Amtrak board members advance

[Tom C]

Four out of the five recent board members are advancing to the Senate floor with hopes to approve them before the end of term. David Capozzi who will be the first ADA advocate (position was created a decade ago but never filled), Ron Battory who will replace Christopher R Beall, Elaine Clegg who will replace Yvonne Burke, and Lanhee Chen who will replace Jeffrey Moreland. Samuel Lathem did not make the cut due to accusations of him visiting Venezuela that got brought up during hearings. Credit to Ted Cruz who agreed to push the four non controversial ones forward.

 

[Tom C]

Last night the Senate confirmed the four nominees to the Amtrak Board. As I stated before the nominees were advanced out of the Commerce committee through a deal between Chair Maria Cantwell and Ranking Member Ted Cruz to advance the two Republican nominees Ron Battory and Lanhee Chen and two of the three Democratic nominees. David Capozzi and Elaine Clegg were selected to advance - Samuel Lathem who was tripped by a controversial overseas trip was withheld. The agreement was made in light of the election result and to allow incoming President-elect Trump an opportunity to appoint the remaining seat.

Batory will fill a vacant seat last held by Christopher R Beall whose term expired. Clegg will replace current term expired board member Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, and Chen will replace current vice chair Jeffrey Moreland who is also term expired. Capozzi will fill a seat that was created for ADA advocacy during an earlier FAST act authorization during the Obama administration but never filled.

The remaining vacant seat that will be filled by the next administration is supposed to be a representative from the organized labor community

https://www.commerce.senate.gov/202...ate-confirmation-of-amtrak-board-of-directors

 

[CHamilton]

Those of us in the Northwest are very pleased to see that the Amtrak board will now be significantly more geographically diverse. I have had the good fortune to work with Elaine Clegg in our rail advocacy efforts, and I know that she will be a great asset to the Amtrak board.

 

[Palmland]

For those of us looking for someone who understands the rail industry and can work on behalf of Amtrak with the railroads and the government, Ron Battory is more than qualified. I suspect he's something of a railfan too as he's on the board of the East Broad Top Railroad Foundation, as is Wick Moorman. Here's his testimony for his Amtrak board nomination.