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Senators oppose Amtrak outsourcing
WASHINGTON -- America's national railroad should not have its jobs outsourced to foreign countries, Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said on Thursday, (July 6).
Amtrak's senior management recently informed Byrd and Murray that the railroad's board of directors, all appointed by the Bush administration, will invite private vendors to take over major parts of its national reservation system, including vendors based overseas.
"After having to fight to keep Amtrak alive in the face of budgets that would have put the railroad into bankruptcy, now we are fighting to keep Amtrak's jobs here in the United States," the Senators explained. "Amtrak is America's railroad. It is funded in part with American tax dollars. Its jobs should be American jobs."
Byrd and Murray on Thursday (July 6) wrote to U.S. Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta and David M. Laney, chairman of the Amtrak Board of Directors, to protest the outsourcing plan and to urge the railroad to step away from its efforts to take jobs out of the United States. The letter was also sent to U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta along with the other members of the Amtrak board.
If the railroad does not reverse its plans, the senators pledged to offer an amendment to the Amtrak funding legislation that would block the overseas outsourcing plan.
Byrd is the leading Democratic member of the Senate Appropriations Committee; Murray is the leading Democratic member of the Senate Appropriations transportation subcommittee. Both will have a major role in moving the federal transportation funding bill, including operating funds for Amtrak, through the appropriations committee later this month.
"We believe it is wrong to use taxpayer dollars to ship Amtrak jobs overseas and put American workers on the unemployment line. This policy insults American taxpayers who expect their elected and appointed leaders to strengthen rather than erode the economic security of hard-working American families," the senators wrote to Mineta and Laney.
"Amtrak service relies on subsidies that are derived from the taxes paid by all Americans. As such, you and all the other members that President Bush has appointed to the Amtrak board have an obligation to expend these funds in a manner that reflects the values of American taxpayers. We believe that the vast majority of taxpayers would agree with us that it is wrong-headed and inappropriate to use their tax dollars to ship jobs overseas -- especially jobs necessary to operate our national passenger railroad," Byrd and Murray wrote.
(The preceding HuntingtonNews.net article was taken from a release issued by Sen. Robert C. Byrd and Sen. Patty Murray on Saturday, July 8, 2006.)
July 10, 2006
WASHINGTON -- America's national railroad should not have its jobs outsourced to foreign countries, Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said on Thursday, (July 6).
Amtrak's senior management recently informed Byrd and Murray that the railroad's board of directors, all appointed by the Bush administration, will invite private vendors to take over major parts of its national reservation system, including vendors based overseas.
"After having to fight to keep Amtrak alive in the face of budgets that would have put the railroad into bankruptcy, now we are fighting to keep Amtrak's jobs here in the United States," the Senators explained. "Amtrak is America's railroad. It is funded in part with American tax dollars. Its jobs should be American jobs."
Byrd and Murray on Thursday (July 6) wrote to U.S. Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta and David M. Laney, chairman of the Amtrak Board of Directors, to protest the outsourcing plan and to urge the railroad to step away from its efforts to take jobs out of the United States. The letter was also sent to U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta along with the other members of the Amtrak board.
If the railroad does not reverse its plans, the senators pledged to offer an amendment to the Amtrak funding legislation that would block the overseas outsourcing plan.
Byrd is the leading Democratic member of the Senate Appropriations Committee; Murray is the leading Democratic member of the Senate Appropriations transportation subcommittee. Both will have a major role in moving the federal transportation funding bill, including operating funds for Amtrak, through the appropriations committee later this month.
"We believe it is wrong to use taxpayer dollars to ship Amtrak jobs overseas and put American workers on the unemployment line. This policy insults American taxpayers who expect their elected and appointed leaders to strengthen rather than erode the economic security of hard-working American families," the senators wrote to Mineta and Laney.
"Amtrak service relies on subsidies that are derived from the taxes paid by all Americans. As such, you and all the other members that President Bush has appointed to the Amtrak board have an obligation to expend these funds in a manner that reflects the values of American taxpayers. We believe that the vast majority of taxpayers would agree with us that it is wrong-headed and inappropriate to use their tax dollars to ship jobs overseas -- especially jobs necessary to operate our national passenger railroad," Byrd and Murray wrote.
(The preceding HuntingtonNews.net article was taken from a release issued by Sen. Robert C. Byrd and Sen. Patty Murray on Saturday, July 8, 2006.)
July 10, 2006