Senate reaches deal to vote on legislation to avert rail shutdown
Source: CNN Politics
CNN — Democrats and Republicans have locked in a deal to vote on rail legislation to avert a damaging shutdown with votes starting “very soon,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced on the Senate floor Thursday. Pressure has been mounting on Senate leaders to clear legislation for President Joe Biden’s signature to avert a rail shutdown amid concerns over the economic danger posed by a strike.
The House passed the tentative rail agreement on Wednesday. Leaders have been racing to see if they can reach a deal to pass the legislation Thursday – a tough task since they would need all 100 senators to agree to schedule that vote and any one senator can object and drag out the process. Senate GOP Whip John Thune was hopeful a deal would be reached Thursday, and explained some further details about the current hang-ups, which include at what threshold to set the amendment votes: a simple majority or 60.
The two amendment votes that are expected include Sen. Bernie Sanders’ amendment on adding paid sick leave for rail workers and GOP Sen. Dan Sullivan’s amendment for a 60-day extension for the unions and rail to continue negotiating. Without congressional action, a rail strike could become a reality as early as December 9, causing shortages, spiking prices and halting factory production.
It could also disrupt commuter rail services for up to seven million travelers a day and the transportation of 6,300 carloads of food and farm products a day, among other items, according to a collection of business groups. One potential complication in the effort to pass a bill is a push by progressives to add a provision to the agreement to increase paid sick leave. In a separate vote on Wednesday, the House voted to add the provision to the rail that would increase the number of paid sick days from one to seven.
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/01/politics/senate-rail-vote/index.html
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and that also included a union remark that blamed "the 43 elected officials" who didn't vote for the sick leave provision (i.e., the 42 Republicans and one Democrat - Manchin - in the Senate) - https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_votes/vote1172/vote_117_2_00371.htm
The provision that would have been added "as a correction" to the main bill (which was that 2nd bill from the House) -
H.Con.Res.119 - Providing for a correction in the enrollment of H.J. Res. 100.
117th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. CON. RES. 119
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That, in the enrollment of the joint resolution H.J. Res. 100, the Clerk of the House of Representatives shall make the following corrections:
(1) Amend section 1—(A) by redesignating subsection (b) as subsection (c); and
(B) by inserting after subsection (a) the following:
“(b) Paid sick leave.—“(1) IN GENERAL.—Any tentative agreements, side letters, or local carrier agreements entered into by the parties and ratified before the date of enactment of this joint resolution and the tentative agreements, side letters, and local carrier agreements made binding by subsection (a) shall, beginning 60 days after the date of enactment of this joint resolution, provide—“(A) for 7 days of paid sick leave annually, except that nothing in this subparagraph shall supersede any existing labor agreement between such parties that provides for more than 7 days of paid sick leave annually; and
“(B) that the use of any 7 days of paid sick leave annually, regardless of whether such days are provided under a tentative agreement, side letter, or local carrier agreement or under an existing labor agreement described in subparagraph (A), will not result in any points, demerits, or disciplinary citations under any party's attendance policy.
“(2) EFFECT.—The modification referenced in paragraph (1) shall each have the same effect as though arrived at by agreement of such parties under the Railway Labor Act (45 U.S.C. 151 et seq.).”.
(2) Redesignate section 2 as section 3.
(3) After section 1, insert the following:
“SEC. 2. Negotiations and arbitration.“(a) Negotiations.—The parties to the disputes subject to Presidential Emergency Board No. 250, established pursuant to Executive Order 14077 of July 15, 2022, shall negotiate the implementation of the 7 days of paid sick leave imposed on such parties by section 1(b).
“(b) Binding arbitration.—If, after 30 days after the date of enactment of this joint resolution, the parties are not able to reach agreement on the matter described in subsection (a), such parties shall enter into binding arbitration on such matter to provide for a final resolution of such unresolved matter.
