Amtrak may be a money-loser, but as House Republicans are learning, it has millions of defenders who are being directed by unions and rail-rider commuter groups to pound lawmakers’ offices in an effort to derail the chamber’s proposed 64 percent slash in the quasi-public, federally subsidized train operation’s budget.
They’re calling Congressional reps’ offices right this instant as the House spends a second day deliberating its proposed $93 billion Fiscal Year 2024 (FY24) Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development (THUD) budget with the sun setting Nov. 7 and many more amendments to go.
Through Nov. 6 and into Nov. 7, the Rail Passengers Association has been imploring its 780,000 members to call their Congressional reps and demand Amtrak be fully funded.
“One last push! This could come up for a vote at any time,” the association beseeched on X around mid-afternoon on Nov. 7. “Call your Rep. now and tell them to vote ‘no’ on #HR4820.”
The “apocalyptic cut” is drawing sharp rebukes from the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers (SMART), which includes Amtrak employees among its 203,000 members.
Ahead: Long Night’s Journey To Impasse
After five hours of the Nov. 6 debate, the House adjourned with 38-of-49 proposed amendments to HR 4820 remaining on the docket.Two hours into Nov. 7’s floor discourse, a final up-or-down vote on the proposed spending package appeared hours, maybe days, away.
The House has adopted seven of the 12 spending bills that constitute the annual federal budget. The Senate has adopted three, including a $101.6 billion THUD budget that varies significantly from the House’s version, HR 4820.
The House and Senate must each adopt all 12 FY24 spending bills, negotiate a common budget that both chambers can approve, and send it to President Joe Biden to sign before a 45-day stopgap measure funding the federal government at FY23 levels expires on Nov. 17.
The House transportation and housing spending plan trims mass transit funding by 85 percent, defunds regulatory allocations for assistance in greenhouse gas and carbon emission reduction targets, cuts the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) overall budget by 10 percent, and eliminates or drastically reduces funding for numerous housing programs.
Among amendments passed in voice votes—but awaiting recorded vote affirmation—are proposals to strip funding for the Department of Transportation (DOT) and HUD Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs and federal grant funding for the Washington Metro train system.
GOP: Can’t Afford Money-Loser
But it may be the 64 percent slash in the House’s proposed $876 million FY24 Amtrak budget, including a 92-percent gutting of annual appropriations for its Northeast Corridor, that lawmakers’ call fielders are getting earfuls about.The House GOP budget proposal would slash annual allocations for Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor from $1.3 billion to $99 million. Under HR 4820, Amtrak’s annual budget would fall just below what it was in 2003.
One after another, Republicans argued—still are at 5:30 p.m. on Nov. 7—that the nation is $33 trillion in debt with another $3 trillion likely to be added by this time next year.
“We’re running a $2 trillion [annual] deficit” and simply can’t afford to subsidize Amtrak as it loses $750 million a year, House Rules Committee Chair Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) said.
“We regret we have to make some adjustments, but we need to begin to bring this deficit down. [HR 4820] responsibly does that.”
Plus, House Republicans say, 2021’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law [BIL] earmarks billions for Amtrak to pursue major capital projects that would modernize and expand America’s aging rail infrastructure.
Even with the 64 percent slash in its annual budget, Amtrak would receive more than twice its usual $2.4 billion annual subsidy. House Republicans maintain with $4.4 billion in BIL grants, the $876 annual allocation earmarks more than $5.2 billion for Amtrak.
Examples of BIL funding include July’s $6.8 billion grant for the Gateway project in New York and New Jersey to build new Amtrak and New Jersey Transit tunnels under the Hudson River into New York City.
Mr. Cole noted that very day, Nov. 6, Mr. Biden—self-referred to as “Amtrak Joe” because he commuted regularly by rail from his Delaware home to Washington when a U.S. Senator—announced a $16.4 billion investment in Northeast Corridor rail projects.
Padding those subsidies with additional billions when Amtrak is already receiving funding “higher than it has ever, ever seen in the past” doesn’t make sense, he said, “particularly given the fact that their ridership is at its lowest level” in a slump that began during the 2020-21 pandemic.
One-after-another, Democrats accused Republicans of deceit: BIL money can only legally be spent on infrastructure projects, they said. That infrastructure money cannot be diverted to sustain operations.
The Democrat-led Senate’s FY24 Amtrak appropriation matches the administration’s $2.4 budget request, which would mean it would actually receive $6.8 billion in funding next year.
BIL Money Only For Projects
Founded in 1971 as the National Railroad Passenger Corp. (NRPC), the quasi-public company receives a combination of state and federal subsidies but is managed as a for-profit organization that, House Republicans say, has never turned a profit and is unlikely to do so in the future.The NRPC operates under the name of Amtrak—a blending of America Tracks—and spans a network of more than 500 stations along 21,400 miles of track across 46 of the 48 lower states and three Canadian provinces that are integrated with inner-city rail lines.
In FY22, Amtrak served 22.9 million passengers and generated $2.1 billion in revenues to offset its average $2.4 billion in annual federal subsidies. It has more than 17,000 employees.
Nearly 87,000 passengers ride more than 300 Amtrak trains daily, Amtrak documents. Nearly two-thirds of those passengers use Amtrak trains in the nation’s 10 largest metropolitan areas with 83 percent traveling on routes shorter than 400 miles.
When proposed HR 4820 cuts emerged from the House Transportation and Infrastructure and Appropriations committees in June, Amtrak CEO Stephen Gardner warned it would have to “radically reduce or suspend service on various routes across the nation” and the cuts would mean longer delays, higher fares, and fewer rail options.
Mr. Gardner said it is true Amtrak has funding through BIL unrelated to its annual budget allocation, but Republicans know that money has to be used for infrastructure improvements and not operations.
“Amtrak’s funds can primarily be used only for major infrastructure projects and equipment procurements, not the basic maintenance, operations, and routine day-to-day expenditures supported by our annual appropriations,” he said.
Amtrak employees’ union, SMART, called the cuts “anti-American” and “an attack on America’s public passenger rail transportation, and … on working Americans.
“If Amtrak is not fully funded, it could kill thousands of railroad industry jobs, which will negatively impact our communities.”
In addition, he said, the bill would “halt work on scores of state-sponsored transit and intercity rail infrastructure projects that will benefit tens of millions of Americans.”
GOP Reps Tossed Under Train
SMART took partial credit for HR 4820’s floor vote, originally scheduled for Nov. 2—it was advanced by the Rules Committee in a partisan 8–3 Nov. 1 vote—being pushed back to Nov. 6.“Several Republican reps have expressed that this ‘halting’ of the vote is directly related to concerns raised about Amtrak cuts. While this is very welcome news, the threat is not over,” it said in calling on members to “contact your congressional representatives and express, in no uncertain terms, that cuts to Amtrak funding … is not a responsible way to patch the holes in this nation’s budget.”
“Slashing funding from $1.3 billion to $99 million would interrupt service, bring a halt to essential infrastructure repairs and equipment overhauls required to keep trains running, and cause an immense strain on the millions of commuters, leisure travelers, and businesspeople who rely on this corridor daily,” the lawmakers wrote.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) said of course House Republicans who represent Congressional districts in Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor can’t vote for the bill if they want to be reelected by commuters who rely on rail systems, not just Amtrak, to make a living.
Amtrak and commuter rail are “the lifeblood of a $5.8 trillion economic region that spans 12 states, from Virginia to Maine. Business travelers and commuters, myself included, rely on this service to make our economy grow,” she said.
“Thousands across the region are employed directly or indirectly by rail service and the commerce that it drives.”
