Amtrak derailment spotlights delay in train safety upgrades

December 20, 2017 by admin
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The deadly Amtrak derailment in Washington state has turned the spotlight on Congress’s decision to delay a deadline for all railroads to install new train safety technology.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said that a high-speed Amtrak train traveling from Seattle to Portland was going 80 mph in a 30-mph-zone when it derailed on Monday, leaving at least three people dead and scores more injured.

The speeding passenger train, which was on its inaugural run, was traveling across a highway overpass and about to enter a curve when several train cars jumped the tracks.

Positive Train Control (PTC), which automatically slows down a train that is going over the speed limit, was not yet active along the newly upgraded track route.

The technology has been installed on the track segments but is not operational yet, according to Sound Transit, which owns the tracks. The target date to have PTC up and running in the area is the second quarter of 2018.

PTC was originally supposed to be in place nationwide two years ago, but lawmakers pushed back the deadline at the urging of industry groups.

“Unconscionable delays in implementing Positive Train Control now a potential factor in Amtrak tragedy. We cannot afford more delays sought by railroads,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said on Twitter on Tuesday. “Too many lives lost while railroads failed to install Positive Train Control. Implementation is absolutely essential by 2018 deadline.”

While the cause of the derailment is still unknown, NTSB investigators will be exploring whether PTC could have prevented the crash. The safety board determined that the technology could have prevented a similar 2015 crash in Philadelphia, in which an Amtrak engineer was speeding as he headed into a curve.

Safety advocates have criticized how slow railroads have been in implementing the potentially life-saving technology, which can prevent derailments, collisions and improper track switching.

Congress originally gave commuter and freight railroads until the end of 2015 to install the technology.

But as railroads struggled to meet compliance deadlines, lawmakers agreed to push back the PTC implementation date to at least Dec. 31, 2018, with the option for a two-year extension.

Amtrak has so far equipped 49 percent of its locomotives and 67 percent of its track segments with PTC as of the second quarter of this year — the latest data available.

One reason that railroads have been slow to install the technology is the cost. The Federal Railroad Administration has granted more than $650 million in federal funding to passenger railroads and issued a $1 billion loan to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to help with PTC implementation.

While President TrumpDonald John TrumpHouse Democrat slams Donald Trump Jr. for ‘serious case of amnesia’ after testimony Skier Lindsey Vonn: I don’t want to represent Trump at Olympics Poll: 4 in 10 Republicans think senior Trump advisers had improper dealings with Russia MORE was quick to call for his forthcoming infrastructure proposal in the wake of Monday’s train derailment, it’s unclear whether the package would include any additional money for PTC.

“I don’t have any updates on the infrastructure plan at this time but will let you know if that changes,” a White House spokeswoman said Tuesday.

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House Passes Final Tax Bill; Senate Votes Next on Republican Plan

December 20, 2017 by admin
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House Speaker Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, speaking on the House floor, called the vote “a turning point” saying “this is our chance, this is our moment.” When the bill passed the House, a giddy Mr. Ryan smiled broadly and banged the gavel with force as he declared victory.

Passage of the bill came over the strenuous objections of Democrats in both the House and the Senate, who have accused Republicans of giving a gift to corporations and the wealthy and driving up the federal debt in the process. The final vote tally can be found here.

Twelve House Republicans also voted no on the bill, including lawmakers from high-tax states like New York, New Jersey and California.

Under the bill approved by the House, the corporate tax rate would be cut to 21 percent, from the current 35 percent, a move that Republicans are betting will increase economic growth. Individuals would also see tax cuts, including a top rate of 37 percent, down from 39.6 percent. But the individual tax cuts would expire after 2025, a step that Republicans took to comply with budget rules that allow them to pass the tax overhaul using a simple majority, and without Democratic votes.

Republicans in Congress moved with remarkable speed to enact the biggest tax overhaul since 1986, unveiling legislation to rewrite the tax code, marshaling support for their effort and devising a compromise between the House and Senate in under two months.

Their success was a stark contrast with their effort this year to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, a quest that was encumbered by internal divisions among Republicans and ultimately ended in humiliating failure. And it gives Mr. Trump a big accomplishment as the first year of his presidency nears an end.

The action moves to the Senate

The day Republicans have been anxiously awaiting is here as they begin moving their $1.5 trillion legislation to final votes in the House and Senate. Now that the House has voted, the action moves to the Senate, which has a much narrower majority of just 52-48.

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The bill is expected to pass the Senate along party lines as well and Republicans scored two significant wins on Monday when Senators Mike Lee of Utah and Susan Collins of Maine said they would back the bill. With Bob Corker of Tennessee also on board, the tax overhaul appears headed to passage, even without the vote of Senator John McCain, the Arizona Republican who has returned home to receive medical treatment.

If all goes as planned and no Republicans defect, the bill should arrive on President Trump’s desk before the Christmas deadline the party has outlined.

