Sessions Fights Wasteful Spending with AMTRAK Amendment

Press Release

Sessions Fights Wasteful Spending with AMTRAK Amendment

U.S. Congressman Pete Sessions (R-Dallas) introduced an amendment to reduce Amtrak's unprofitable operations by eliminating the worst performing, most money-losing route: the "Sunset Limited," which runs from New Orleans to Los Angeles.

The Sunset Limited route loses an average of almost $30 million a year—which means that Amtrak and the American taxpayer lose 57 cents per mile for each passenger on this train. For fiscal year 2006, it cost the federal government $524 per passenger on this route.

Assuming that the train is running on-time, this trip takes 46 hours and 20 minutes to complete. However, according to Amtrak's most recent monthly performance report, the Sunset Limited was only on-time 11% of the time, making this the third worst on-time performer for any of Amtrak's 33 routes during 2007.

Sessions introduced the amendment to the fiscal year 2008 Transportation, Housing & Urban Development Appropriations bill (H.R. 3074) as part of his effort to trim the nation's fiscal burden by eliminating or significantly reducing wasteful and inefficient government programs that burden American taxpayers.

"Congress has a duty to be responsible with taxpayer money," said Sessions. "If we continue to spend it to subsidize services that do not operate efficiently, we are giving the taxpayers a raw deal.

"Instead, we should lessen the burden on taxpayers by reducing or eliminating wasteful and inefficient government spending," Sessions continued. "One way we can do this is by eliminating a route on which Amtrak consistently loses money."

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source