Transportation, Treasury, Housing and Urban Development, the Judiciary, the District of Columbia, and Independent Agencies Appropriations Act, 2006

TRANSPORTATION, TREASURY, HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT, THE JUDICIARY, THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, AND INDEPENDENT AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2006 -- (House of Representatives - June 29, 2005)

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Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman for yielding me time.

During the last 35 years, congressional funding for Amtrak has amounted to roughly $29 billion. It is $29 billion from the taxpayers that were given for a system which we really do believe in, but back in 1997 with its reauthorization, Amtrak came to the table with an agreement that they would change their operations and become profitable.

Today, Members of Congress come to the floor to ask, once again, for Amtrak to do exactly that. We have heard, boy, there is not enough money there; we are going from hand to mouth. Yet, we know that there is $83 million that Amtrak loses alone just in its food service on trains.

I would submit to this body that it is time now that we take additional steps to do the right thing, to give Amtrak that necessary kick in the pants that allows it to be able to offer its service on a more efficient basis, a market-based way, and this will allow us the opportunity to end this large subsidy, to have Amtrak do something that the American public not only has confidence in but is run on market-based forces. I would submit to my colleagues, they will become a better transportation service.

I support what the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Knollenberg) is doing in his bill. The President of the United States is correct, and the gentleman from California (Mr. Lewis), our Committee on Appropriations chairman, is right. It is time that we take on this unwieldy process of spending $1 billion a year as a subsidy.

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