Bud Shuster: “This amendment will do nothing more than kill the bill. H.R. 749 is a bipartisan bill with heavy, heavy reforms that…”

“This amendment will do nothing more than kill the bill. H.R. 749 is a bipartisan bill with heavy, heavy reforms that will improve and advance passenger rail in this country, including security. We have taken that into consideration. I agree that security is important, but we cover the cost of security activities in this bill. Both sides of the aisle have worked very hard over the past 2 years to craft a bill that I believe is exactly the kind of legislation that the American people want. It is a reform bill. It is commonsense reforms. There has never been an Amtrak bill with these kinds of reforms in it empowering the States. This bill empowers the States, those 19 States that have 21 supported Amtrak lines. They will have a seat at the table to make investments to improve passenger rail in those 19 States. It is going to give the commission on the Northeast corridor more say, more teeth to be able to force Amtrak to do things. It is going to keep the profits of the Northeast corridor in the Northeast corridor for that heavily congested area of the country that needs to have passenger rail and, along the way, learn the lessons of when we make those investments, how we can go out to the other corridors around this country that are going to need passenger rail. This bill is not perfect; Amtrak is not perfect.…”