Ernest Istook: “Mr. Chairman, of course the effect of the point of order raised is to take the money that was in the bill, $900 million…”

“Mr. Chairman, of course the effect of the point of order raised is to take the money that was in the bill, $900 million, the amount requested by the administration for Amtrak, and to remove it. I regret that the people who are staunch proponents of Amtrak want to continue it the way that it is running now. The administration opposes any more than $900 million for Amtrak without reforming it. Amtrak has not been authorized since December of 2002 when the prior authorization bill expired. I think it is important that we recognize why it has not been reauthorized. Until a couple of years ago, Amtrak was still telling us, oh, they are about to start making a profit and not to need Federal subsidies anymore. After operating for 30 years, Amtrak has received over $40 billion in Federal subsidies. It still only provides one-half of 1 percent of all inner city transportation. Half of it is in the Northeast Corridor. In the last 5 years, the subsidies by taxpayers through the appropriations process have gone up 71 percent. In the same time, Amtrak's ridership is only up 11 percent. It is a huge gap. It continues to operate with substantial losses. Why? Because we do not apply business principles. We do not apply proper principles to it. Amtrak is only, I think, about 5 percent of all the rail passenger service in the country. Most of the rail passenger service is commuter rail.”