Amtrak is counting on Congress to keep the trains running.
Tucked into the budget package that President Clinton signed in August was $2.3 billion for the financially troubled railroad. But Amtrak, which could face bankruptcy next year, has yet to see a penny, because the funding is contingent upon the passage of separate legislation to overhaul its operations. While House and Senate Republican leaders this month listed the Amtrak reform bill as one of their top priorities for consideration before adjournment, it could fall victim to prickly labor issues.
The legislation--sponsored by former Rep. Susan Molinari, R-N.Y., and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, and approved by committees in both chambers this summer--would move Amtrak toward private ownership in 2002. Long-distance routes in unprofitable regions would be cut, and Amtrak management would be given more power to slash expenses.
But provisions designed to cut labor costs have raised the ire of unions that work with Amtrak. The unions, in turn, have pressured congressional Democrats and the White House to reject the reform bill. At the root of labor's concerns are provisions that would eliminate six years of guaranteed pay for railroad workers laid off as a result of route restructuring and that would allow some duties to be contracted out to private companies.
"It's just not right," said Leroy Jones, legislative director for the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers. "Many of the employees threatened by the elimination of labor protections came over from the private sector to try and make a national passenger railroad work. They made sacrifices." The Administration has expressed similar concerns in letters to Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., from Attorney General Janet Reno, Labor Secretary Alexis M. Herman and Transportation Department general counsel Nancy McFadden.
Ironically, virtually identical labor provisions won bipartisan praise when the House passed them, 406-4, last year as part of an Amtrak overhaul bill. This year, however, labor unions are exerting more pressure, which apparently has been effective so far. Only one Democrat, Rep. Gene Taylor of Mississippi, crossed party lines to vote for the House bill in committee.
NEXT STORY: Shutdown Avoided