Oberstar Bill Takes A Tiny Step Re-Regulate Rail

WASHINGTON, D.C., May 9 (EIRNS)--Minnesota Democrat Rep. James Oberstar and Rep. Richard Baker (R-La.), along with ten co-sponsors introduced a bill, H.R. 2125, to foster competition in areas of the U.S. where it is impeded, in other words a de facto limited re-regulation of the rail industry.

Speaking on the House floor May 2 to introduce the "Railroad Competition and Service Improvement Act of 2007," Oberstar said: "Twenty-six years ago, Congress voted to deregulate the nation's railroad industry and enacted the Staggers Rail Act.... We were assured that deregulation was the 'cure' for years of low profits, deferred maintenance and bad regulatory policies which resulted in a very sick industry."

Oberstar pointed out that since 1980, over 40 Class I railroads have consolidated into just four lines, which control over 95 percent of railroad business. Entire States, regions, and industries have become "captive" to a single railroad, he said. Shippers and suppliers are "held hostage to price demands" by the rail services.

As Lyndon LaRouche discussed in "Where the Future Lies," the policy of deregulation launched under the Nixon and Carter Administrations, chiefly at the direction of George Schultz, "tore up and smashed every leading institutional feature of the Franklin Roosevelt legacy." LaRouche stated it was deregulation that has been "a leading factor in accelerating the rate of ruin" of economic infrastructure and real incomes in the U.S. since 1977.