(The following article by Raju Chebium was posted on the Cherry Hill Courier Post website on June 15.)
WASHINGTON — America’s national passenger railroad is likely to get more money than the Bush administration wanted, although perhaps less than it says it needs.
The House has voted to give Amtrak $200 million more than the administration proposed.
The White House proposed $900 million for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1.
Late Tuesday, the House voted 266-158 for a measure giving Amtrak just over $1.1 billion.
The Senate, where Amtrak has strong bipartisan support, is expected to take up the funding question later this summer.
Although Amtrak says it needs $1.6 billion, spokesman Cliff Black on Wednesday called the House-approved budget a “positive milestone.”
Ross Capon of the pro-Amtrak National Association of Railroad Passengers said lawmakers likely won’t cut funding for Amtrak during an election year when gas prices are soaring and voters want alternatives to driving.
Passengers take more than 25 million trips a year on Amtrak.
Reps. Steven LaTourette, R-Ohio, and Rep. Jim Oberstar, D-Minn., wrote to their colleagues that Amtrak must be rewarded for aggressively cutting costs and undertaking other reforms despite tight budgetary times.
“From its creation in the 1970s, Amtrak has been on a starvation diet,” they wrote in a letter before the House voted on the Amtrak budget. “Yet, despite chronic underfunding, Amtrak has made substantial progress.”
LaTourette, who heads the railroads subcommittee of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, proposed the $1.1 billion figure as part of a larger spending bill for the transportation, housing and treasury departments.
Oberstar is the senior Democrat on the House transportation committee.