WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Rail companies and labor unions pulled to within shouting distance Tuesday of creating a new railroad retirement system with better benefits for employees and lower taxes for employers, the Omaha World-Herald reports.

One problem: a small group of influential Republican senators are determined to slow down the legislation.

"This is a bill written by the special interests, for the special interests," said Sen. Don Nickles, R-Okla., the Senate's assistant minority leader.

Texas Sen. Phil Gramm, ranking Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, accused rail companies and labor unions of trying to bilk the federal treasury.

"What this proposal does is pilfer $15 billion," Gramm said on the Senate floor.

Rail executives, labor leaders and a large majority of the U.S. Congress disagree, saying they simply want to invest about $15 billion from the nation's railroad retirement system currently in government bonds and put the money in Wall Street. By doing so, they say, railroaders and their employers would get a better rate of return, allowing the boosted benefits and lower payroll taxes.

The railroad retirement system cannot now invest on Wall Street, where potentially higher returns are available than through government bonds. Under the plan, the retirement age for employees would drop from 62 to 60. Younger employees would be vested in their retirement plans after five years rather than 10. And most surviving spouses of deceased rail workers would see pension payouts boosted to 100 percent of their spouse's salary, up from 50 percent.

Railroad lobbyists and most members of Congress have championed the idea for years, and on Tuesday convinced Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., to bring it to the Senate floor. A similar plan won overwhelming support in the House earlier this year.

"It's a good bill," Daschle said. "It deserves our support."

Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson, a Democrat, said the bill would allow railroads to invest pension funds into "normal, modern pension plans."

"It's now time for the Senate to move forward," he said.

Nelson is one a 74 co-sponsors of the Senate bill, along with Sens. Chuck Hagel , R-Neb., and Tom Harkin, D-Iowa.

But Gramm and Nickles could use procedural maneuvers to slow consideration. Because the Senate operates on the basis of unanimous consent, one or two senators can delay consideration of a measure for days and even weeks.

And already Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., was pressing Daschle to move ahead on economic stimulus and defense spending measures. "We're at war, and we're in a recession," Lott said.

Senate rules allow Daschle to hold a vote Thursday on whether to consider the bill. But Nickles and Gramm may object again, possibly setting the process into next week.

On Tuesday, Nickles and Gramm accused the railroads of pushing for the measure as a way to decrease their share of payroll taxes. Once the system runs into economic trouble, Gramm charged, the taxpayers will be back on the hook to bail out the industry.

Advocates for the rail industry said Gramm's assertions are misleading.

Obie O'Bannon, vice president of government affairs for the Association of American Railroads, said the companies' payroll tax reduction would kick in only when private investments show an improved rate of return.

The government would be asked to bail out the system, O'Bannon said, only under a "doomsday" scenario in which rail employment plummets. Under the pending legislation, he said, the rail companies' share of payroll taxes would have to increase to 28 percent, up from the 16 percent under current law, to trigger any federal commitment.

On the other side of the coin, he said, reforming the system would provide better benefits to about 690,000 retirees nationwide, along with 250,000 employees and 53,000 widows.

In Nebraska, about 23,200 rail employees would be affected, he said, along with 13,800 workers in Iowa.

Union Pacific Corp., which owns the Union Pacific Railroad Co., is headquartered in Omaha.