Votes on Amtrak related Amendments

[jis]

Just looked up the voting from the New Jersey delegation on the Sessions(TX) Amendment which tried to lop off a chunk of Amtrak funding. Irrespective of party affiliations, all except one Congressman from the NJ delegation voted in favor of Amtrak, which is good news. In particular my Congressman, whose ears I bend every chance I get, voted for Amtrak even though he is a Republican. Even a freshman Republican Congressman who probably owes a bit to the Tea Party folks voted in favor of Amtrak!

As many of us have said, keep calling your Congress-people and let them know how you feel.

 

[sunchaser]

Just looked up the voting from the New Jersey delegation on the Sessions(TX) Amendment which tried to lop off a chunk of Amtrak funding. Irrespective of party affiliations, all except one Congressman from the NJ delegation voted in favor of Amtrak, which is good news. In particular my Congressman, whose ears I bend every chance I get, voted for Amtrak even though he is a Republican. Even a freshman Republican Congressman who probably owes a bit to the Tea Party folks voted in favor of Amtrak!

As many of us have said, keep calling your Congress-people and let them know how you feel.

That's good to hear. I know there are a fair amount of Republicans that vote against Amtrak, but it's good to have some vote for it!

 

[abcnews]

Our district has a conservative Republican, who I feel certain has felt the heat. In the last election there was a Democrat and also an Independent - the Independent being "Gail, Pro Rail" and that was how her name actually appeared on the ballet. The district includes Fredericksburg, VA which is Pro Rail in a big way. Here is her site....www.gailparker.us It's all Pro Rail...

Needless to say, I voted for "Gail Pro Rail" With that name, how could I vote against her.

 

[Shawn Ryu]

Fredericksburg is a traditionally republican isnt it? I figure a suburb in the state of Virginia would be.

So what, you guys want more VRE service?

 

[jis]

The point I am trying to make is that at this point it doesn't matter who you voted for or who you will vote for the next time as much as who is voting for you in Congress, i.e. the person who got elected. Know who your representative is and get in touch with him/her and register your opinion, instead of just moaning about stuff on this board.

 

[Shanghai]

My Congressman voted in favor of Amtrak.

 

[MikefromCrete]

I'm glad to say my recently elected Republican congressman voted for Amtrak. He's also said he's in favor of high speed rail, so that's a plus. I communicated my feelings toward the Amtrak votes by electronic mail responses provided through NARP and the Midwest High Speed Rail Association. I like to think they may have influenced his vote. Remember, folks, a letter or e-mail from a constituent always rates a view from the congressman (or probably his or her staff), so never be shy about expressing your views.

 

[saxman]

Wow, I'm happy to say that my Republican Representative voted "NO" for Amtrak cuts. And this guy has a history of voting against them. Maybe my letter have gotten to them. Or perhaps being from the fastest growing metro area in the country right now, he realizes we're not going to pave our way out of congestion. Perhaps we can put to bed the notion that all Republicans are anti-rail, even in today's Congress.

 

[JayPea]

Unfortunately my Congressional representative voted yes. <Sigh> What's a person to do?? Her opponent in the last election was a buffoon who wasn't even endorsed by the Democratic Party in the primary and wouldn't have made a good candidate for dog catcher. I will just have to keep writing, urging her to change her voting habits against Amtrak.

 

[afigg]

What happened in the House to the amendments or budget proposals to rescind the unobligated stimulus and FY10 HSIPR funds? I saw that there was an specific amendment or item calling to rescind all $2.5 billion of the FY10 HSIPR funds because none of it has been obligated yet. Around $4.3 billion of the $8 billion stimulus plus some FY09 funds have been obligated with the CA HSR and IL Chi-St. Louis corridor projects making up the bulk of the obligated funds. The rest are still presumably either stalled because of disputes with the FRA over the terms of the agreements with the freight railroads while others are likely waiting for the contracts to be signed for construction work to start in the spring and summer.

The budget process in the House was so chaotic, it appears that a lot of the Congress members were not clear or at all familiar on what they were voting on. I gather the $1 billion for FY11 HSIPR was cut. But has anyone seen definite news on whether the rescission language was in the budget bill that was passed by the House last night? Of course, the budget bill has to go to the Senate where it will be a different story.

The FY2011 budget that was almost passed by the Senate last December before the Republicans with their then 40 vote minority stopped it had around $1.9 billion for Amtrak with an increase of around $300 million (give or take) in capital funding over FY2010. But I think the House budget is $230 million down from the FY10 amount, if I am following this mess right. Anyone know are the actual amounts - operating, capital, debt, ARA - for Amtrak in the bill that passed the House last night?

 

[jis]

The rescissions are in the main HR-1 bill. It looks very likely now that work on the bill will not get completed before the government will run out of money because of debt ceiling. So it is going to be an interesting time. Government shutdown looks more and more likely.

