Your weekly source of fresh takes on news affecting America's passengers. See also the NARP Blog.
July 10, 1992
The full House last night approved the 1993 DOT appropriations bill, H.R.5518, 306-74. There was a long debate, mainly over an amendment by Rep. David Obey (D.-Wis.). That was a variation of last March's bill to break down the "firewall" between domestic and other spending, as set up by the 1990 budget agreement. This time, the proposal was to take $2.6 billion in spending authority from foreign...
July 3, 1992
The full House Appropriations Committee approved this week the fiscal 1993 DOT appropriations bill. It has the subcommittee-passed Amtrak numbers, including just $74 million for capital -- 58% below this year's capital grant of $175 million, which was the House-passed number then, and 75% below Amtrak's 1993 request of $300 million. This is alarming. The number could become a baseline for future y...
June 26, 1992
Late last night Congress sent a bill to the White House that President Bush will sign. It sets the railroads running again, provides for a 38-day cooling-off period, and then baseball-style arbitration that means that arbitrators mush choose one side's offer or the other rather than come down in the middle. This is to encourage parties to make reasonable offers. Yesterday afternoon, the House Ene...
June 26, 1992
The Machinists strike against CSX and the national rail lock-out are now over. Congress passed H.J.R.517 ending the strike at midnight and the President signed it very early this morning. The House vote was 248-140 and the Senate vote was 87-6. By a vote of 18-76, the Senate tabled an amendment by Sen. Paul Wellstone (D.-Minn.) to remove the arbitration sections of the bill. That simply would have...
June 25, 1992
It seems unlikely that Amtrak will be struck tonight as a union spokesman had previously hinted. Amtrak's Night Owl will run tonight. Negotiations continue and the events on Capitol Hill make it politically unwise for labor to start a new strike tonight. Amtrak continues to run its Northeast Corridor and Chicago-Milwaukee services, the latter because Soo Line is one of the few railroads still oper...