yarrow said:
Amtrak may get more federal cash
July 18, 2006 11:43 AM PDT
The nation's railroad is getting more federal money. Legislation on its way to the Senate would increase Amtrak's federal subsidy by eight percent.
The railroad would get nearly $1.5 billion dollars for the budget year beginning October 1st.
This year Amtrak was given a $1.3 billion dollar subsidy, but the White House proposed cutting that figure to $900 million. For the next fiscal year Amtrak was asking for $1.6 billion.
Amtrak has many supporters on Capitol Hill.
Besides the heavily traveled Washington to Boston route, Amtrak runs trains through almost every state, including the Empire Builder across the Montana Hi-Line.
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved
Labor ko's Bond; $ voted for Amtrak
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.) wanted to sell the children to pay the rent, but appalled fellow Republicans on the Senate transportation appropriations subcommittee couldn’t stomach such treatment of loyal Amtrak employees.
So instead of tying Amtrak’s fiscal year 2007 funding to a gutting of Amtrak’s labor contracts, subcommittee Republicans and Democrats voted $1.4 billion for Amtrak without any draconian legislative tinkering with the national passenger railroad’s collective bargaining agreements.
Following union-member telephone calls and e-mails to the subcommittee’s Republicans – many of them from UTU members and retirees -- Republicans agreed to turn their backs on Bond’s unprecedented anti-union legislative language, which would have bypassed the collective bargaining process and arbitrarily eliminated all work rules, all restrictions on contracting out and all Amtrak assistant conductors.
“This was labor solidarity at its best,” said UTU International President Paul Thompson. “All of rail labor was involved in this effort to generate telephone calls and e-mails and knock on Republican doors in the Senate to isolate the anti-union Sen. Bond. Anti-union forces sought to sneak the Bond legislative language into the bill in misguided hopes rail labor would be napping or unable to mobilize quickly enough,” Thompson said. "We were waiting and ready."
It was a sweet ending to a turbulent day. In the end, the Senate subcommittee agreed to boost Amtrak’s fiscal year 2007 funding above the $1.1 billion level previously approved by the entire House of Representatives. The Senate subcommittee decision to fund Amtrak at $1.4 billion next year still must survive a full Senate Appropriations Committee vote and also must go before the full Senate.
However, the House’s decision to fund Amtrak at $1.1 billion next year – a figure Amtrak says would keep the railroad operating – appears to establish a floor. A higher Senate funding bill would result in a House-Senate conference to determine the final figure.
Amtrak’s fiscal 2006 budget, under which it is currently operating, is $1.3 billion. “The Bush administration has sought repeatedly to gut Amtrak’s budget, but cannot find any meaningful support on Capitol Hill,” Thompson said.
July 18, 2006
