(UTU National Legislative Office Letterhead not reproduced)

November 14, 2000

To: All Concerned

From: James M. Brunkenhoefer

Congress has postponed the "lame duck" session until December 5th. We are not optimistic that anything will  change as to the status of H.R. 4844 unless that change comes from outside Washington, D.C.

Members of the Congress and the Senate will be at home. Please take this time to contact those Members. Please go and visit their offices in their districts. We need to let them know this issue is not going away. If we are not successful in accomplishing our goal during the "lame duck" session, we will be back during the next session of Congress which will begin January 3, 2001. All elected members of Congress have stated that they want to act in a bi-partisan manner. This is a wonderful opportunity for them to exercise those promises.

On October 4th, Congressman Nick Smith (R–MI) introduced H.R. 5387, the Railroad Retirement  Improvement Act. This is a horrible bill. It destroys Railroad Retirement as we know it. Although we are not ignoring this legislation, the bill has no other Congressional support and the committee that it has been referred to will not hold any further hearings this year. Congressman Smith is known for these last minute, meaningless, futile attempts. It is very possible that Congressman Smith hopes to accomplish his real goal of defeating H.R. 4844. He spoke against H.R. 4844 and subsequently voted against it on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives. It may be his strategy to get our supporters "off message" and attempt to divide our efforts. Please do not hand Congressman Smith his victory by fighting a dead bill and not passing H.R. 4844.

Any negative response will only encourage Smith. We need to strengthen our resolve to stay "on message" and support the bi-partisan principles contained in H.R. 4844. If Congressman Smith continues his efforts in the next session of Congress, we will deal with him at the appropriate time and in the appropriate manner.

It is important to remember, we have not changed our goal of sending the message to Congress that the provisions of the Railroad Retirement & Survivors’ Improvement Act are critical to our widows, our retirees and our active railroad employees and we will continue our efforts until it becomes law.

As always, keep your calls friendly, up-beat and professional. The elections are over. Calls, letters and any other form of communication that are angry or overwrought with frustration will be counterproductive to our efforts.

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