(The following article by Herb Jackson was posted on the Bergen Record website on February 28.)
WASHINGTON — Railroads dominated Sen. Frank Lautenberg’s return from a weeklong congressional recess Tuesday as he presided at a hearing on providing $19 billion for Amtrak and prepared to add $400 million for Hudson and East River tunnel safety to a 9/11-related security bill on the Senate floor.
The Senate began debating a bill to implement the remaining recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, including more funds for first responder communications and controversial changes to federal ID provisions and union representation for homeland security employees.
Lautenberg’s office expected the bill would be amended to include $400 million he has been seeking for safety improvements to tunnels used by Amtrak, NJ Transit and the Long Island Rail Road.
About 6,000 Bergen and Passaic county commuters ride NJ Transit trains through the Hudson River tunnels each day.
Along with fire suppression and ventilation improvements, the money would be used to widen emergency stairways that are nearly a century old so escaping passengers could get out at the same time rescue personnel were heading in. The current stairways are only wide enough for one person, a Lautenberg aide said.
Lautenberg, D-N.J., got the tunnel funds added to a $1.1 billion rail and bus security bill that cleared the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee on Feb. 13.
Lautenberg is chairman of that committee’s surface transportation subcommittee, which held a hearing Tuesday on a bill to authorize spending more than $19 billion on Amtrak through 2012.
That bill includes funding for bridge and signal improvements on the Boston-to-Washington Northeast Corridor that are expected to reduce delays for New Jersey commuters because NJ Transit uses the corridor extensively.
To combat the impression that Amtrak is important only to the Northeast, however, Lautenberg invited officials from Oregon and Wisconsin, who also praised the bill. The bill has bipartisan sponsorship from Lautenberg and Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., but it faces opposition from the Bush administration, which has been trying to get Amtrak to operate more like a business and pay its own way.
“The administration believes operating subsidies should be eliminated,” Joseph H. Boardman, administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration, told the subcommittee.
Congress has consistently rebuffed that position, however, and Lautenberg believes it is ready to go even further and make a long-term commitment to Amtrak. He argued that a first-class passenger rail system contributes to several policy goals, including reducing pollution and congestion and providing flexibility in the event of terrorist attacks or natural disaster.
The Lautenberg-Lott bill would provide about $1.9 billion in annual subsidies each year for six years. Congress allocated $1.3 billion for Amtrak this year after Bush asked for $900 million. Bush’s budget proposal for the next fiscal year allocates only $800 million.
The bill also would provide an additional $1.3 billion in bonding each year for capital improvements.
Lautenberg said the Amtrak bill has broad support on the committee and that he expects to see it advance to the full Senate this spring.