Editing Surface Transportation Board (section)

===Office of Proceedings===

The Office of Proceedings (OP) is primarily responsible for developing the public record in formal cases (or proceedings) filed with the STB, making recommendations regarding the resolution of issues presented in those cases, and preparing the decisions issued by the Board.

The Office of Proceedings is a legal office consisting almost entirely of attorneys and paralegal specialists responsible for the majority of the cases at the STB. The office applies the [[Interstate Commerce Act]], as amended by the [[ICC Termination Act of 1995]], as well as the Board's regulations.<ref>STB regulations are found in Title 49, parts 1000 to 1332 of the [[Code of Federal Regulations]]. ({{cite web |url=http://www.gpoaccess.gov/cfr/index.html |title=Code of Federal Regulations: Main Page |access-date=2004-05-07 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040420200113/http://www.gpoaccess.gov/CFR/index.html |archive-date=2004-04-20 }}).</ref> In carrying out its responsibilities, the Office of Proceedings obtains and applies any necessary input from economic, financial, operational, environmental, and other legal staff experts throughout the agency.

The Office of Proceedings includes a clearance unit responsible for tabulating votes on STB cases and recording the official outcome of those votes and a recordations unit that enters data about a filing's primary and secondary documents into the STB Recordations database, which is accessible to the public on the STB web site.