President Donald Trump has fired one of two Democratic members of the U.S. Surface Transportation Board to break a 2-2 tie before the body considers the largest railroad merger ever proposed.

Board member Robert Primus said on LinkedIn that he received an email from the White House Wednesday night terminating the position he has held since he was appointed by Trump in his first term. The vacancy would allow Trump to appoint two additional Republicans to the board before its decision on the Union Pacific-Norfolk Southern merger though the Senate would have to confirm them.

This follows Trump’s previous firings of board members at the National Transportation Safety Board, Federal Reserve, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which are all supposed to b

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