WASHINGTON — According to Reuters, a key House of Representatives committee approved a Republican-led plan on Thursday that Democrats said would force financially ailing Amtrak to cut several long-distance routes next year.
The appropriations transportation subcommittee was considering a $60 billion transportation spending bill for fiscal 2003. That measure also includes $5.1 billion for high-profile aviation and port security initiatives, $27.7 billion for highways, and $13.6 billion for the Federal Aviation Administration.
The panel will hold a final vote on the full spending bill next week. The Senate Appropriations Committee has already approved its version of the legislation, including a plan to fund Amtrak at its requested level of $1.2 billion.
The House panel’s Republican leaders want to cut that request to $762 million.
Subcommittee leaders proposed that Amtrak shut down long-distance routes that lose more than $200 per passenger. That would mean the end of approximately six routes, including venerable services like the Southwest Chief, the Pennsylvanian, the California Zephyr, and the Texas Eagle.
But an amendment approved by the subcommittee eliminated any mention of specific route cuts and per-passenger caps, leaving it up to Amtrak to squeeze into a $150 million long-haul budget. That figure represents about 75 percent of what the railroad said it needs to operate that service next year.
“Amtrak will be forced to pull themselves into the 21st century,” said Rep. Harold Rogers, a Kentucky Republican and chairman of the subcommittee.
But many Democrats said no railroad in the world is held to the same financial standards as Amtrak, and want Congress to increase, not cut, funding for the nation’s only long distance passenger rail service.
They asserted that the language on long haul service that was approved by the panel meant nothing because routes were still going to be cut. They said passengers just would not know in advance.
“It reminds me of an arranged marriage,” said Rep. David Obey, a Wisconsin Democrat. “Before the amendment the bride at least knows what she’s getting.”
Republicans fended off Democratic amendments seeking to bump up overall funding for Amtrak to its request for $1.2 billion from the proposed $762 million. Republicans said the bill already exceeded the committee’s budget authority.
The Bush administration has demanded that Amtrak, which has never made money in its 31-year history and lost $1.1 billion in 2001, reform its business practices before getting any more federal subsidies.