Hotline #988 - June 27, 1997

Good news today! The Senate has passed its tax bill leaving the Amtrak half-cent language intact, after voting 77-21 against a point of order raised by Sen. John McCain (R.-Ariz.). Thank you for your help.

With a House-Senate conference on the tax bill as early as July 8, rounding up more House co-sponsors for H.R.1437, the House Amtrak half-cent bill, becomes critical -- the more co-sponsors, the better the chances of survival for the half cent. We are now up to 59 sponsors with the addition this week of Hastings (D.-Fla.), Payne (D.-N.J.), Burton (R.-Ind.), Evans (D.-Ill.), Kanjorski (D.-Pa.), Kelly (R.-N.Y.), Towns (D.-N.Y.), and Engel (D.-N.Y.).

The House Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee, chaired by Frank Wolf (R.-Va.), approved a 1998 funding bill on June 24. Full committee approval may come July 15. The House number for Amtrak is a total of $793 million, of which $250 million is for the Northeast Corridor and $260 million for system capital. The impact on operations -- a critical point for 1998 -- is still not known, because the split between operating and mandatory payments was unclear. The House total is $345 million less than Amtrak's total request. It is also $26 million more than what the President requested, and $251 million more than Wolf's subcommittee -- and the full House -- initially approved last year for 1997.

The Senate Commerce Committee approved S.738, the Amtrak reauthorization bill, yesterday. Major amendments dealing with stripping out the labor reform and liability reform sections were either dropped or narrowly defeated. Sen. Byron Dorgan (D.-N.Dak.) expressed deep concern that the Amtrak Reform Council created by the bill could allow Amtrak to be liquidated without further action by Congress. He planned an amendment to fix that, but withheld it in the hope of working with bill sponsor Kay Bailey Hutchison (R.-Tex.) as the bill goes to the floor. The bill now has seven co-sponsors, with the addition of DeWine (R.-Ohio).

The Shuster "blue ribbon" panel on Amtrak finances released its findings this week. The panel talks about more passenger rail service, but their report points to less. The panel thinks freight railroads should get paid more than Amtrak pays for track usage and seems to embrace freight railroad criticisms of Amtrak's express initiative. The report shows contempt for the long-distance trains, but holds out the hope that -- by simply creating a new federal corporation to own the track that Amtrak owns -- chances will be enhanced for funding corridor development elsewhere.

James Florio dissented, arguing that if Congress was inclined to fund more corridors it would do so through Amtrak. He said disappearance of the long-distance trains would kill support for any federal funding. Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Bud Shuster (R.-Pa.) praised the panelists for donating their time, but said his old reform bill remained on the table. Click here to see our "blue ribbon" news release.

Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson (R.) and Delaware Gov. Tom Carper (D.) delivered strong defenses of Amtrak, the half cent, and Amtrak flexibility for states, today at the National Press Club in Washington.

Amtrak's Cascadia train will be cut between Portland and Eugene July 8, due to an end of state funding. Amtrak has reached an agreement with a local bus carrier to keep a Thruway bus running on that route.

After the IC-3 Flexliner is done with revenue service on the Hiawathas this month, it heads to Minnesota for demonstration trips in July from Hastings to the Twin Cities and St. Cloud.

The Vermont legislature this month approved a measure directing the state Agency of Transportation to work to restore train service to Montreal.

Former Amtrak President Paul Reistrup will be the new vice president for passenger integration at CSX on July 1.