Transportation, Housing And Urban Development, And Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2008

Floor Speech

TRANSPORTATION, HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2008 -- (House of Representatives - July 24, 2007)

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Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Chairman, my amendment is very straightforward. It would eliminate funding for the absolute worst performing line at Amtrak, the Sunset Limited, which runs from New Orleans to Los Angeles.

In 1997, Congress passed the Amtrak Reform and Accountability Act, which required that Amtrak operate without any Federal operating assistance after 2002. Despite this commonsense requirement that they cease their fiscal irresponsibility and mismanagement, since Amtrak was supposed to be operating free of Federal subsidy, it has, instead, cost the taxpayers $3 billion in operating expenses.

Mr. Chairman, people tuned in on C-SPAN to watch this debate may be wondering what exactly this $3 billion in taxpayer funding is paying for. Well, in the case of the Sunset Limited, it is being used to subsidize the travels of a very few passengers who want to take a train from New Orleans to Los Angeles.

The trip is scheduled to take 46 hours and 20 minutes to complete, that is, assuming the train is running on time. This occurrence is, however, exceedingly unlikely. According to Amtrak's most recent monthly performance report, the Sunset Limited was only on time 11 percent of the time. This makes the Sunset Limited the third worst on-time performer for any of Amtrak's 33 routes during 2007.

Perhaps, Mr. Chairman, taxpayers should be happy when the train is not running, though, because when it is, the route loses an average of almost $30 million a year. This means that Amtrak and the American taxpayer lose $0.57 per mile for each passenger on this train. For 2006, it cost the Federal Government $524 per passenger on that route, more than revenue that was brought in.

Mr. Chairman, my amendment is the first step to instilling just a small measure of fiscal discipline at Amtrak. Failure to do so will only allow Amtrak to continue misusing and wasting taxpayer dollars.

This amendment is supported by the National Taxpayers Union, Americans for Tax Reform, and Citizens Against Government Waste. I hope that all my colleagues will join me and those taxpayer advocates in saving the taxpayers from throwing more good money after bad on the Sunset Limited.

I urge all my colleagues to support this amendment.

Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

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