Before we get into the proposed 21 percent cuts to the Railroad Retirement Board’s administrative budget and the devastating effect those would incur, it is important to note this simple fact right at the top:

The RRB’s administrative budget is financed by payroll taxes paid by RAIL EMPLOYEES and rail employers. Funding is appropriated from the RRB Trust Funds and NOT FROM the U.S. Treasury’s general fund.

In other words, the proposed cuts to the RRB released last week by the U.S. House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies for Fiscal Year 2025 steals from railroaders. These reductions do not save “John Q. Taxpayer” any money. This is RRB Trust Fund money tethered to the federal government’s oversight.

In Congress’s haste to appear like zealous budget hawks, they misunderstand what they are doing. Anything that sounds like taxes to them serves as a “bat signal” to bow at the feet of their rich donors and ensure that billionaires eat up every crumb available. But the RRB’s administrative budget, like mentioned above, is funded by us and the rail carriers, so when the Board makes its budgetary requests, it is asking Congress to allow for us to spend our dollars collected in the appropriate place. It’s our money, after all.

The proposed decrease of 21 percent from last year’s RRB budget would represent $26 million to an agency that is already financially strapped. Without sufficient funding, the RRB would be forced to close field offices and/or reduce hours of service, resulting in longer phone wait times and less staff on hand. It would lead to longer application processing times, indefinite delays for annuity corrections, and an inability to sustain and improve cyber security, placing our pension in jeopardy to nefarious hackers.

A budget cut of this proportion will directly harm the rail employees and annuitants who have paid into the system their entire careers.

These proposed cuts are lunacy and represent a complete misunderstanding of how the RRB is funded. Similar to the issue we are fighting with perpetual sequestration of our RRB unemployment benefits, Republican politicians in the House, in their constant thirst to look out for the wealthiest donor class, believe they are cutting taxes when in reality they are raiding the contributions we make to our own retirement savings. This doesn’t save taxpayers money, this steals from us.

Please call your Congressperson and demand they vote against RRB budget cuts. Fund the RRB. It is our money and we should use it to strengthen our retirement system, not undercut it for cheap political theatre.

READ MORE AT RRB.GOV

TAKE ACTION HERE!