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With regard to the new Congress, Blumenauer remarked, “This is thefirst time we haven’t been spending lots of time on defense. We have anopportunity to move forward in a constructive way. I’m looking forwardto working with you in this Congress to carry that message forward.”“We’ve got reauthorization of SAFETEA-LU (the six-year transitfunding authorization bill) coming up just two years from now,” hereminded them. “It was kind of messy last time with 12 extensions. Butnow we’ve got an opportunity to do this one right.“You know we’ve workedsince 1999, together, on transitsecurity legislation and yourUnion was the backbone of this.We worked for two years, andyou know what? They wouldn’teven give us a hearing on the bill.“But on September 12, 2001,they started listening to us,”Blumenauer marveled, “in amatter of hours we had a hearingscheduled. In two days ourentire bill was dropped into thePatriot Act. It was a terrible piece of legislation but the work that we didwas there for transit security. We need to be working together to finishthe job.”Blumenauer continued, “You’re not only dealing with potentialterrorist acts. We need to make people understand that what you do ishomeland security; it’s disaster protection; and that, one reason we wantto expand and enhance transportation systems is because that’s the waypeople will get out of town if there’s a problem.Local President Calvin Kennedy,1324-Savanah, GA, left, lays outATU’s legislative priorities in ameeting with Rep. John Barrow,D-GA, during the lobbying portionof the Legislative Conference.Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-OR:‘Together, I think we are going to bevery successful in this session of Congress,and it’s about time.’“Together, I think we are goingto be very successful in this sessionof Congress, and it’s about time,”he concluded.Labor is the SolutionFirst on the agenda on DayThree was an address by JamesSimpson, the new head of theFederal Transit Administration.Simpson recalled his recentexperience as a commissioner ofthe New York State MetropolitanTransportation Authority, saying,“There’s always this dichotomy between Labor and management; theirneeds are not the same. But if we work together and we focus on thecustomer first, we will save jobs and we will create jobs. So the messagethat I get out to the leadership and the general managers is that youcannot do a thing without Labor. Labor is the solution. Labor is notthe problem. The people who make it or break it are the bus operators,the mechanics, and all of the front line workers.”Transportation Day of ActionFollowing Simpson, MonicaSilbus gave a short presentationon the coming TransportationDay of Action sponsored bythe International Association ofMachinists.Silbus asserted, “Brothersand Sisters, we’re in a fightfor our lives… Every socialmovement that this greatcountry has ever had, thathas been effective and madea difference, happened when and only when the people of this greatcountry took the cause against injustice to the streets, and said ‘enough isenough.’”ATU will participate in the demonstration which will take place onMay 17 in Washington, DC.Freshman Sen. Bob Casey, D-PA, left,gave a warm greeting to Local PresidentPat McMahon, 85-Pittsburgh, PA, onCapitol Hill during the lobbying portionof the Legislative Conference. Local 85campaigned vigorously for Casey.International Association of MachinistsTransportation Education RepresentativeMonica Silbus: ‘Brothers and Sisters,we’re in a fight for our lives…’On to CongressFinally, educated aboutthe issues and energized bymany speakers, the conferenceparticipants fanned out acrossCapitol Hill to lobby theircongressional representatives.Later that evening APTAand ATU sponsored theirfirst-ever joint reception forMembers of Congress in theRayburn House Office Buildingon Capitol Hill.WA Legislative Conference BoardPresident Dennis AntonellisNY Legislative Conference BoardPresident Babe AmashIL Legislative Conference BoardPresident Ron CoxLA Legislative Conference BoardPresident Donnie Small, Sr.14 IN TRANSIT www.atu.org