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“AMTRAK” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Transportation was published in the Senate section on pages S6229 on June 27, 2002.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
AMTRAK
Mr. CARPER. Mr. President, the attention of a lot of people in the Northwest and in the Midwest and in California has been drawn to the potential shutdown not just of the Amtrak passenger rail service, but commuter rail service in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Wilmington, Delaware, Chicago, Los Angeles, and a lot of places in between.
Amtrak has sought to negotiate a loan from a consortium of private lenders. Literally in the middle of the negotiation, the administration put on the table its restructuring plan for Amtrak. That plan was, in my view, a ``dismantling'' plan for Amtrak. That was the end of the negotiations with the private lenders, for the most part.
Now Amtrak faces a difficult decision as to when to begin curtailing and shutting down its operations. When they do that, it will have a cascading effect on the operations of many commuter railroads in America as well.
The Secretary of the Department of Transportation, Norman Mineta, was before one of our committees today testifying. Knowing him as an old colleague and somebody who I respect, I think he is in a tough spot. I have not been inside his heart to see what he would want to do in his heart. Given that independence, I think he would favor going ahead with the loan guarantee, or support the Congress in going through and including a $200 million emergency supplemental for Amtrak. The administration, which created this crisis before us, is now still in a very good position to end the crisis, the threat. They can do that by saying, yes, we will provide the full loan guarantee, or we will support the appropriation from the Congress.
Our thanks to the chairman of the Appropriations Committee, Senator Byrd, and Senator Stevens, the ranking Republican, for their willingness to support $200 million in the emergency supplemental to help us get through this difficult time, and later this fall we will resolve more fully the passenger rail service in this country.
I have said for a long time--and I will say it again today--the problem with passenger rail service in this country is we have never provided adequate capital support for passenger rail service. We need to do that, to find an earmark source of revenue. I hope in the months to come we will debate that and come to a consensus on that point.
I thank the Chair.
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