Hotline #887-A - July 25, 1995

The House began debating H.R.2002, the 1996 transportation appropriations bill, yesterday. They will take the bill up again today.

Several amendments of interest to us were debated last night, all of which failed. One of the amendments was one we supported, introduced by Tom Foglietta (D.-Pa.), to increase transit funding. It was defeated 122-295.

Two bad amendments by Nick Smith (R.-Mich.) fortunately failed by large margins. One of them would have cut all funding for new rail transit starts, and was defeated 114-302. The other would have cut out the meager $15 million in the bill for high-speed rail funding intended for corridors away from the Northeast Corridor. It was defeated 101-313. Especially puzzling was that Smith's district, which includes Battle Creek and Jackson, could benefit from that money. The State of Michigan is planning just the sort of incremental improvements to the Chicago-Detroit line that might benefit from the $15 million.

Naturally, while Smith was aghast that $15 million was going to high-speed rail -- and that this tiny amount of money might lead to future billions being spent on rail -- he was not interested enough in the billions spent on highways to offer a similar amendment there.

The logjam blocking H.R.1788, the House Amtrak authorization bill, broke a bit further yesterday. Chairman Bud Shuster (R.-Pa.) of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee released a substitute bill, which may be considered and approved by the Committee as early as tomorrow afternoon.

Floor action on both H.R.1788 and its Senate counterpart may not come until after Labor Day, after the August recess. H.R.1788, if approved in Committee tomorrow, may be referred to the Judiciary Committee over concerns about the liability issue. The Senate bill may be delayed so members of the Finance Committee can look at tax-related issues.