Letters To Congress

As the Commerce Committee considers marking up the Port Performance Act (S. 1298), I urge you to remove or significantly modify language in the bill (currently Section 4) that would improperly mandate the federal collection of port performance data leading up to and during maritime labor negotiations. This language would misuse statistics to tilt the balance against port workers in collective bargaining disputes and undermine the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) by needlessly politicizing the agency’s data collection process. If this language is not removed or modified, we will strongly oppose the bill and urge Commerce Committee members to vote against it during the markup.

Dear Representative: On behalf of the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO, I urge you to vote NO on the amendment offered by Rep. Meehan to the FY16 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Act. The Meehan amendment would put unreasonable constraints on Amtrak’s ability to operate a national passenger rail system. This amendment would effectively prevent […]

Dear Representative: As the House continues consideration of the FY16 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Act, we urge you to stand with labor in support of a safe, efficient transportation system by taking the following votes:  Vote NO on the two amendments offered by Rep. Sessions (TX-32). The first amendment would eliminate the Sunset […]

Dear Representative: As the House considers the 2015 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Act, we urge you to support transportation workers and U.S. competitiveness by taking the following votes on amendments:  Vote NO on the two amendments offered by Rep. Mo Brooks (AL-5), which would eliminate Amtrak’s operating and capital funding. The demand for […]

Dear Representative: On behalf of the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO (TTD), I write to express support for the Highway and Transportation Funding Act of2015 (H.R. 2353), which would provide a short-term extension for our federal highway and transit funding programs. When it became clear that Congress, 10 months removed from the last extension, would be […]

Vote YES on H.R. 749 – the Passenger Rail Reform and Investment Act of 2015 Vote NO on the McClintock Amendment to Defund and Bankrupt Amtrak   March 3, 2015 Dear Representative: On behalf of the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO (TTD), I urge you to support H.R. 749 – the Passenger Rail Reform and Investment […]

This important legislation funds and sustains a key component of our national transportation system, and we commend Chairman Shuster, Ranking Member DeFazio, Subcommittee Chairman Denham and Subcommittee Ranking Member Capuano for their leadership in crafting this bipartisan, compromise legislation. We also ask that you oppose any amendments that would compromise the integrity of the national passenger rail network, or that undermines the bipartisan compromise reached in this bill.

On behalf of the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO (TTD), I urge you to oppose an amendment filed by Senator John McCain to S.1, the Keystone XL Pipeline Act. This ideologically driven amendment, which seeks to repeal components of the Jones Act, would outsource American jobs; jeopardize our domestic shipping industry; undermine our nation’s economic, national and homeland security and has no place during a debate over energy policy.

On behalf of hundreds of thousands U.S. aviation workers, we ask that you include the House-passed Westmoreland-DeFazio amendment language in any year-end appropriations measure.  This provision, included in the FY 2015 Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development (THUD), simply requires the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) to ensure that the U.S.-EU Open Skies Agreement is implemented in full accordance with U.S. law and terms and conditions of the agreement.  An identical amendment was also introduced by Senators Klobuchar (D-MN), Blunt (R-MO), Schatz (D-HI) and Moran (R-KS) and other Senators prior to consideration of the Senate FY 2015 THUD bill.

On behalf of the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO (TTD), I urge your support for the Passenger Rail Reform and Investment Act of 2014 (PRRIA) when it is considered by the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee later this week. This important legislation funds and sustains a key component of our national transportation system, and we commend Chairman Shuster, Ranking Member Rahall, Subcommittee Chairman Denham and Subcommittee Ranking Member Brown for their leadership in crafting this bipartisan, compromise legislation.