Happening Now
INVEST in America Act - Amendment Tracker
June 16, 2020
Rail Passengers has endorsed the INVEST in America Act, which would invest more than $58 billion in America’s rail network over the next five years.
As the House Committee on Transportation & Infrastructure considers amendments ahead of the June 17th markup, we wanted to share our position on the amendments we are tracking.
INVEST Amendment Tracker – Rail Passengers Association Position
Crawford 49 – OPPOSE: Eliminates Amtrak Preference Enforcement, which allows Amtrak to enforce its statutory right to preferential dispatching by initiating action before the Surface Transportation Board.
Garcia 064– SUPPORT: Creates parity between highway and transit funding.
Mitchell 064 – OPPOSE: Eliminates the Passenger Rail Improvement, Modernization, and Expansion (PRIME) Grants, an exciting new capital investment program to improve the state of good repair, operational performance, and growth of the U.S. intercity passenger rail network.
Cohen 090 – SUPPORT: Reinstates the recently eliminated dining car service on long-distance routes.
Cohen 091 – SUPPORT: Expands TIFIA financing for Transit Oriented Development by making commercial and residential development eligible for TIFIA (15% cap per year).
Pappas RR – OPPOSE: Takes $100 million per year in public funding from Amtrak’s National Network authorization amount to subsidize loans to freight and passenger rail projects.
Graves LA 122 – OPPOSE: Reduces transit formula dollars in FY22 by the amount of coronavirus relief funds the transit agency received from the CARES act in excess of 50% of what the agency received in FY2020.
"The National Association of Railroad Passengers has done yeoman work over the years and in fact if it weren’t for NARP, I'd be surprised if Amtrak were still in possession of as a large a network as they have. So they've done good work, they're very good on the factual case."
Robert Gallamore, Director of Transportation Center at Northwestern University and former Federal Railroad Administration official, Director of Transportation Center at Northwestern University
November 17, 2005, on The Leonard Lopate Show (with guest host Chris Bannon), WNYC New York.
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