Should anyone wish to give some last-minute help to those of us who trod the frozen midnight ballast, the bill to modernize and improve Railroad Retirement may be voted on in the Senate sometime after 5pm tonight.

S-697 will return the retirement age to the pre-Reagan Administration age of 60, will provide widows and widowers of rail employees better benefits, lower the vesting age and have other positive aspects.

Best of all, it is a self-financing bill, with no additional costs to taxpayers, the improvements being financed by a small amount of private investment of Tier II funds and additional taxes on rail employers. Both rail labor and management support the bill, as it will have positive effects for both.

The main opponents are Senators Gramm of Texas, Nickles of Oklahoma and Domenici of New Mexico. Their arguments against the bill are not valid, and it is apparent they have alterior motives for derailing the legislation. They are attempting to add non-related amendments to kill it.

If you care to help, please contact your senator ASAP. A great majority of both House and Senate members support the legislation, and a list of co-sponsors can be found on the UTU, TCU and TWU websites.

Real railroading is still a tough, dangerous business that leaves workers old before their time, thus we feel the legislation is fully justified.

For those who don't know, Railroad Retirement is a federal program that pre-dates Social Security. Despite drastic reductions in rail employment, the fund remains solvent, due to combined per-individual employer/employee contributions that are double that of Social Security.

bobyar2001@yahoo.com

The railroad retirement reform bill passed in the U.S. Senate by a 90-9 vote. See the News Wire dated Wednesday, 05 Dec 2001 at the Trains.com web site. Link is below.

Trains.com
kalbran1@NOSPAMsan.rr.com