Byron Dorgan: “It is true that the Surface Transportation Board produced a schedule that said, where as we used to charge $1,000 as a…”

“It is true that the Surface Transportation Board produced a schedule that said, where as we used to charge $1,000 as a fee in order to make complaint against a railroad for unfair pricing, if we are required to raise all of our funds from fees, we will now charge $23,100 instead of $1,000. If you are complaining about the coal rates, we will go from $1,000 to $233,000 as a filing fee and so on and so on. The ranking member made the point to me just now, well, we have increased appropriations or actually produced appropriations of some $12 million in this bill for the Surface Transportation Board and, therefore, they will not have to raise all of this money from fees. It is absolutely correct. That $12 million has been appropriated. They will not have to raise that from fees. They will have to raise several millions of dollars from fees. The question is, how will they get that several million dollars? There are a wide range of fees from which to choose. Will they decide, with respect to those who want to file a complaint against a railroad company for unfair pricing, that that fee should go from $1,000 to $2,000, $1,000 to $5,000, $1,000 to $15,000, $1,000 to $23,000? I do not have the foggiest idea. My amendment says, it shall go from $1,000 to $1,000.”