Vote shows how Congress slowed rail safety plan
WASHINGTON - How do you get a controversial plan through Congress with little fuss and few fingerprints? Lawmakers showed one way last week as they raced to give railroads a reprieve, allowing them three to five more years to install Positive Train Control, a safety system the rail lines were supposed to have in place by Dec. 31. Experts say it could prevent crashes like the Amtrak derailment in May that killed eight people in Philadelphia.
WASHINGTON - How do you get a controversial plan through Congress with little fuss and few fingerprints?
Lawmakers showed one way last week as they raced to give railroads a reprieve, allowing them three to five more years to install Positive Train Control, a safety system the rail lines were supposed to have in place by Dec. 31. Experts say it could prevent crashes like the Amtrak derailment in May that killed eight people in Philadelphia.
The extension had been discussed for months, and was backed by key lawmakers in both parties. But when it came time for a final vote, it was approved with barely a trace on the record.
With the acquiescence of both parties, the measure passed by voice votes - with no accounting of any individual voting "yea" - and was quickly signed by President Obama.
The way to the finish was smoothed with tactics not found in civics books: a fast-changing bill, deadline pressure, and deal-making that helped placate the opposition.
Voice votes are typically used for one of two reasons, said Rutgers University political scientist Ross Baker: to approve small-bore ideas, or to clear thorny measures everyone wants but no one wants to own.
"It's basically a flight from accountability: The work gets done, but there are no fingerprints and no DNA," said Baker.
Lawmakers who backed delaying the deadline said the bill moved fast because there was broad bipartisan agreement after months of debate, negotiations, and tweaks.
"It was time-sensitive, so we were trying to get it through fairly quickly," said Sen. John Thune (R., S.D.), who called the original deadline unrealistic.
Anyone could have asked for a recorded vote, he said.
"There wasn't any interest in doing that," Thune said. "The bill itself had been so carefully vetted by both sides."
Railroads now have until 2018 to install PTC, with extensions possible until 2020. Congress in 2008 ordered the rail lines to get it done by the end of this year.
The obscure issue captured attention after the Philadelphia derailment.
Jonathan Ritter hadn't heard of PTC until his wife was severely injured and nearly killed in the crash.
"It's just another example of the cynical politics in Washington. They really didn't want anybody paying attention to this," said Ritter, of Whitehouse Station, N.J.
If there is another rail accident that PTC could have prevented, he said, "nobody wants to have their name attached to it."
There had been recorded votes on other proposed delays, but not the bill that became law.
The final vote was the last step in a long-running tangle over PTC.
The safety system can remotely slow or stop speeding trains. Railroads have said it is expensive and cumbersome: Nearly 70,000 miles of track have to be outfitted at a predicted cost of more than $12.5 billion. Regulations, technological hurdles, and budget crunches, railroads say, made it impossible to meet the 2015 deadline.
With few set to meet the target, railroads warned they could be forced to stop running if the Dec. 31 deadline was unchanged.
Key House and Senate lawmakers crafted a plan to allow more time, with new interim benchmarks.
It was pitched as part of a long-term transportation plan inching through the House. The bill cleared the Transportation Committee by voice vote Oct. 22.
Four days later, the committee chairman, Rep. Bill Shuster (R., Pa.), plucked the PTC delay from the slow-moving transportation bill and tacked it to a new measure racing toward approval - a short-term patch to keep highway projects funded past Oct. 29.
Suddenly, the PTC extension was part of a "must-pass" measure to preserve road projects nationwide.
Two days before the deadline, the bill passed the House in a voice vote. (By contrast, the previous highway extension, in July, had a formal vote, despite strong House support. It passed 385-34.)
A day after the House acted, the highway extension and PTC delay hit the Senate floor.
It had become a "moving vehicle" - a measure destined for approval.
When one gets going, "everybody wants to hitch a ride," said Rutgers' Baker. "The way you hitch a ride is, you add an amendment."
The tactic - loading a vital bill with amendments that might not pass on their own - is time-tested. When Congress debated billions in aid after Hurricane Sandy, for example, Democrats added millions for Alaskan fisheries and other issues. They relented after Republicans objected.
Senate safety advocates were jammed. If they slowed the PTC extension, they would shutter the highway program.
"It is a terrible precedent to place a major safety - I would say rollback, a safety rollback, on a three-week extension of the highway trust fund," said Sen. Barbara Boxer (D., Calif.), speaking on the Senate floor alongside an image of the crumpled Amtrak Train 188.
Other Senate Democrats, however, including New Jersey's Cory Booker and Pennsylvania's Robert P. Casey, said the plan included important new rules to hold rail lines accountable, and even railroad critics agreed that some extension was needed.
"Together we have averted the potential harm that would come with a congressionally caused rail shutdown," Thune said on the Senate floor shortly after the bill was approved.
Obama signed it the next day - four days after the PTC delay had first been linked to the short-term highway measure.
Boxer said she could have slowed the process, but the PTC delay would have eventually passed. So she negotiated.
As part of the deal, Republicans allowed the confirmation of Sarah Feinberg to lead the Federal Rail Administration, the agency overseeing the PTC rollout.
"We made our point, and we got something very important for it," Boxer said.
Shortly after the highway bill passed, Feinberg was confirmed.
It was done by voice vote.
@JonathanTamari