John W. Olver: “Now, we also have Amtrak, which was authorized for funding in the legislation, the rail safety legislation as signed by…”

“Now, we also have Amtrak, which was authorized for funding in the legislation, the rail safety legislation as signed by President Bush in September or October of 2008. For the fiscal year 2011, the authorization for debt service and for capital grants, that authorization is over $1.3 billion. So the amount that is in this bill, which happens to be at $850 million, is $450 million plus, below the authorized amount for those items, and actually comes right on the enacted number for Amtrak for the same purposes, the debt service and the capital grants for new improvements and for improvements to whatever it is that is needed for state of good repair and such in Amtrak, mostly which is spent on the Northeast Corridor, which is where Amtrak owns all the trackage. Most of that capital money is used in that kind of a way. That money already leads to 1,500 jobs, which will be terminated at Amtrak at the $850 million level, and the gentleman's proposal is to cut another $446 million below that.”