On the surface, the issue is whether to wipe out Amtrak’s current labor contracts or to force Amtrak’s unions to bargain with the national passenger railroad about major givebacks.

But the dispute also involves who will effectively control the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee:Chairman Bud Shuster, R-Pa., or a coalition of Democrats and Republicans that surprised him last week with a 38-to-22 vote softening tough labor provisions in the bill.

Shuster immediately pulled the bill, said publicly he had been rolled by his committee and said Amtrak was dead unless the committee reversed itself. The 11 Republicans who voted against him, led by Rep. Jack Quinn, R-N.Y., held out the possibility of compromise but did not offer to switch votes to Shuster’s hard-line position.

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We’re very worried we will end up without the funds we need, said an Amtrak official who asked not to be named. We’re (also) very concerned about Amtrak slipping into a void where it’s unsure of its funding.

Shuster’s forces turned up the heat this week, first picking up an ally in Rep. Frank R. Wolf, R-Va., chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee on transportation. Wolf, declaring himself a strong supporter of Amtrak, included funding for Amtrak in the spending bill reported by his subcommittee Wednesday, but made the money contingent on passage of an authorizing bill from Shuster’s committee that would include the tougher labor provisions.

Rep. Susan Molinari, R-N.Y., chairman of the railroad subcommittee of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said Thursday she will not take a bill to the House floor without the tougher labor provisions and is considering asking Transportation Secretary Federico Pena to draft legislation providing for an orderly shutdown of Amtrak by Oct. 1. I’m not sure we have the votes on the floor (for the labor provisions in Shuster’s bill) based on what I saw in the committee, she said.

A spokeswoman for Quinn said he considers the matter a difference of opinion that can be worked out. Quinn, she said, hopes to meet early next week with Shuster and Molinari.

Both Shuster and Quinn would substantially change the Amtrak agreements that limit Amtrak’s ability to contract out work such as maintenance, and that provide up to six years’ severance pay for employees laid off because of route cutbacks.

Molinari and Shuster would wipe out those contract provisions and impose new terms immediately, including an unlimited right to contract out, and no more than six months’ severance pay. Quinn also wipes out the contract provisions, but gives Amtrak and its unions 270 days to negotiate new contract provisions.