Editor’s Note: The original version of this story, published yesterday, January 2nd, indicated there were many unfilled presidential appointments because of lack of action by the Senate. The Senate, on an unexpected voice vote, approved 77 nominees late in the day, yesterday. This updated version of Frank Wilner’s column reflects the updated nominations. – CorridorRail.com Editor
By Frank N. Wilner, Capitol Hill Contributing Editor, Railway Age Magazine; January 3, 2019
UPDATE: “Knock, knock.” Seriously, if you’re awaiting a “Who’s there?” response from many railroad-important federal agencies, you ain’t gonna get one, because, quite literally, there’s nobody there.
Whether the new 116th Congress, with Democrats now the House majority and Republicans still in control of the Senate, is able to end weeks of unproductive calamitous debate and cobble together a funding package to end this shutdown affecting numerous federal agencies with rail-related responsibilities, and gain a signature from a President who has previously done a flip-flop, is unknown. Were a railroad run in such a fashion, it might be called Amtrak, or Penn Central. But we digress.