To House Appropriations Chairman Jerry Lewis

June 5, 2006

The Honorable Jerry Lewis
Chairman, Committee on Appropriations, U.S. House of Representatives
H-218 United States Capitol Building
Washington, D.C.  20515

Dear Chairman Lewis:

The National Association of Railroad Passengers strongly supports Amtrak’s FY 2007 Grant Request of $1.598 billion as well as an additional $275 million in “strategic investment initiatives.”  This is the second straight year that an all-Bush-appointed, all-Republican board has supported a significant increase in Amtrak and passenger rail funding.

In any event, the $900 million which the subcommittee approved is not viable, as Chairman Knollenberg implied the day of the subcommittee’s mark-up, when he said, ” Obviously, we’re going to have to look for an increase in funding down the way.” And Rep. John Olver (D-MA) called $900 million “a shutdown number.”

Americans want more and better passenger rail. They made this clear in a Harris Poll taken last December, well before recent oil price increases.  The public “gets” the connection between better public transportation and this from President Bush’s State of the Union message: “America is addicted to oil, which is often imported from unstable parts of the world.” Americans understand that strengthening and expanding passenger rail will help reduce their vulnerability to high energy prices.

My April 14 statement to the subcommittee is available on our website, click on “What’s New?”  My similar May 30 statement to your Senate counterpart is at the same location.

I call your attention in particular to this, from the latter statement: “We urge Congress to hold Amtrak accountable for the bottom line, but to be as restrained as possible with regard to specific directives as to how to get there…The more the law contains specific directives about how to manage the company, the greater the danger that management focus would be distracted from doing what is best for the bottom line, and that responsibility for results would shift from management to the sources of the specific directives.”

Thank you for your consideration of our views.

Sincerely,

Ross B. Capon
Executive Director

cc: Representative David Obey, Ranking Member, Committee on Appropriations, U.S. House of Representatives

Representative Joseph Knollenberg, Chairman, Subcommittee on Transportation,
Treasury, and Housing and Urban Development, The Judiciary, District of Columbia and Independent Agencies of the Committee on Appropriations, U.S. House of Representatives

Representative John Olver, Ranking Member, Subcommittee on Transportation,
Treasury, and Housing and Urban Development, The Judiciary, District of Columbia and Independent Agencies of the Committee on Appropriations, U.S. House of Representatives

All members of the Subcommittee on Transportation, Treasury, and Housing and Urban Development, The Judiciary, District of Columbia and Independent Agencies of the Committee on Appropriations, U.S. House of Representatives