Dear Co-op Advocates:
Please contact your members of Congress in support of the captive rail shipper legislation we are working on as part of our leadership in the Consumers United for Rail Equity coalition. We are working two different tracks (no pun intended!) to achieve comprehensive railroad reform: adjustments to the Surface Transportation Board (STB) regulatory process and removal of some of the Class I Railroads anti-trust exemptions.

Please see below for a list of the U.S. Senators and Representatives that have and have not currently signed onto the rail bills, legislative details and sample letters. Please write to urge your members of Congress not signed on, and please send thank you notes to those that have already signed on. The more you can personalize letters with your own experiences the more weight they hold with members of Congress. If you are unsure who your Representatives are please visit www.house.gov.

This legislation corrects some decisions of the STB that have denied rail customers access to railroad competition, addresses the inadequacies in the rate reasonableness process of the STB, improves service to rail customers, and provides new remedies for rail carriers where inadequate remedies exist.  This legislation does not regulate any rail activity that currently is not regulated and does not provide any new authority for one railroad to operate on the tracks of another.
House – Railroad Competition and Service Improvement Act of 2007, no number yet but similar to H.R. 2047 in the last Congress
Who hasn’t signed on: Peterson, Bachmann, Ellison, Ramstad, Kline
Thanks to Oberstar (chief author), McCollum, and Walz who have signed on!
Senate – The Railroad Competition and Service Improvement Act of 2007, S. 953
Who hasn’t signed on – Coleman
Thanks to Klobuchar who has signed on!

Anti-trust Bill

This bill intends to remove the current railroad exemptions and subjects the railroad industry to the full power of the nation’s antitrust laws. The nation’s major railroads enjoy one of the broadest exemptions from the nation’s antitrust laws of any industry.  This is particularly questionable since competitive activities of the railroads are exempt from regulation. 
House  - Railroad Anti-trust Enforcement Act of 2007, H.R. 1650
Who hasn’t signed on – Oberstar, Peterson, Bachmann, Ellison, Ramstad, McCollum, Kline
Thanks to Walz who has signed on!
Senate – The Railroad Antitrust Enforcement Act of 2007,  S. 772

Who hasn’t signed on – Klobuchar