The Senate had a vote called a “sense of the Senate” resolution on whether or not 1.4 billion should be added to the President’s budget to preserve a National Railroad Passenger system (Amtrak).  A “sense of the Senate” is not a law but it is more of a resolution that gives everyone an idea of how the Senate would react to a real amendment to the budget.

The resolution lost by two votes and it is the sense of the Senate that a National Railroad Passenger system should not be funded.  Below is a pdf file on how each Senator voted.  This is not good news.

A conference call was held with President Simpson and National Legislative Director Gates,  Amtrak General Chairmen and some of the Division Vice Presidents.  This is what has been learned:

                         Dan Gates is the BMWE Division representative to the Amtrak task force formed from the TTD.

                         The TTD Amtrak task force consists of 16 Unions and they have broken down each Congressional district by number of Amtrak passengers in their      district and are beginning to break down how many union members are in this district.  We have this information for the BMWED but the other some of the other Unions are just working on it now.

                         It is the desire of the Amtrak task force to target the Congressional representatives when they are home for the Easter recess. 

                       President Simpson has appointed Vice President Henry Wise to coordinate the lobbying effort for the  Eastern half of the US activity and Vice President Rick Wherli to coordinate this effort for the Western half of the US activity.  National Legislative Director Gates said that they will activate Legislative Reps “as needed.”