House Votes for Amtrak

Thanks (once again) to the yeoman work of Railroads Subcommittee Chairman Steve LaTourette (R-OH) and James Oberstar (MN), top Democrat on the full Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, the House voted 266-158 (with 71 Republicans voting yes) in favor of adding $214 million for Amtrak to the $900 million the committee had approved.

The LaTourette-Oberstar amendment is roll call vote #263 to H.R. 5576, the “TTHUD” appropriations bill (TTHUD = Transportation, Treasury, Housing and Urban Development, The Judiciary, District of Columbia).  It began at about 9 PM on Tuesday, June 13.  A full listing of the “yeas” and “naes” can be found on the webpage of the Clerk of the House (click on ” 109th Congress, 2nd Session (2006)” then on the roll call vote number (left column).

All 266 deserve our thanks, but also need to be reminded that more funding must be added before the process is complete, that is, in the Senate and in the House-Senate conference. Senate action is expected in July.

Members also need to start hearing about the “death” language in the House bill which is available on-line on the “Thomas” Library of Congress website.  (Enter H.R. 5576 in the “Search Bill Text” field, choose the “Bill Number” bubble, press submit, then click on “Capital and Debt Service Grants to the National Railroad Passenger Corporation.”  It’s the 42nd line in a long list, right after “Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Program” and well above “Title II” and “Department of the Treasury.”).

Perhaps the most deadly parts of the bill are these two provisions:

• Within 120 days of enactment, Amtrak is to give the appropriations committees a plan to make “food and beverage service” and “first class service (including sleeping car service)…revenue neutral or better on a fully allocated cost basis no later than October 1, 2008.”
• The bill also says that “not later than October 1, 2008, Amtrak shall reduce its system overhead expenses by 10 percent from the level identified as existing on October 1, 2006, and in each subsequent fiscal year, reduce system overhead expenses by 10 percent of the level existing on October 1 of the immediate preceding year.”

The above language suggests an attempt to kill Amtrak through the back door, the front door having failed. Legislators—especially senators right now—need to hear that it is unacceptable.

If this language is sincerely aimed at improving Amtrak rather than killing it, what happened to the conservative philosophy of less government interference? With a Republican controlled House, Senate, White House and Amtrak Board why does Congress feel compelled to second guess the decisions of the people they put in charge of Amtrak by using statutes to tell them how in detail to run the business? Lack of trust?