Kay Bailey Hutchison: “I was so pleased the Senator from New Jersey talked about the Sunset Limited because the Sunset Limited, which is the…”

“I was so pleased the Senator from New Jersey talked about the Sunset Limited because the Sunset Limited, which is the first line that would be eliminated under the Sununu amendment, connects California all the way through the southern part of the country, all the way through Texas. It goes through San Antonio and Houston, then over to New Orleans, through Mississippi, Alabama, and it ends in Florida. In Florida, you connect to go all the way up the northeastern corridor. If you take out the Sunset Limited--that is our intercontinental rail line all the way across the country on the southern side--you are taking out a major part of the connection to our national system. I hope the Senator from New Jersey is correct that we will not have a national system, if you take out the whole intercontinental southern half of it. I applaud him for bringing that out. Does he think if we took out that whole southern system, the Sunset Limited, that it would enhance Amtrak? Would it enhance the eastern seaboard? Would it enhance all the investment California has made all the way up to California and into the States of Oregon and Washington? Would that be something that would help the system?”