Quick Morning-After Look at the Political Landscape

A Democratic House presents new opportunities and challenges. While control of the agenda will rest in more positive hands—including Rep. Jim Oberstar (D-MN) as probable chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee—funding likely will remain tough. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the presumed next Speaker, has said Democrats would focus aggressively on improving fiscal discipline to rein back budget deficits. While she has always been supportive of Amtrak, her web site highlights these issues: Iraq, The Economy, Education, The Environment, Health Care and Social Security, with no mention of public transportation.

Two other cautionary notes to keep in mind:

—The loss of many Republican supporters of passenger rail could complicate bipartisan efforts [Senators Chafee (RI), DeWine (OH), Santorum (PA)]. The Montana race is undecided; a Burns loss without Democrats getting a clear majority could be particularly problematic for long-distance trains, since he is a senior member of the appropriations committee and a friend of the transportation subcommittee chairman (Bond, R-MO). In the House, Reps. Johnson (CT), Fitzpatrick (PA), Sweeney and Kelly (NY), were not re-elected.

—The highway trust fund heading into deficit status within two years represents a potential further obstacle to getting stable funding for passenger rail. Indeed, DOT Secretary Mary Peters said in an interview last month “that Americans shouldn’t expect the federal government to pick up as much of the cost of making needed improvements in the nation’s highway and surface transportation systems as it has in previous decades.”
In any event, there are lots of new relationships for us to build, and a strong case for passenger rail in general which dovetails well with continuing news about global warming and the energy situation—including today’s Washington Post op ed column by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and a new report yesterday from the International Energy Agency. The IEA says the world is on course for going “from crisis to crisis” which may mean “skyrocketing prices or more frequent blackouts; can mean more supply disruptions, more meteorological catastrophes—or all these at the same time.” Part of our job is to keep reminding our leaders that rail is relevant to this, as NARP noted in our November 3 release.

—Ross Capon