(The Associated Press circulated the following article on September 14.)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawmakers on Tuesday warned that Amtrak, the financially struggling national passenger railroad, could go out of business next year if Congress goes along with a $900 million funding level supported by the Bush administration.
“At this level, there should be no surprise next spring when Amtrak must curtail services,” said Rep. John Olver, D-Mass., as the House began debate on an $89.9 billion bill to fund Transportation and Treasury Department programs in the coming budget year.
The administration, said Rep. James McGovern, another Massachusetts Democrat, was engaged in the “the continued conscious and deliberate underfunding of Amtrak.”
Showing the strength of the opposition to the railway, Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Col., succeeded in raising a procedural point of order that, for the moment, eliminated all funding for Amtrak from the bill. “’Scamtrak’ has been a train wreck for the American taxpayers,” he said.
Rep. Ernest Istook, R-Okla., chairman of the subcommittee in charge of the bill, gave assurances that all the money for Amtrak, and many other programs temporarily deleted from the bill in a turf battle among different committees, would be restored as the legislation advances.
But he added that “the administration believes and I agree that realistic Amtrak reform has to be enacted before we start putting more money into that passenger rail service.” He said the federal government had provided $40 billion over the past 30 years for Amtrak.
A Senate subcommittee approved $1.2 billion for Amtrak, while Amtrak officials say $1.8 billion is needed to keep the railway operating.
On another controversial issue, the House voted to remove language in the bill that would have barred American banks from accepting as identification a document the Mexican government issues to Mexicans in the United States, many of whom are illegal immigrants.
The Treasury Department allows financial institutions to accept the “matricula consular” cards as part of Patriot Act requirements that customers produce identification in opening bank accounts.
The aim is to combat money laundering and terrorist financing, but Rep. John Culberson, R-Texas, who attached the ban on the Mexican IDs during a subcommittee vote, contended that the IDs are easily forged. “This is a straight-up national security issue.”
But the Bush administration opposed the Culberson language, and it was stricken from the bill by a bipartisan vote of 222-177.
“It’s not about good or bad IDs; it’s about whether we are going to ask financial service customers for any ID at all,” said Rep. Michael Oxley, R-Ohio, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee.
The “matricula consular,” said the Hispanic Alliance for Progress Institute, “has eliminated barriers and helped create new banking/financial services options for the large number of unbanked individuals and families who pay exorbitant fees for basic financial transactions.”