[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 42 (Wednesday, March 17, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2874-S2875]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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          REAUTHORIZATION OF THE SURFACE TRANSPORTATION BOARD

 Mr. CLELAND. Mr. President, today I am addressing the Senate 
to express my view on the importance of maintaining a regulatory system 
that has resulted in a renaissance of the nation's rail freight 
railroads, which are so critical to the economic vitality of my state 
of Georgia.
  In Georgia, we depend heavily on railroads to bring us raw materials 
and to carry our finished goods to market. Two major railroads, CSX and 
Norfolk Southern, operate more than 3,500 miles of rail line in 
Georgia, and service is provided over more than 1,000 miles of track by 
regional and local railroads. More than 3 million carloads of such 
commodities as coal, minerals, and pulp and paper are carried through 
Georgia every year, and more than 6,000 Georgians are directly employed 
in the rail industry.
  The importance of railroads in my state reaches much deeper than the 
customers they serve and the citizens they employ, however. As a member 
of the Small Business Committee, I am particularly aware of the 
numerous small businesses throughout my state--including hundreds of 
logging and sawmill operations that produce crossties--which depend for 
their livelihood on railroads having the financial resources to 
undertake infrastructure maintenance and improvements. If the railroads 
do not have the resources for that investment, these small businesses--
as well as rail shippers and employees--will suffer.
  This financial strength has not always been there. Indeed, the rail 
industry has undergone a remarkable resurgence from the late 1970s, 
when much of the industry was in bankruptcy and facing nationalization. 
The foundation of this resurgence has been the statutory changes made 
under the Staggers Rail Act of 1980. This bipartisan legislation lifted 
much of the regulatory burden that was stifling the industry, and 
permitted the railroads to compete in the marketplace for business, 
make contracts with customers, and use differential pricing to support 
the enormous capital investment they require for safe, efficient 
operations. These are basic activities engaged in by businesses across 
the nation, activities which had been denied the railroads for nearly a 
century.
  The results have been little short of amazing. A moribund industry 
has come back to life, investing $225 billion in its infrastructure, 
and providing good jobs to a quarter of a million employees. And, while 
the industry has had capacity constraints and other difficulties in 
some areas in providing the high level of service customers deserve, I 
believe the industry is committed to making needed investments and 
working with its customers to do better.
  Despite the rail industry's gains, there are current efforts to turn 
back the clock and reimpose some of the destructive regulatory 
interventions which in the past hindered the railroads' ability to 
operate efficiently and price their services competitively. If we do 
so, we will be heading right back from where we have come: inefficient, 
poorly-performing railroads that were not dependable carriers of goods. 
We cannot afford that, if our nation's businesses are to grow and 
remain globally competitive.
  Reauthorizing the Surface Transportation Board (STB), which 
administers the statute regulating the industry, is an important goal 
of the Senate Commerce Committee, and it is an objective that I 
endorse. Only by having a stable regulatory agency in place, can we 
ensure the continued application of the law in a balanced manner that 
takes into account the need to enable the railroads to earn enough to 
maintain their infrastructure, while ensuring fair rates for shippers. 
Indeed, the railroads are one of the most capital intensive industries 
in our nation, and despite their increased viability, they still fall 
short of the capital necessary to sustain and improve their plant and 
equipment. I support the current economic regulatory regime that has 
served the nation well by sparking this rail rebirth. At the same time, 
I intend to carefully evaluate issues brought to the Committee's 
attention by rail labor organizations as this review goes forward.

[[Page S2875]]

  We must ensure that our railroads can operate in ways that allow them 
to maximize their growth and earn a sufficient rate of return. Our 
shippers and the businesses that supply the rail industry need 
dependable, economically sound carriers to transport their goods and to 
buy their products. Rail employees need a safe, fair and efficient 
system in which to work. These are mutually interdependent objectives, 
and I look forward to working with my colleagues to achieve sound 
policy determinations that satisfy these objectives.

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