Hotline #761-A - February 24, 1993

Newspapers this morning carried the news that President Clinton has delayed his economic stimulus and deficit reduction package. Nevertheless, the House Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee is marking it up at 5:00 pm today and is expected to approve it. After that, it is hard to tell how fast it will move. Clinton has been under heavy pressure from conservative and freshman Democrats in the House, who are demanding that the spending-cut parts of the package should come before the economic stimulus spending.

NARP is still pleased with two important features of the package as announced last week -- the $188 million in extra Amtrak capital in fiscal 1993 and the energy tax that taxes petroleum at about twice the rate per Btu as other forms of energy.

Because of these very good features, Congress needs to hear good things about the package right away, so NARP members need to continue calling and writing all their Members of Congress to heap praise on the Amtrak money and the energy tax in the Clinton plan.

Two hearings were held yesterday on the Clinton proposals.

Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D.-N.J.), chairman of the Senate Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee, held a hearing yesterday morning in which DOT Secretary Federico Pena was the sole witness. Lautenberg is in favor of a stimulus package, though he pointed out that the Clinton plan is smaller than his own supplemental funding bill, S.249, introduced last month. Lautenberg, as usual, said many very good things about Amtrak. At one point, he asked Pena if, in light of the $1.4 billion in long-term spending the Clinton Administration proposed for maglev or high-speed rail, the Administration also favors addressing Amtrak's huge unmet capital needs. Pena said simply that current levels of funding were foreseen for Amtrak in the next four years.

In the afternoon, another hearing was held by House Transportation Appropriations Chairman Bob Carr (D.-Mich.). He supports the package but is skeptical of transportation infrastructure spending as economic stimulus, per se. Secretary Pena and others testified, including Amtrak President Graham Claytor. He was pressed hardest by Rep. Frank Wolf (R.-Va.), who doubted how much Amtrak needs the extra capital money this year, saying, "Everyone looks at [the package] as a pork vehicle ... People don't seem to think deficit reduction matters." Carr held yet another hearing this morning, with conservative economists criticizing the Clinton plan.

The State of North Carolina took delivery today of four coaches to be used on a second 403(b) train between Raleigh and Charlotte. The cars had been rebuilt at the Delaware Car Company in Wilmington and were moved south on today's Carolinian. The new train, to be called the Piedmont, is expected to start up in June. The cars' interiors are beautiful, they ride smoothly, and passengers in the Tar Heel State should be pleased.