(The following report appeared at www.bletdc.org on December 20.)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. House of Representatives approved a $556 billion bill on Wednesday, December 19 to fund most of the federal government through September 2008. The voted ended a year-long budget fight with President George W. Bush by also including new money for the Iraq war. The House gave final congressional approval to the bill, which was passed by the Senate late on Tuesday. It now goes to President Bush for his expected approval.
The omnibus legislation included 11 of the 12 bills the U.S. Congress must handle every year to fund government programs, and included much needed funding for the National Mediation Board, Federal Railroad Administration, and Amtrak.
Federal Railroad Administration:
The amended bill provides $150,193,499 for safety and operations instead of $148,472,000 as proposed by the House and $151,186,000 as proposed by the Senate. The amended bill includes an increase of $892,500 above the budget request for inspector travel instead of $1,785,000 as proposed by the Senate. The House assumed the budget request. In addition, the amended bill includes an increase of $629,000 to expeditiously fill agency vacancies as proposed by the Senate.
Amtrak:
The amended bill provides a total of $1,325,000,000 for operations, capital improvements and debt service to Amtrak instead of $1,400,000,000 as proposed by the House and $1,370,000,000 as proposed by the Senate.
NMB:
The amended bill includes $12,911,000 for the National Mediation Board instead of $12,992,000 as proposed by both the House and Senate. Within the total for the National Mediation Board, $669,000 is included to supplement the budget request for arbitration. The original bill contained $750,000 for arbitration. These funds are provided for arbitrator salaries and should be used to address the backlog of section 3 arbitration cases. The House and Senate reports included similar language.
The BLET, along with the BMWED and the Teamsters, worked to ensure that additional funding for the backlog of NMB cases was secured.