Hotline #8 - November 14, 1997

There is reason to celebrate, as yesterday afternoon, the House passed an amended version of S.738, the Amtrak reauthorization bill passed by the Senate on November 7. Later in the evening, just before final adjournment, the Senate approved the House's modification, sending the bill to the President for signature. The Administration says the bill will be signed into law.

This is a good outcome to what has been a harrowing legislative process. House and Senate leaders rarely wavered from their belief that passenger trains are important, but got sidetracked on partisan issues -- labor protection, liability, and the composition of the Amtrak board. Now, Amtrak will get its capital funding, will avoid a near-term financial crisis, and can use its new capital resources to build itself into a much more financially secure company.

The measure approved yesterday on a voice vote in the House makes changes to the Amtrak board, reducing it from nine to seven voting members, with a term of five years. The bill says they must have "technical qualification, professional standing, and demonstrated expertise in the fields of transportation or corporate or financial management." President Clinton must nominate six board members in consultation with the Senate and House leaders, Senators Lott and Daschle and Representatives Gingrich and Gephardt. All need Senate confirmation, except if Clinton reappoints Transportation Secretary Slater. The President of Amtrak will serve on the board as a non-voting member. If four members are not seated by July 1, the bill's funding authorization would cease to be effective, giving appropriators another reason to underfund Amtrak.

Senate language for an 11-member Amtrak Reform Council was retained. That council will advise in two years whether Amtrak's business plan is working, or whether Congress ought to shut down Amtrak.

The President must make sound board and Reform Council appointments. We cannot afford another debacle like this year's House Blue Ribbon panel.

Our thanks go to everyone who worked hard this year calling Washington, passing out thousands of leaflets to passengers, and writing letters-to-the-editor. These actions truly have helped to keep passenger train service in the U.S. alive and to create a solid base on which to build a better Amtrak.

The House and Senate this week both gave final approval to a six-month extension to the current ISTEA law. The bill has only three months' funding because Senator Lott is anxious to keep pressure on to pass a six-year bill early next year. With Amtrak's reauthorization out of the way, we can work on getting into ISTEA the Amtrak half cent we did not get this year, and flexibility for states to spend some of their federal transportation money on passenger trains.

Amtrak has taken action to solve a drinking-water problem at its Miami terminal. After Amtrak's testing laboratory detected coliform bacteria in the water tanks of 17 passenger cars, and after consulting with the EPA, Amtrak changed its water hoses and flushed out with sanitizing solution the tanks of all cars that had visited Miami in the last month. No illnesses were reported.

Construction will begin on a station for the Sunset Limited at Maricopa, Ariz., this month. While the new station will be more convenient for Phoenix-area passengers, there is some concern that the new station could make it more difficult politically to move the Sunset route back through Phoenix. The station should open by March.