(The Associated Press circulated the following article on July 19.)
WASHINGTON — President Bush’s plans to close down Amtrak’s money-losing long distance routes were dealt another setback Tuesday as a Senate panel approved a sizable boost to the budget for the ailing railroad. The move earned an immediate veto threat from the Bush administration.
The latest development in the struggle over Amtrak’s future came as a Senate Appropriations Committee panel unanimously approved a $136 billion bill for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1 for transportation and housing programs and Treasury Department agencies like the IRS.
Bush’s February budget proposed eliminating Amtrak’s operating subsidy and setting aside $360 million to run trains along the Northeast Corridor if the railroad were to slide into bankruptcy. The administration says the plan ultimately would produce a passenger rail system with stronger routes and entice subsidies from local governments.
Amtrak received a $1.2 billion subsidy for the current year but the Senate measure would boost that to $1.4 billion for next year.
Sen. Christopher Bond, R-Mo., chairman of the Senate Appropriations transportation subcommittee, said Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta told him the higher funding could result in a veto.
He said Mineta called him just before the hearing and ”was pleased to convey to me that without a major reform package, the president’s advisers would recommend a veto … with funding at that level.”
Bond originally proposed a significant cut to Amtrak’s budget, but was overruled by powerful Amtrak advocates such as Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., Arlen Specter, R-Pa., and Appropriations Committee Chairman Thad Cochran, R-Miss. Specter said the administration needed to come up with more specific reform proposals.
Amtrak runs trains through almost every state, which gives it great support among lawmakers, especially in the Senate, where 92 of 100 senators represent states with Amtrak service. As a sign of Amtrak’s popularity, at least one senator, Conrad Burns, R-Mont., promised to resist a proposal in the bill to curb food and beverage service that loses, on average, $2 for every $1 in revenue.
”I don’t feel we have an advocate for Amtrak at the Department of Transportation right now, so that means we must win this fight here in Congress,” Burns said.
The administration’s plans would threaten iconic but money-losing routes such as the City of New Orleans route between New Orleans and Chicago, the Empire Builder across the Northern Plains and the Sunset Limited from Florida to Los Angeles.
”Amtrak needs to take a serious look at its long-distance routes,” said Transportation Department spokesman Robert Johnson, who declined to discuss the veto promise until Transportation officials have more time to examine the bill. ”They shouldn’t just run regardless of how much they cost.”
An attempt by the House Appropriations Committee to cut the railroad’s budget by more than half and cut off subsidies for every cross-country route was reversed by the full House last month.
Taken together, the House and Senate actions make it plain that Congress simply doesn’t have the stomach to close down Amtrak routes. Still, the administration’s veto promise adds to pressure on Congress to pass a separate Amtrak reform bill.
Amtrak hailed Tuesday’s development.
”There’s still a lot more to be done at Amtrak,” said Chief Executive Officer David Gunn. ”Adequate federal funding in the year ahead is both a sign of support for what we’ve accomplished to date and for the reforms and the improvements in passenger service we continue to seek.”
The underlying spending bill contains a host of other provisions. Like the House bill, it rejected an administration plan to save money by closing 68 of its 400 IRS taxpayer help centers.
The bill also would give federal civilian employees the same 3.1 percent pay increase received by the military. Civilian employees were slated to receive a 2.3 percent increase under Bush’s budget.
And, in more evidence that the bill will have a difficult road to enactment, Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., added language to block new rules that have slowed the pace of U.S. food exports to Cuba by requiring U.S. exporters be paid in cash before a shipment can be sent.