James Oberstar: “this is extremely important legislation. It puzzles me, therefore, why we have a truncated process today if it is that…”

“this is extremely important legislation. It puzzles me, therefore, why we have a truncated process today if it is that important and there is so little time remaining in the session that we are to have this restricted rule and this expedited process that we cannot proceed through to conclusion tonight. Amtrak's financial situation is indeed critical. We do need to pass reform legislation. We do need to pass reauthorization legislation to enable Amtrak to operate efficiently and release the funds that have been made available in the tax legislation. Mr. Chairman, Amtrak's survival is absolutely vital to the Nation's transportation system. Most passengers now travel by car or plane, but those modes use enormous amounts of energy. They have substantial adverse environmental impact. There are limits to our ability to accommodate more traffic by building new highways and new airports. We need rail service. Mr. Chairman, we need a highly efficient passenger rail system as other countries in the world have. We ought to be able to have 175-mile-an-hour passenger rail service in America as they do in France or 300-mile-an-hour rail service, as they will have in Germany with the construction now underway of the Maglev train system between Hamburg and Berlin or the 180-mile-an-hour passenger rail system in Japan, the Shin-Kansen, that carry 254 million passengers a year. But we do not have that in the United States, and we ought to make that investment.”