“(c) Arbitration.—The arbitration described in subsection (b) shall be conducted pursuant to the provisions of section 7 of the Railway Labor Act (45 U.S.C. 157), and any award shall be enforceable under section 9 of the Railway Labor Act (45 U.S.C. 159), except that, in the public interest, compensation and expenses of the arbitrators shall be borne equally by the parties.
“(d) Deadline.—Not later than 60 days after the date of enactment of this joint resolution, any binding arbitration proceeding entered into pursuant to subsection (b) shall be completed, including issuance of any award by the arbitration board.”.
Passed the House of Representatives November 30, 2022.
Attest:
Barrasso (R-WY)
Blackburn (R-TN)
Blunt (R-MO)
Boozman (R-AR)
Capito (R-WV)
Cassidy (R-LA)
Collins (R-ME)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Cotton (R-AR)
Cramer (R-ND)
Crapo (R-ID)
Daines (R-MT)
Ernst (R-IA)
Fischer (R-NE)
Grassley (R-IA)
Hagerty (R-TN)
Hoeven (R-ND)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Johnson (R-WI)
Lankford (R-OK)
Lee (R-UT)
Lummis (R-WY)
Manchin (D-WV)
Marshall (R-KS)
McConnell (R-KY)
Moran (R-KS)
Murkowski (R-AK)
Paul (R-KY)
Portman (R-OH)
Risch (R-ID)
Romney (R-UT)
Rounds (R-SD)
Sasse (R-NE)
Scott (R-FL)
Scott (R-SC)
Shelby (R-AL)
Sullivan (R-AK)
Thune (R-SD)
Tillis (R-NC)
Toomey (R-PA)
Tuberville (R-AL)
Wicker (R-MS)
Young (R-IN)
The irony (and this was mentioned on one of the MSNBC shows last night - I think Alex Wagner's? ) was that jackasses like Cruz and Hawley who normally vote "no" for everything Democrats offer (even if it is something they normally support and in this case their claiming to be "for workers" ), actually voted FOR the 7 days of sick leave addendum. I expect after all the hypocritical votes that they normally do, they had the cover of this not reaching 60 votes to pass anyway, so they could point to some kind of heroic effort that they made with their "yea" vote.
The new contract as it stands (and I believe 8 of the 12 had ratified it) is a gigantic step forward in terms of pay and benefits and I think it also brought to the fore, the issue of paid sick leave for not only the rail industry, but so many others. I think I saw a stat that about 1/3rd of the U.S. workforce, estimated at about 33 million, have no guaranteed sick leave and that is something that really needs to be codified in labor law at the federal level (perhaps with a sliding scale based on number of employees and/or how the time is allocated - whether it is by hours or by "periods", etc. ).
Unions will not like it either!
This was a vote to approve or reject an amendment to H.J.Res. 100 in the Senate.
Totals All Votes Republicans Democrats Independents
Yea.....25.........25.............0.............0
Nay.....70.........22.............46............2
Not voting 5......3..............2
Pretty sure this is the 7 day paid sick leave bill that was voted on Dec 1, 2022 at 2:15 p.m. ET.
Why were all Democrats a Nay vote? They want something added so they have to reject this one first?
one (supported by Bernie Sanders) which would have been that 2nd bill from the House for the 7 days of sick leave to add "as a correction" to the main bill, and one from Dan Sullivan (R-AK) to have a 60-day extension of the existing contracts for further negotiations, that would have become an amendment.
The Sullivan Amendment was the one with the roll call that you show and that is also seen here - https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_votes/vote1172/vote_117_2_00370.htm
That is the one that many Democrats voted against.
The "correction" bill also failed but by not gaining 60 votes to be included in the main bill - https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_votes/vote1172/vote_117_2_00371.htm
Once those 2 provisions failed, they voted on the unaltered House bill and passed it.
So hopefully that makes sense.
As a note, the govtrack.us site had this popup -
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@govtrack.us posting 60-second summary videos of legislation in Congress.
" 60-day extension of the existing contracts for further negotiations,", that's just kicking the can
down the road so you can kick it again, makes sense we all voted against that one.
