SRC-SEW H.C.R. 210 77(R)   BILL ANALYSIS


Senate Research Center   H.C.R. 210
77R9223 ELG-DBy: Haggerty (Armbrister)
State Affairs
4/30/2001
Adopted


DIGEST

The Railroad Retirement and Survivors' Improvement Act of 2000 was approved
in a bipartisan effort by 391 members of the United States House of
Representatives in the 106th Congress, including 20 members from the Texas
delegation to the congress.  However, even though more than 80 United
States senators signed letters of support for this legislation in 2000, the
bill never came up for a vote in the full senate.  An identical bill
addressing railroad retirement reform is now before the 107th Congress to
modernize the financing of the railroad retirement system for its 748,000
beneficiaries nationwide, including more than 38,000 in Texas.  The act
provides tax relief to freight railroads, Amtrak, and commuter lines; it
also provides benefit improvements for surviving spouses of rail workers,
who currently suffer deep cuts in income when the rail retiree dies.
Railroad management and labor and retiree organizations have agreed to
support this legislation.  No outside contributions from taxpayers are
needed to implement the changes called for in this legislation as all costs
relating to the reforms will come from within the railroad industry,
including a full share by active employees. 

PURPOSE

As proposed, H.C.R. 210 submits the following resolutions:

Provides that the 77th Legislature of the State of Texas hereby
respectfully urges the Congress of the United States to enact the Railroad
Retirement and Survivors' Improvement Act of 2001. Provides that the Texas
secretary of state forward official copies of this resolution to the
president of the United States, to the speaker of the house of
representatives and the president of the senate of the United States
Congress, and to all the members of the Texas delegation to the congress
with the request that this resolution be officially entered in the
Congressional Record as a memorial to the Congress of the United States of
America.