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Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008

Date: June 11, 2008
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Transportation


PASSENGER RAIL INVESTMENT AND IMPROVEMENT ACT OF 2008 -- (House of Representatives - June 11, 2008)

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Ms. FOXX. Mr. Chairman, I want to congratulate people on both sides of the aisle who have worked out a way to have Amtrak work. My family and I travel on Amtrak every chance we get, and I believe that we need an efficient, strong, train system in the United States.

I want to especially commend Ranking Member Mica and subcommittee Ranking Member Shuster for their work in pushing for private-sector initiatives.

As a member of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, it's also been my pleasure to work with Ranking Member Davis on a variety of issues. I appreciate his passion for this issue, but I have to say that this amendment is eerily similar to a bill that came before that committee, H.R. 401, the National Capital Transportation Amendments Act, which summed up the largest earmark in history and would direct $1.5 billion in new Federal spending towards the Washington Metropolitan Transit Authority, or WMATA.

When that bill came before the committee, I raised a number of concerns, including the fact that it was not referred to or considered by the Transportation Committee. When I raised these concerns, I was concerned that the OGR committee had appropriate jurisdiction to consider the issue, which begs the question why it is now appropriate to consider this amendment on a Transportation Committee bill. The fact that it's here now, it seems, proves to me, that H.R. 401 should not have been in Oversight but in Transportation.

However, there are a variety of other concerns I have with this proposition. It's true that WMATA has been plagued by reports of mismanagement that compromise the fiscal integrity of the system. Management is beholding to employee unions that have run amok with overtime pay and retirement benefits, warping the system's fiscal priorities. Providing another Federal line item for WMATA is the last thing we needed to spur reform of this mismanaged system.

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