The debate was largely a sideshow

The bill is done and dusted and while the House and Senate allow for debate on the bill ahead of the vote, it will not alter the bill’s content or trajectory.

Republicans are expected to continue promoting the benefits of the tax cut as helping the middle-class while Democrats will continue to assail the bill as a gift to corporations and the wealthy.

Several changes in the legislation were made late last week when the House and Senate versions were reconciled. Here is what is in the tax bill.

Corker explains his flip

Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee told The New York Times that he faced a “tough” decision in backing a tax bill that is projected to add to the deficit.

Mr. Corker had initially said he would oppose the final bill, then decided the $1.5 trillion tax cut was better for the nation than doing nothing at all.

“It’s been really tough, especially because I did think, I really felt like we could have had a bipartisan bill that would have really withstood more fully the test of time,” Mr. Corker said.

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Still, theories about his switch continue to percolate. Some suggested Mr. Corker, who has said that he will not seek re-election to the Senate, may be rethinking his political future, while others asserted that he was bought off by a late-added provision that would benefit people with large real estate holdings, including him.

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In an interview on Monday, Mr. Corker dismissed those theories and said he faced a wrenching decision as a Republican lawmaker with deep concerns about the country’s mounting debt and a strong desire to overhaul the tax code. In the end, he said, he put his fiscal principles aside on the assumption that the nation would be better off with the tax cuts than without.

The tax bill is still unpopular

Republicans might be preparing to celebrate the passage of their tax bill, but everyday taxpayers are not popping the champagne bottles just yet.

A new poll from CNN and SSRS found that the tax legislation continues to be unpopular with the general public, with 55 percent opposing the proposals and 33 percent supporting them. Opposition to the bill has jumped by 10 percentage points since early November.

More people think they will be worse off after the tax bill is signed into law, and a majority of people think the tax cuts will favor the rich rather than the middle class.

The survey, conducted from Thursday to Sunday, queried 1,001 adults by landline and cellphone.

Republicans say people will learn to love the tax bill

Mr. Ryan dismissed polling that suggests the tax bill is unpopular and attributed skepticism about the legislation to pundits spreading untruths on television.

He said that he was confident that once taxpayers saw more money in their paychecks and enjoyed the benefits of a simpler tax filing system, they would learn to appreciate the merits of the tax bill.

“Results are going to make this popular,” Mr. Ryan said at his weekly news conference.

Club for Growth wanted a bigger Christmas gift

Not all conservatives are jumping for joy over the prospect of tax cuts for Christmas.

The Club for Growth said on Tuesday that the $1.5 trillion tax bill Republicans are poised to sign “falls short of pro-growth expectations.”

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The group wants Republicans to try again next year with a focus of lowering taxes for pass-through businesses, eliminating the estate tax completely, fully repealing the alternative minimum tax and getting rid of the rest of the Affordable Care Act’s taxes.

“There’s no reason we have to wait another 30 years to enact additional reform,” said David McIntosh, president of the Club for Growth.

Some Republicans from high-tax states will vote no

The original House bill passed without support from 13 Republicans, including 12 from the high-tax states of California, New York and New Jersey, where constituents could see their taxes go up because of a cap to the state and local tax deduction, known as SALT. The Senate and House bills both capped SALT at $10,000 and restricted it to deducting property taxes only.

The final tax bill still contains a cap of $10,000 but allows individuals to use that deduction for property taxes as well either income or sales taxes. But the change is not expected to be enough to win over many of the Republicans who voted against the House bill given they could be vulnerable to losing their seats if constituents feel a pinch from higher taxes.

The wealthiest still benefit the most under tax bill

The final tax bill would reduce taxes on average by about $1,600 in 2018, increasing after-tax incomes 2.2 percent, with the largest benefit going to the wealthiest households, a new analysis finds.

The Tax Policy Center, which analyzed the final bill, said taxpayers in the bottom quintile, with less than $25,000 in income, would get an average tax cut of $60, or 0.4 percent of after tax income.

Those in the middle income quintile — earning between about $49,000 and $86,000 — would receive an average tax cut of about $900, or 1.6 percent of after-tax income. Those earning between $86,000 and $149,000 would see an average tax cut of $1,800 or 1.9 percent of after-tax income. Taxpayers with income between about $308,000 and $733,000, would see an average tax cut of about $13,500 or 4.1 percent of after-tax income.

Taxpayers in the top 1 percent of the income distribution (those with income more than $733,000) would receive an average cut of $51,000, or 3.4 percent of after-tax income.

While the bill has changed several times since it originally was introduced in the House and Senate, the basic financial impact remains the same, writes Howard Gleckman, a senior fellow at the Tax Policy Center.

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“Most households would get a tax cut at first, with the biggest benefits going to those with the highest incomes. After 2025, when nearly all of the bill’s individual income tax provisions are due to expire, only high-income people would get a meaningful tax cut,” Mr. Gleckman writes.

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