Passenger Rail Reform and Investment Act of 2015
Floor Speech
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Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Chairman, this amendment removes the taxpayer subsidies and requires Amtrak to operate as a business, as we were promised it would when it was established back in 1971.
Every year, as Amtrak's operating losses have mounted, Congress has dutifully shoveled more money at it to keep it afloat. Every year, its congressional supporters have promised reforms to bring these losses under control. And every year, these promises have fallen flat.
This year, we are told, well, look at all the new reforms that we are building into this. In 5 years, they will have their act together. Well, how many times have we heard this promise? Let me cite just a few.
Back in 1997, facing mounting criticism, the Amtrak Reform and Accountability Act required Amtrak to operate without any Federal operating assistance after 2002.
When that didn't happen, in 2008, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Sessions) attempted to eliminate only its most expensive route from reauthorization. That year, the gentleman from Minnesota, Jim Oberstar, called any reduction in subsidies a ``preemptive strike'' and promised that the bill was chock-full of reforms that would soon solve Amtrak's problems.
Well, when that didn't happen, in 2014, the gentleman from Georgia, Paul Broun, proposed eliminating subsidies, just as my amendment does. At the time, the gentleman from Iowa, Tom Latham, said: ``I concede that Amtrak could be more efficient. However, it has made significant improvements in this area recently and is moving in the right direction.''
``Moving in the right direction.''
This year, taxpayers will subsidize Amtrak in the amount of about $1.4 billion. The bill before us authorizes $1.4 billion for next year. Put another way, we will shell out $45 every time a passenger steps aboard an Amtrak train. That is $45 per passenger, per trip, and direct losses billed to taxpayers. That is up from $32 of loss per passenger 6 years ago.
Despite endless promises, things are not getting better. Amtrak's apologists claim this is a 40 percent reduction in authorized funding. In fact, Amtrak received $1.4 billion in 2015, the same as this bill authorizes in 2016.
Outside experts have reported that over the next 10 years, subsidizing Amtrak will cost taxpayers $49 billion. Let me put that in family-sized numbers. The average American family will have to cough up $392 from its taxes over the next 10 years just to cover Amtrak's losses.
What does that $392 out of a family's taxes pay for? Well, among other things, Amtrak's food and beverage employees, who are paid an average of $106,000 a year to provide a service that lost over $800 million over the past decade just selling snacks on Amtrak trains.
Are we at least seeing any improvements in service? Not hardly. Amtrak's monthly on-time performance has significantly declined.
Bigger losses, declining service--that is not moving in the right direction. That was a false promise then, just like all of the other false promises we have heard since 1971.
In last year's appropriations debate, Amtrak apologists warned that cutting off the subsidies would ``eliminate an entire transportation option.'' It does no such thing.
Amtrak claims that it is running a profit on a heavily traveled Northeast corridor. Nothing in my amendment would change this. Anything Amtrak makes on these profitable routes, Amtrak keeps.
With this amendment, Amtrak would be perfectly free to continue to operate and expand its Northeast corridor from its own profits and to subsidize its other money-losing operations to the extent that its profits would cover them.
However, this amendment would end the practice of forcing American taxpayers to underwrite another 5 years of broken promises.
I reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Chairman, I would simply respond to the ridership claims that it has no impact on congestion because the ridership is infinitesimal. You have to compare Amtrak's 31 million trips to the 650 million airline trips per year. According to Cato, the average American logs about 15,000 miles per year by car, 1,800 miles by plane, and just 20 miles on Amtrak.
If Amtrak is making a profit, it can use those profits any way it wants--to continue its operations, to subsidize its losing routes. But it should not be tapping further into taxpayers' pockets.
Voters have elected the biggest Republican majority in the House since 1928, with a resounding mandate to stop wasting money. Today this government is spending and taxing record amounts of families' earnings, and well above the 40-year average as a percentage of our economy. If we can't bring ourselves to cut this, one of the most outrageous subsidies in the entire budget, voters will have every right to ask what good are we?
Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.
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