1-1 By: Haggerty (Senate Sponsor - Armbrister) H.C.R. No. 210 1-2 (In the Senate - Received from the House April 23, 2001; 1-3 April 24, 2001, read first time and referred to Committee on State 1-4 Affairs; May 7, 2001, reported favorably by the following vote: 1-5 Yeas 7, Nays 0; May 7, 2001, sent to printer.) 1-6 HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 1-7 WHEREAS, The Railroad Retirement and Survivors' Improvement 1-8 Act of 2000 was approved in a bipartisan effort by 391 members of 1-9 the United States House of Representatives in the 106th Congress, 1-10 including 20 members from the Texas delegation to the congress; and 1-11 WHEREAS, Even though more than 80 United States senators 1-12 signed letters of support for this legislation in 2000, the bill 1-13 never came up for a vote in the full senate; and 1-14 WHEREAS, An identical bill addressing railroad retirement 1-15 reform is now before the 107th Congress to modernize the financing 1-16 of the railroad retirement system for its 748,000 beneficiaries 1-17 nationwide, including more than 38,000 in Texas; and 1-18 WHEREAS, The act provides tax relief to freight railroads, 1-19 Amtrak, and commuter lines; it also provides benefit improvements 1-20 for surviving spouses of rail workers, who currently suffer deep 1-21 cuts in income when the rail retiree dies; and 1-22 WHEREAS, Railroad management and labor and retiree 1-23 organizations have agreed to support this legislation; and 1-24 WHEREAS, No outside contributions from taxpayers are needed 1-25 to implement the changes called for in this legislation as all 1-26 costs relating to the reforms will come from within the railroad 1-27 industry, including a full share by active employees; now, 1-28 therefore, be it 1-29 RESOLVED, That the 77th Legislature of the State of Texas 1-30 hereby respectfully urge the Congress of the United States to enact 1-31 the Railroad Retirement and Survivors' Improvement Act of 2001; 1-32 and, be it further 1-33 RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward official 1-34 copies of this resolution to the president of the United States, to 1-35 the speaker of the house of representatives and the president of 1-36 the senate of the United States Congress, and to all the members of 1-37 the Texas delegation to the congress with the request that this 1-38 resolution be officially entered in the Congressional Record as a 1-39 memorial to the Congress of the United States of America. 1-40 * * * * *