WASHINGTON -- President Obama nominated on Jan. 19 retired BNSF executive Jeffrey R. Moreland to be a member of Amtrak's nine-member board of directors, which currently has four vacancies.
Moreland now joins two other Obama nominees to the Amtrak board -- Anthony R. Coscia and Bert DiClemente -- in awaiting a Senate confirmation hearing on their nominations. Coscia and DiClemente were nominated by Obama Nov. 10 and, like Moreland, must be confirmed by the entire Senate.
Moreland, an attorney, was BNSFs executive vice president for public affairs prior to his 2007 retirement. He also served as a BNSF lobbyist and its general counsel. Prior to joining BNSF predecessor Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway in 1978, Moreland was an attorney with the Securities and Exchange Commission. He earned an undergraduate degree from Georgetown University, a law degree from Catholic University, and a master's degree in business administration from the University of Chicago.
Coscia, chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey since 2003, has the support of New Jersey Democratic Sen. Frank Lautenberg, one of Amtrak's strongest congressional supporters. Rep. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) has praised Coscia's leadership in upgrading the PATH subway system and advancing plans to construct a new rail tunnel linking New Jersey with midtown Manhattan. Coscia earned a law degree from Rutgers.
DiClemente is a commercial real estate executive who, for two decades until 1997, was an aide to now-Vice President Joe Biden when Biden was a U.S. senator from Delaware. DiClemente earned an undergraduate degree from the University of Delaware.
Amtrak's board of directors currently includes Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood; Amtrak CEO Joseph Boardman; Chairman Thomas Carper, a former mayor of McComb, Ill. who led a statewide fight to preserve Amtrak service; Nancy Naples, who served in New York Republican Gov. George Pataki's administration and who made an unsuccessful bid for a New York congressional seat in 2004; and, Donna McLean, who was an assistant secretary of transportation in the George W. Bush administration, and, previously, was chief financial officer for the Federal Aviation Administration and a former professional staff member of the House Aviation Subcommittee.
The Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008 increased the size of the Amtrak board of directors from seven to nine. The board seats for the transportation secretary and Amtrak CEO do not require Senate confirmation. The other seven seats do require Senate confirmation.
With the nomination of Moreland, Coscia and DiClemente, there still remains an Amtrak board slot awaiting a nominee. It is assumed by many that the final seat will be filled by a nominee with rail labor experience.
The Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act requires nominees possess either, general business and financial experience; experience or qualifications in transportation, freight and passenger rail transportation, travel, hospitality, cruise line or passenger air transportation businesses; or be representatives of employees or users of passenger rail transportation or a state government.
