Amtrak, the U.S. passenger railroad
that almost shut down in 2002 from a lack of funds, would get a
28 percent federal budget increase under proposed legislation
approved by a Senate subcommittee.
Amtrak would receive $1.35 billion in the fiscal year that
begins Oct. 1, up from $1.05 billion in the current year,
according to a bill approved by the Senate Appropriations
Committee’s transportation, treasury and general government
subcommittee.
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The proposal is at odds with ones from President George W.
Bush and the House Appropriations Committee, which are trying to
cut Amtrak’s budget 14 percent to $900 million next fiscal year.
Senator Patty Murray of Washington state, the Senate panel’s
top Democrat, said she persuaded the subcommittee’s chairman,
Republican Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama, to change his mind
and support an additional $449 million that was earmarked for
other government agencies, including the Internal Revenue Service. Shelby had proposed $900 million for Amtrak.
“I know at $900 million, they would be shutting tracks
down” and Amtrak would go bankrupt, Murray told reporters after
the vote in Washington.
Shelby said in a statement just before the vote, “I am very
concerned with the direction we are taking Amtrak.”
Amtrak got a $205 million bailout to keep trains running
last year after saying it would have to shut down in July 2002
without the supplement. Amtrak says it needs $1.8 billion in
government funding in the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1.
“Amtrak is encouraged” by the Senate panel vote, said
Cliff Black, a spokesman for the railroad. “We still need” $1.8
billion and will continue to push for that amount, he said.
The Senate bill still must be approved by the full
appropriations committee in a vote scheduled for tomorrow. The
House of Representatives could also vote on its version tomorrow.
The two bills would be reconciled in a conference committee and
face votes in the House and Senate again before going to Bush for
a signature that would enact the legislation.
The Senate bill also would boost highway spending to $33.8
billion, the same level the House Appropriations Committee approved, which is an increase of $4.5 billion over the
president’s request.
The House and Senate bills total about $90 billion in U.S.
transportation program spending in the year that begins Oct. 1.
Bloomberg News
