Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008

Floor Speech

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Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Chairman, I rise today in support of final passage of the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act and to commend Chairman Oberstar, Ranking Member Mica, and Subcommittee Chairwoman Brown and Ranking Member Shuster for their leadership in constructing this bi-partisan bill.

Mr. Chairman, the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008--authorizes appropriations for Amtrak for FY2009-FY2013 and makes long overdue improvements and enhancements to the system. Millions of Americans rely on Amtrak and its local lines for everything from commuting to work to going on holiday. In 2007 alone, 28 million passengers rode Amtrak. Amtrak has become a critical part of the Nation's transportation infrastructure and every effort must be made to sustain the system as a safe and reliable source of transportation.

This bill authorizes $14.5 billion for commuter rail transit enhancements, a high-speed rail service route between New York and Washington, DC, and contains important reforms and operational enhancement. The bill also contains needed accountability measures and capital improvement funding.

To increase accountability, the bill requires Amtrak to implement a modern financial accounting and reporting system. Amtrak must also submit an annual budget and business plan.

With the passage of the Davis/Van Hollen/Hoyer amendment regarding WMATA, the bill also provides a more reliable source of funding for maintenance and improvement projects in the Washington, DC Metro area.

We all know that the Federal Government relies heavily on the Metro system to bring thousands of its employees to work each day: employees of our national security agencies, employees of the Department of Health and Human Services, and all the other Federal agencies that help provide services to the American people. But, the Metro system is also a critical link in any evacuation plan of the Nation's capital.

These are just a couple of the reasons the Federal government has invested billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars in WMATA construction and maintenance projects over the years. Since WMATA's creation, keeping the Metro up and running has become a national priority.

The Davis/Van Hollen/Hoyer amendment helps ensure the Metro remains a reliable source of transportation for Federal employees by authorizing $150 million a year in matching funds for ten years to help WMATA pay for critical improvement and maintenance. But, importantly, these matching funds can only be accessed when the local jurisdictions of Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia contribute their own funds from a dedicated source.

Currently, the Federal Government is at the whim of local jurisdictions on a year-to-year basis, as to whether they will uphold their part of this long-term Federal-local funding partnership regarding WMATA.

Our amendment specifically states that funds authorized in the legislation cannot be available until WMATA notifies the Department of Transportation that local jurisdictions have established a reliable source of funds to pay their share of Metro operating and maintenance costs.

Over the years, Amtrak has proven it is a critical and growing part of the country's transportation infrastructure. Last May, Amtrak ridership rose 12.3 percent from a year earlier, and ticket sales climbed 15.6 percent. Despite continued growth, Amtrak has not been reauthorized since 1997.

With the passage of this bill, we have an opportunity to end 8 years of starvation budgets that have strained Amtrak resources, frozen salaries and delayed capital improvements.

I encourage my colleagues to support final passage of this bill.

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Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Let me begin by congratulating Chairman Oberstar and Ranking Member Mica and the Transportation Committee for all the work they have done in bringing this very important legislation to the floor, and to my colleague, Mr. Davis from Virginia, for his leadership on this issue of the WMATA system, the Washington Metro system. I am pleased to join with him and others in a bipartisan basis from the Washington region to offer this amendment.

I think we all know that the Federal Government relies very heavily on the Metro system to bring thousands and thousands of Federal employees to work each day at our national security agencies, at the Department of Health and Human Services, and other Federal agencies throughout this region that help provide essential services to the American people. It's also a critical part of any evacuation plan in the event of a national emergency that would require the evacuation of the Capitol.

That's one of the reasons the Federal Government has made large investments in the WMATA construction in the past and its maintenance, and that is why it's important that we continue to have a Federal role. What the purpose of this amendment is to protect that Federal amendment, because right now the Federal Government is at the whim of local jurisdictions as to whether or not they are going to make their payments into this system as part of a partnership.

What this does is it says, yes, the Federal Government will provide, authorizes up to $150 million a year in matching funds. Those funds may only be released when WMATA certifies and notifies the Department of Transportation that local jurisdictions have established a reliable and dedicated source of funding to do their share of the funds in partnership here.

It also increases accountability to protect that Federal investment by creating an inspector general to oversee WMATA's finances and adds four new federally appointed directors to WMATA. This is to protect the Federal investment that has been made and make sure the interests of the people in this area, consumers as well as the Federal interest, is protected.

This has passed the House. I want to stress this. This Davis provision has passed the House in the past in 2006. We passed it. It's been sitting over in the Senate. I just urge all our colleagues to come together in 2008 to do what we did in 2006 and adopt this important provision.

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