THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA: House Dems fail to amend rail bill

THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA published this article on December 4, 2009

By KEITH LAING

THE CAPITAL, TALLAHASSEE, Dec. 4, 2009…..House Democrats tried unsuccessfully Friday to amend passenger rail legislation to limit workers on the project to Florida residents and companies.

On the second day of a special session meant to boost passenger rail in Florida, a catch-all bill on the issue (HB 1B) moved to the floor for questions and amendments after unanimously clearing its only committee on Thursday.

On the floor, Democrats sought to add contracting requirements to make the measure more worker-friendly, but the minority failed on a series of party line votes.

Rep. Adam Fetterman, D-Port St. Lucie, introduced an amendment that would require that at least 85 percent of all workers, subcontractors, and contractors hired to work on rail contracts be residents of Florida for six moths before the contract is awarded.

“We’ve heard a great deal of conversation … relating to jobs,” Fetterman said. “This is one of the rare occasions that we can all stand together to represent Florida’s employees and Florida’s businesses at the same time.”

Rep. Scott Randolph, D-Orlando, spoke in favor of the amendment because of the state’s high unemployment rate. Randolph argued that when lawmakers return in the spring, they should require all state contracts to go to Florida residents.

“We need to show our constituents that we’re very concerned about Florida unemployment,” Randolph said. “I think it’s inappropriate to go back home and say we approved a…multi-billion dollar project and we didn’t put the protections in for Florida taxpayers and Florida workers.”

But Rep. Gary Aubuchon, R-Cape Coral, who is shepherding the rail bill through the House, urged his colleagues to reject the amendments, trying to keep the House proposal in line with what leadership has portrayed as an agreed-on framework for getting the rail measure passed.

Rep. Martin Kiar, D-Davie, introduced another amendment aimed at giving Florida companies and companies with certain apprenticeship programs preference in bidding, though his measure met the same fate as Fetterman’s, failing on a party line vote.

“There’s been a lot of debate…that there may be 130 (to) 180 Florida workers who might lose their jobs,” Kiar said. “The response that was given…was they may lose their jobs, but this will create thousands of new jobs. I want to see those thousands of new jobs to be Floridians. I don’t want to lose those 130 Florida jobs just to give Georgians or New Yorkers thousands of jobs.”

Other amendments offered by Democrats to require that the Legislature approve any lease, purchase or sale of rail corridors before closing and require federal money before the SunRail project in Central Florida could go forward were also voted down.

Aubuchon called the unfriendly amendments a “gut check,” saying, “You’re either for SunRail or not.”

After the Democratic amendments were defeated, the bill was rolled to third reading, setting up a floor vote that could come as early as Monday.

A major union that has pledged to work to derail the special session legislation unless lawmakers protect about 100 rail jobs in central and south Florida said Friday that while it agreed with some of defeated amendments, none of measures would have been enough to bring it back on board the rail push.

“Some of them made sense for taxpayers, but none were drafted by us or addressed the issue of the workforce protections,” AFL-CIO communications director Rich Templin told the News Service. “Everybody is still working and we’re hoping the leadership will come to the table to negotiate, but we still have the same fundamental concerns about what this means to the workforce and we’re working to address those.”

However, a key member of the House leadership signaled the chamber is still seemingly inflexible on the union issues.

“I think it’s wrong to focus on this as a union issue,” House Majority Leader Adam Hasner told reporters after the House adjourned. “This is about creating jobs in the state of Florida. This should not be about being held captive by labor unions in the state of Florida who are more concerned about protecting their own members than the economic benefits for the people of Florida.”

Hasner, R-Delray Beach, said he did not think lawmakers should try to appease labor leaders to win wavering votes, which appears likely to be more necessary in the Senate than it will be in his chamber.

“This should not be about buying off votes by catering to the unions,” he said. “This should be about passing the policy that’s in the best interest of our objectives.”

But when talk turned to the Senate, where leaders appear likely to need the votes of a few union-friendly Democrats to squeeze the train bill through, Hasner demurred a bit.

“Talk to President Atwater,” he said about the Senate’s political calculus.