Hotline #41-A - July 8, 1998

The Senate Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee finally met late this afternoon. They approved a 1999 transportation funding bill with $555 million for Amtrak, about 90% of what Amtrak had requested and a vast improvement over the zero that the Subcommittee for weeks had been prepared to approve. This was a big victory for the Subcommittee's ranking Democrat, Frank Lautenberg (N.J.), who kept delaying the meeting while trying to solve the problem. On July 7, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R.-Miss.) had said publicly that he hoped Amtrak would get funded in this bill.

This is good news for all who care about passenger train service. Amtrak Acting President George Warrington hailed the outcome. He said it "is clear recognition of the agreement between Congress, the Administration and Amtrak to preserve and strengthen national passenger rail service in the United States." Warrington added, "For its part, Amtrak is fulfilling its commitment with major reforms and market-driven business strategies that have increased ridership, improved its financial performance and put it on the right track."

The full Senate Appropriations Committee is expected to approve the new bill July 10. Also, the House Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee will take up a bill of its own on July 14.

Thank you, all of you, who have worked hard through this latest crisis. But now it is time to turn our attention to the House -- and quickly. Tell your Representatives that the House Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee, chaired by Frank Wolf (R.-Va.) must also fund Amtrak in 1999, hopefully at the full, requested level of $621 million.

It is still not clear what the outcome was on the question of getting Amtrak the same definition of capital as transit already has -- in other words, allowing appropriated capital to be spent on maintenance items. That's still important, and needs to be part of the House bill in any event.