{"id":34531,"date":"2016-06-24T10:20:16","date_gmt":"2016-06-24T14:20:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.smart-union.org\/news\/contact-your-reps-about-two-person-crew-legislation\/"},"modified":"2016-06-24T10:20:16","modified_gmt":"2016-06-24T14:20:16","slug":"contact-your-reps-about-two-person-crew-legislation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.smart-union.org\/contact-your-reps-about-two-person-crew-legislation\/","title":{"rendered":"Contact your Reps. about two-person crew legislation","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"<h5><strong>By National Legislative Director John Risch<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p> <figure id=\"attachment_26343\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-26343\" style=\"width: 143px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-26343\" src=\"https:\/\/www.smart-union.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/John_risch_thumbnail_web.jpg\" alt=\"Risch\" width=\"143\" height=\"140\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-26343\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Risch<\/figcaption><\/figure>  Recently, Republican Congressman\u00a0Louie Gohmert of Texas \u2013 one of the most conservative members of the U.S. House of Representatives \u2013 cosponsored our two-person crew legislation, H.R. 1763, the Safe Freight Act. This show of support follows cosponsorship from Congressman Trent Franks of Arizona, a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus. Both are considered among the most conservative members of Congress.  Why did Rep. Gohmert sign onto the bill?\u00a0The simple answer is that one of our members asked him to.\u00a0General Chairperson Steve Simpson\u2019s office is located near Rep. Gohmert\u2019s, and Steve decided to set up a meeting to engage the Congressman on our issues, including the need for two-person crews on all trains.\u00a0Steve didn\u2019t shy away because Rep. Gohmert is a conservative Republican; no, Steve\u2019s attitude was that &#8220;<u>this is my Congressman<\/u>, and I will request a meeting.&#8221; They talked for more than an hour and Steve convinced this very conservative Republican that the only safe way to operate a train is with a crew of at least two people.  Arizona State Director Scott Jones lives in Congressman Franks\u2019 district and decided to set up a meeting with his Congressman. Scott brought along a retired engineer who attends the same church as Congressman Franks and whose children attend bible study taught by the Congressman. These personal connections proved extremely effective as Congressman Franks came out of the meeting as a supporter of the Safe Freight Act and he also became a cosponsor.  Last year, one of our bus members, Socorro Cisneros-Hernandez, had an upcoming meeting with Republican Congressman Paul Cook of California and called our office looking for talking points on our legislative priorities.\u00a0Ms. Cisneros used the information we provided and had a very productive meeting with Congressman Cook, after which he co-sponsored the Safe Freight Act.  Most recently, Greg Hynes and I met with another conservative Republican, Ryan Zinke of Montana. After a robust discussion about the two-person crew legislation, Congressman Zinke agreed to sign on as a cosponsor.  The lesson from all of these cases is that every member of Congress, regardless of party or ideology, should be viewed as a potential cosponsor of H.R. 1763. Our Washington team will continue to do our part, but when it comes to issues that some members of Congress may not be naturally inclined to support, our members \u2013 their constituents \u2013 are the ones who can make the most effective case.  I am calling on all of you to set up meetings with your Congressional Representatives and ask that they cosponsor H.R. 1763, the Safe Freight Act.\u00a0We can provide you with handouts and other materials to help.\u00a0Our recent comments on the FRA\u2019s crew size rule is a good source of information on this issue.  Here is the link:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/static.smart-union.org\/worksite\/PDFs\/SMART-TD_BLET_Joint_Comments.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/static.smart-union.org\/worksite\/PDFs\/SMART-TD_BLET_Joint_Comments.pdf<\/a>  If we are going to succeed in passing this bill, we need to be engaged at the local level.\u00a0Special thanks to Brothers Steve Simpson, Scott Jones and Sister Socorro Cisneros-Hernandez for stepping up to the plate and taking the initiative in getting these new cosponsors.  Visit the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.congressweb.com\/smart_transportation\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Legislative Action Center<\/a> to learn more about the Safe Freight Act and to find out who represents you in congress.<\/p>\n","protected":false,"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"html"}]},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By National Legislative Director John Risch Recently, Republican Congressman\u00a0Louie Gohmert of Texas \u2013 one of the most conservative members of the U.S. House of Representatives \u2013 cosponsored our two-person crew legislation, H.R. 1763, the Safe Freight Act. This show of support follows cosponsorship from Congressman Trent Franks of Arizona, a member of the conservative House [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false,"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"html"}]},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[45,9,17,1,25],"tags":[2731,752,3341,2035,3344],"member_types":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Contact your Reps. about two-person crew legislation - SMART Union<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.smart-union.org\/contact-your-reps-about-two-person-crew-legislation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Contact your Reps. about two-person crew legislation - SMART Union\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By National Legislative Director John Risch Recently, Republican Congressman\u00a0Louie Gohmert of Texas \u2013 one of the most conservative members of the U.S. House of Representatives \u2013 cosponsored our two-person crew legislation, H.R. 1763, the Safe Freight Act. This show of support follows cosponsorship from Congressman Trent Franks of Arizona, a member of the conservative House [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.smart-union.org\/contact-your-reps-about-two-person-crew-legislation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"SMART Union\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-06-24T14:20:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.smart-union.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/John_risch_thumbnail_web.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"amyr\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"amyr\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.smart-union.org\/contact-your-reps-about-two-person-crew-legislation\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.smart-union.org\/contact-your-reps-about-two-person-crew-legislation\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"amyr\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.smart-union.org\/#\/schema\/person\/32d7996d81f2ddbf2099238b9315f71d\"},\"headline\":\"Contact your Reps. about two-person crew legislation\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-06-24T14:20:16+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-06-24T14:20:16+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.smart-union.org\/contact-your-reps-about-two-person-crew-legislation\/\"},\"wordCount\":567,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.smart-union.org\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.smart-union.org\/contact-your-reps-about-two-person-crew-legislation\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.smart-union.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/John_risch_thumbnail_web.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"H.R. 1763\",\"John Risch\",\"The Safe Freight Act\",\"two-person crews\",\"two-person crews legislation\"],\"articleSection\":{\"0\":\"Amtrak\/Commuter News\",\"1\":\"News\",\"2\":\"TD Leadership Messages\",\"4\":\"Washington\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.smart-union.org\/contact-your-reps-about-two-person-crew-legislation\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.smart-union.org\/contact-your-reps-about-two-person-crew-legislation\/\",\"name\":\"Contact your Reps. about two-person crew legislation - 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