Arlen Specter: “by way of brief response to the argument by the Senator from Colorado, I agree with him that Amtrak needs to be…”

“by way of brief response to the argument by the Senator from Colorado, I agree with him that Amtrak needs to be self-sufficient, and that is the purpose of the legislation. The question is, How fast is that going to occur? They are looking for self-sufficiency under the existing legislation by the year 2003. What they are asking for here is an extension from October 1, 2000, to October 1, 2002. I went into some detail on the information provided by Governor Thompson, who is chairman of the Board of Amtrak, as to the progress which they are making. When the Senator from Arizona says there is no mistake here, he may be right about that. Maybe this is not an unintended consequence, but where you have a provision which reaches the extent of leasing under these circumstances, I doubt that anybody thought about that when the legislation was drafted. Maybe it is not an unintended consequence, but I doubt very much that it is an intended consequence. It is something that happened that nobody had thought about. Perhaps if nobody had thought about it, it is genuinely an unintended consequence. Considering the issues we face in this body, when you are talking about $15 million, although not unsubstantial, we seldom take a protracted period of time as we wrestle with the budget of $1.850 trillion. I have not calculated the percent, but it is a mighty tiny fraction. This is symbolic as to what we are trying to do to get Amtrak on its feet.”