Twenty senators seek $2.2 billion for Amtrak
United States Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) and 19 other senators sent a letter to the Senate Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development making a strong funding request for $2.2 billion for Amtrak’s intercity passenger-rail service in the fiscal-year 2012.
In the letter the senators requested full funding of Amtrak’s FY2012 budget request. The funding level is absolutely required because of, “Amtrak’s growing ridership and its impact on reducing traffic congestion and spurring economic growth,” the senators wrote. The subcommittee is in the process of considering the FY2012 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act.
“It is essential to fully support Amtrak’s service to improve our intercity passenger-rail system and connect our economic centers,” the senators wrote, noting that Amtrak’s ridership rose 37 percent since 2000, reached a record high of 28.7 million riders in 2010 and is on pace to break that record in 2011.
“This is a clear example of how YOUR VOTE COUNTS these Senators fully support Amtrak and want to continue to see it grow…while others want to rip it apart and sell it,” said TCU President Bob Scardelletti. “I commend each one of these Senators in taking a stand with the hard working middle class worker.”
Click here to read the letter from the Senators to the Senate Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development.