Hotline #44-A - July 24, 1998

The House Rules Committee will consider the House's transportation appropriations bill on July 27. At that point, we will learn if there will be any anti-Amtrak amendments.  This message will be updated July 27 if there are. Since time would be short, don't wait to tell your Representative to oppose any anti-Amtrak amendment that might come up.  The bill is likely to be on the floor for general debate on July 28, and amendments could be debated on July 29.

This morning, the Senate passed its transportation appropriations bill on a vote of 90-1. Negotiations among interested Senators allowed the Senate to avoid Amtrak-related roll-call votes. Senator McCain (R.-Ariz.) accepted something Amtrak had agreed to support months ago -- a restriction against using appropriated funds for those labor costs attributable to the wage increases in the new labor contracts. Meanwhile, the subsidy disclosure requirement was extended to airline tickets and highway signs on the expectation that this would cause it to be dropped in conference with the House bill.

Today's Washington Post carries an opinion column about Amtrak by Anthony Haswell. This is available on the Post web site for two weeks.