WASHINGTON, D.C. — Now get this straight, the Washington Post says.
Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) is so upset that Congress isn’t keeping its promises on Amtrak security funding that he puts a hold on two Transportation Department nominees.
But these two well-respected men might play key roles in developing a plan to revitalize the passenger train. Biden himself calls them “fine, decent and competent people” and he’s all for them and says they should be approved. But not until he’s satisfied.
The administration decided to apply a little pressure on Biden, by withholding the third $90,000 installment of a $270,000 grant to a University of Delaware professor’s research project.
If the professor’s idea works, the government could save millions of dollars. His project is aimed at letting trains travel faster on some parts of the Washington-New York Northeast Corridor by using a simple track pad rather than replacing a number of bridges that won’t allow high train speeds.
No solution seems to be in sight.
Welcome to the wild wacky world of Washington politics, where people sometimes destroy the village to save it.
The two nominees are Jeffrey N. Shane, a former DOT assistant secretary who reluctantly left a partnership at the Washington law firm Hogan & Hartson to accept the post of undersecretary for policy, and Emil H. Frankel, a former Connecticut transportation commissioner who was nominated assistant secretary for policy.
Shane, whose background is in aviation, has spent many hours asking questions about Amtrak and passenger rail in preparation for the inevitable debate over a solution to the deteriorating passenger rail corporation. The railroaders he has talked to seem impressed.
Frankel not only knows a lot about passenger rail, but also comes from a Northeast Corridor state where he shared Biden’s passion for trains as a partial solution to gridlock. Both seem to be natural Biden allies. In fact, Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta personally begged Biden to release his hold so the department could get on with doing things that Biden strongly supports.
But Biden said in a Senate speech March 13 that he will not back down.
“I do not know what else to do — stand on my head in the middle of the well to get the attention of people around here?” Biden said.
What Biden wants is Senate action on a $1.8 billion bill to provide passenger rail security improvements. The bill was cleared for floor action months ago after Biden agreed not to attach it to an aviation security bill. But several Republican senators have put a secret hold on the bill, so it cannot be debated.
Biden said he had never before put a hold on any nominee or bill in his 29 years in the Senate, but “my frustration is reaching the boiling point.”
Biden said rail passengers are in danger particularly because long rail tunnels in New York and Baltimore, some of which were dug in 1879, have inadequate safety escapes, are poorly maintained, poorly ventilated and poorly lighted.
“Imagine what happens if a bomb, a chemical weapon or a biological weapon is dispersed in that confined area,” he said.
That leaves a confused professor at the University of Delaware, Arnold Kerr, who was expecting the final $90,000 installment of his grant in February. A Biden staffer said Kerr called the Transportation Department to inquire, and an official said he should ask Biden.
If Kerr’s research project works, that relatively small $270,000 grant could balloon into many millions in savings for the government.
That’s because a number of short bridges in the Northeast Corridor, particularly in the Chester, Pa., area are of a type that limits trains to 90 mph. To get higher speeds, eventually 150 mph, it has been assumed those bridges must be replaced.
But Kerr is experimenting with a track pad that would “soften” the impact of high-speed trains on the bridges, allowing higher speeds.
Kerr, Shane and Frankel must wonder what it’s like to have enemies.