Same Old Song and Dance

So it appears we are going down a similar funding path for Amtrak as last year.  The House Appropriations Subcommittee and full committee approve an inadequate figure after rejecting amendments to raise the funding, attempts will be made to raise the funding level on the full House floor, with the ultimate idea that the whole thing is shipped over to the Senate with a note that says, “Dear Senate.  You fix this.  Sincerely, The House.”

All this goes on while highway, aviation and to some extent transit funding is behind a “firewall,” unable to be reduced or used to fund anything else.  That in and of itself is not necessarily a bad thing: transportation funding needs to be predictable and protected.  But why doesn’t passenger rail benefit from this?

Anyone reading this blog probably knows the issues behind it.  But the bottom line is that it makes funding Amtrak—and thus an entire mode of transportation—difficult to impossible.  Try to explain to anyone outside Washington the logic of cutting the most energy efficient form of transportation, given the world energy situation!

[Read our May 19 hotline for more details on Amtrak energy efficiency.  Its in the 6th paragraph.]

Now more than ever, America needs an Amtrak reauthorization, with that coveted federal-state funding match for infrastructure and equipment investment.