TRAC: House Amtrak Funding Level Increased from ‘Shut-Down’ to ‘Slow Starvation’
TRAC E-Bulletin [#05-29]:
TRAC Members & Associates–
Your efforts paid off. That is to the extent that Amtrak funding proposed by the House was increased from a ’shut down’ level of $550 million back to a familiar ’slow starvation’ level of $1.2 Billion. Thank you all for the grand effort in contacting your representatives, and in some cases other people’s representatives.
We now need to take this momentum and push the U.S. Senate to recognize that the Bush-appointed Amtrak board is quite serious in requesting $1.8 billion so that we are INVESTING in rail in this country, not slowly waiting for the infrastructure to fall apart by funding just enough to keep the skeleton standing one more year. While Feinstein and Boxer are supportive, letters to your Senators reaffirming the need for the full $1.8 billion are most helpful.
Here are the details of the House actions:
An amendment was offered by Rep. Steve LaTourette (R-OH) and James Oberstar (D-MN) to raise Amtrak funding to $1.17 billion. While $1.17 billion is less than Amtrak needs to operate in fiscal 2006, the symbolism of a significant funding increase by the House of Representatives sends a critical signal to the Senate, who will take up Amtrak funding after the July 4th recess (expected the week of July 11). The bill as passed from the House Appropriations committee included language forbidding Amtrak from spending federal funds on any route losing more than $30.00 per passengers. This was an attack on all long distance routes. Reps. Corrine Brown (D-FL), Nick Rahall (D-WV), Robert Menendez (D-NJ), and Gerald Nadler (D-NY) offered an amendment to strike this language. The amendment passed on a vote of 269-152, with over 70 Republicans voting for the amendment. Finally, Rep. Mark Kennedy (R-MN) offered an amendment to strip $100 million of Amtrak funding and transfer it to funding for the homeless. This was‹as Representative Steve LaTourette (R-OH) said‹a ³wolf in sheep¹s clothing amendment² intended to hurt Amtrak. Kennedy’s amendment failed by a wide margin: 51-362. Soon after, Norm Mineta expressed sour grapes over the House action:
“The House of Representatives has chosen to retreat from the work of its Appropriations Committee which took on the difficult task of making tough decisions about how best to save Amtrak. Adoption of this type of amendment enables and encourages the wasteful spending and inefficient operations that have come to define Amtrak. Handing over more than a billion dollars with no reforms attached only gives Amtrak a blank check to continue misspending taxpayer money. The President and I will continue to work with the Congress to ensure passage of reforms designed to save Amtrak and develop financially sound intercity passenger rail in this country.”
(TRAC wishes to thank NARP and TRAC member Marcia Johnston for their contributions to this bulletin.)
–
Alan C. Miller
Executive Director
Train Riders Association of CaliforniaOfficial TRAC Website: http://www.calrailnews.com/
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Posted in: Uncategorized | July 6, 2005 10:38 pm
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