board since 2001, said that the White House never gave him a reason for his release on August 27, which threatened the independence of the five -member StB. His termination occurred before the board got the chance to start the proposed takeover of Union Pacific from Union Pacific in the amount of 85 billion US dollars by Norfolk Southern to create the first real transcontinental railway.
“The supply chain of our country demands that the board is independent and transparent. The congress prescribed it 138 years ago,” said Primus. “Otherwise, the network is negatively influenced: railways, loaders and rail work, disturb the supply chain and ultimately bring instability to the economy of our country. This is dangerous and wrong and cannot be approved.”
The White House did not react immediately to the lawsuit submitted on Tuesday, but the press office runs with a reduced staff in the middle of the ongoing government final. At the time of dismissal, the only reason why he had offered publicly was with the statement: “Robert Primus did not decide with the first agenda of President American Agenda.”
But the defenders of Primus under the direction of Skye Perryman, the president and CEO of Democracy Forward, said this campaign ignores the way the StB has been set up. The congress found that the only reasons why someone should be released from the StB was in office in the event of inefficiency, neglect of duty or misconduct.
“President Trump is still aimed at members of independent board of directors without the congress of violating the law. The creation of the Surface Transportation Board that the agency should be independent and about politics,” said Perryman.
Trump has released a number of board members in various agencies that are said to be independent, including the Federal Reserve, the National Transportation Safety Board, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Primus said he always tried impartial and apolitically during his time on the board, which was to be continued by the end of 2027.
Every railway worker, the non -profit railway passengers and democratic congress members quickly condemned the discharge when it happened. The democratic Senator Tammy Baldwin said at the time when Primus was released that it looked like Trump tried to stack the board so that it would stamp the merger of the Union Pacific.
Since then, Trump has said that the merger sounds good for him after he was hit with the CEO of Union Pacific in the Oval Office last month.
Primus was the only member of the board to acquire the Kansas City Southern Railroad through the Canadian Pacific when he was approved two years ago because he was afraid that it would affect the competition, which was still taken for him a position in the UP-NS deal. Last year he was appointed CEO by former President Joe Biden and led the board to Trump after his election, Patrick Fuchs, the chairman of the Republican Board.
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This story was corrected in order not to show the date of the Fires of Primus on August 27th, not on August 28th.
