President Trump has nominated former Congressman Lynn Westmoreland (R-GA) to serve a five-year term on Amtrak’s Board of Directors. This is very concerning to anyone that supports, rides, or works on Amtrak as Mr. Westmoreland has a long history of voting against the nation’s passenger rail carrier:
- On March 4th, 2015, he voted for the McClintock Amendment that would have eliminated ALL Amtrak funding.
- Later that day, he voted against the Passenger Rail Reform and Investment Act (PRRIA) – the larger bill that TCU/IAM heavily negotiated and which included Amtrak funding.
- On June 4th, 2015, he voted for back-to-back amendments that would have gutted Amtrak’s operating grants as well as its ability to service its debt.
- A few days later he voted to eliminate the Sunset Limited Line between Louisiana and California, and then voted to prohibit federal funds for any Amtrak routes whose cost is twice their revenue.
These are just the Amtrak votes from his last term in Congress. We haven’t mentioned his staunch anti-labor record or any of his other anti-Amtrak votes throughout his 12-years in Congress.
Politics matters. How you vote matters. President Trump just nominated a fox to oversee the henhouse, and the jobs of thousands of TCU members are on the line.