(UTU National Legislative Office Letterhead not reproduced)

November 30, 2000

To: All Concerned

From: James M. Brunkenhoefer

Congress adjourned a week before the November election without completing the passage of the required appropriations bills. Instead, Congress has passed temporary spending measures called Continuing Resolutions (CR). The last CR that was passed expires next week. When Congress returns, they will be primarily dealing with appropriations matters. As long as Congress is in session, there still remains a sliver of hope that the Railroad Retirement issue will be dealt with. Most members and their staffs will be returning to their offices on Monday, December 4 and they should go into session the following day.

The provisions of HR 4844 are still an active item on our agenda and in the offices of House and Senate Members. Some in Congress believe that we will either go away or turn down our intensity on getting this legislation enacted. We must prove them wrong. Please remember that if we don’t get this accomplished this year, we have to start over from scratch next year. Our problem still remains the U.S. Senate. E-mail and postal addresses and phone numbers for the Congressional delegation can be found at the following web sites - "Electronic Activist" (http://gemini.berkshire.net/~ifas/activist/index2.html) and "Contacting the Congress" (http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/).

Our message should be to ask them to include the provisions of H.R. 4844 in any piece of legislation that will be passed by Congress and will be signed by the President. It would be of little value if they put our provisions in legislation that would be vetoed. Our message should also be that if for any reason that this legislation does not become law this year, that we want their support to move their legislation into law very early in the first session of the 107^th Congress. We have to let the Congress know that we are not going away and we will not compromise the principles of the legislation.

Because of the elections, nerves are very raw in our nation’s capital. Please be friendly and upbeat when our message is delivered. There are those who would be more than happy to start a partisan fight, once again, to stop this legislation. We cannot let this happen. The elections are over. It is now our priority to get our legislation enacted.

Everyone has done spectacularly so far. Please keep up the good work. Please start calling as soon as possible and keep it up every day that Congress is in session this year. We do not anticipate that they will be here very long but so many surprising things have already happened this year that it is impossible to tell.

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