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White House Diaries
January
05
1985
January 05, 1985
Saturday, January 5, 1985
Started the day off with the first meeting with the leadership of the 99th Congress. We spent our time on arms control. Bud & George S. held forth on the Geneva meeting—they departed this evening. I found support even among Demos. for our Strategic Defense Initiative.
A budget appeals meeting re transportation. Dave was holding out for canceling Amtrak. The case for getting Govt. out of the RR business has no opponents. Libby Dole however does have a good argument against doing it right now. She has 3 live customers for Conrail & RR labor is helping lobby Cong. to allow the sale. She fears (and so do I) that if we suddenly announced the end of Amtrak, labor might reconsider. I haven’t given an opinion yet but I favor closing the Conrail sale 1st—then getting at the other.
A 2nd Bud. Appeals meeting was with Margaret Heckler Sec. of H.H.S. I think we worked out a suitable compromise. George S. came by for a last farewell before Geneva then we were off for Camp David. Had to drive—icy conditions overhead.
Sat. a clear day but snow on the ground. It began melting & continued today—almost all gone by time we reached W.H.
