WASHINGTON, D.C. — Amtrak’s future, already clouded by debt and mismanagement, was thrown into the political competition on Capitol Hill today after a large group of Democratic senators pressured the White House to keep passenger trains running with an emergency infusion of cash, according to the New York Times.
The more than 30 Democrats proposed to provide $205 million to Amtrak from an emergency spending bill, and House Republicans offered to consider the request in exchange for getting their way on an unrelated issue, extending the debt limit. But the Bush Administration said little about its plans, spending the day huddled with railroad officials in an attempt to avert a shutdown of Amtrak without an outright cash bailout.
While the Democrats fretted about the possibility of a shutdown that could strand hundreds of thousands of commuters, mostly in the Northeast, administration officials said they still needed to see major reforms that could finally make Amtrak profitable.
“We are determined to keep Amtrak service going, but also to see the beginning of change from Amtrak,” said Mitchell Daniels, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, in an interview. Referring to the Amtrak board of directors, he continued, “This board, very honestly, if they were serving in a private capacity, would have probably been forced to resign, if not face severe sanctions at this point. Taxpayers are going to be hit for more money for Amtrak, so it is time for Amtrak to begin to change.”
Transportation officials said the White House was assembling a package of loan guarantees that could allow Amtrak to operate for the next month or so, combined with small changes in the railroad’s bookkeeping procedures, like paying bills late and speeding up collections. But David Gunn, Amtrak’s new president, did not back off his statement on Monday that such temporary changes would only delay Amtrak’s demise, not avert it.
House Republican leaders were even more blunt than the administration in their disdain for Amtrak and its three decades of dependence on the federal treasury. Dick Armey of Texas, the House majority leader, said he had no particular affection for the railroad, which he referred to as a “parochial interest” of certain elected officials.
But he said the House would consider the $205 million cash infusion proposed by the Senate Democrats if the House could get its way on other aspects of the emergency spending bill, now bottled up in a conference between the two houses.