The house did not pass any budget bill (well the one under consideration is HR-1). Here is the last state:

2/18/2011 1:08am:

Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union rises leaving H.R. 1 as unfinished business.

See 112th Congress (2011 - 2012) H.R.1. Look under "All Information (except text)" for a complete list of all actions taken on the bill. Look uder "Text" to see the actual text of the bill. Frankly I don;t have the time to read all that gobbledygook.

They have just adopted certain set of amendments, and rejected a certain other set. Many amendments were debated and then the chair declared voice vote results which led to a demand for recorded vote, and at which point the chair postponed further consideration until a later time. So there is quite a logjam of recorded votes that will need to be handled in addition to debating the rest of the amendments.

 

[afigg]

The House H.R. 1 bill is pretty ugly for rail funding. Amtrak does not get zeroed out, but HSIPR and Tiger get clobbered for FY11 and FY10.

The FY2011 funding is zeroed for HSIPR, Tiger, FRA Railroad safety program, FTA grants for energy efficiency, and the $150 million the federal govt is supposed to provide to the Washington DC Metro system for capital funding.

The FY2011 funding for Amtrak capital and debt service grants is cut to $850 million, down from $1 billion in FY2010, and the $1.2 billion that was in the House appropriations for Amtrak FY11 capital & debt last year. Don't see any mention of the $563 million for Amtrak operating subsidy.

The ugly part is that the unobligated funds for the FY2010 $2.5 billion for HSIPR, $600 million for Tiger, $50 million for FRA railroad safety, and $78 million for FRA Capital Assistance to States Intercity Passenger Rail Service is rescinded. Which is pretty much all of the FY10 HSIPR and Tiger grants because little or none of them have been obligated yet. So it this comes to pass, besides the CA and FL HSR FY10 grants, no funding for Chicago to Iowa City, Michigan for Chi-Detroit corridor, New Haven to Springfield, CA to buy new rolling stock, Surfliner corridor projects, NY state, NC, VA for engineering and Tier II EIS for the DC to Richmond corridor.

There are other big cuts for transit. The Tea partiers have it in for transit and rail.

Of course, this has to get passed by the Senate and that is not going to happen without major rollbacks in this. But facing the brink of a government shutdown, who knows what will get given up in order to make a deal.

 

[TransitGeek]

My Repugnant... erm... Republican Representative, the dishonourable Kenneth Calvert (R-Corona, CA), voted against rail funding. If you could take his voting record on substantive bills and invert it, I'd probably agree 100%.

If you take a look at the vote map here, you'll note that the "No" votes correspond pretty neatly to places that actually have Amtrak service, often corridor service. (Good argument for maintaining a national network!) Of course, the fact that CA's 44th is served by both the SWC and the Surfliner doesn't phase our representative.

 

[Anderson]

ABC: You've got Wittman, too? How'd he vote on this stuff?

(And I'm asking this not feeling hopeful at all)

Edit: Ok, he no-showed but a bunch of the delegation went our way from what I can tell, the rest of the guys on the NE Regional line voted Aye (as did Randy Forbes...that's actually a pleasant surprise, but then again his district is getting a new rail line soon). I'd still like to know why he didn't show up.

Does anyone have a link to the total cut amendment that was put forward?

Edit 2: And I think Wittman was in the bathroom or something...he missed a string of 15 votes in a row in those records.

 

[jis]

Does anyone have a link to the total cut amendment that was put forward?

I am sure you have already found this information under the link that I posted above. Look under "All information (except text)".

Edit 2: And I think Wittman was in the bathroom or something...he missed a string of 15 votes in a row in those records.

That must have been quite a trip to the potty. missing 10 recorded votes is a rather longish time, no?

The latest status of HR-1:

Latest Major Action: 2/19/2011 Passed/agreed to in House. Status: On passage Passed by the Yeas and Nays: 235 - 189 (Roll no. 147).

Latest Action: 2/19/2011 Motion to reconsider laid on the table Agreed to without objection.

An interesting but common legislative maneuver to put a stake in the ground and then continue with further work on the bill. But the vote indicates that the clash will be in Senate and not in the House as expected. Senate does not even have a corresponding resolution yet. Naturally, it makes sense to await the outcome from the House and then proceed from there.

 

[Big Iron]

http://politics.nytimes.com/congress/votes/112/house/1/79

The above link is to a map of how Congress voted.

My Rep, Eric Cantor, voted yes so I need to reinvigorate my efforts. Neighboring Republican Randy Forbes voted no and he is about as fiscally conservative as you can get. There are some highly supported efforts, in Forbes' district, to implement new rail service to Norfolk.

Cantor, if you recall was railing against Amtrak's sleepeing cars prior to the last election.

 

[jis]

The House H.R. 1 bill is pretty ugly for rail funding. Amtrak does not get zeroed out, but HSIPR and Tiger get clobbered for FY11 and FY10.

The FY2011 funding is zeroed for HSIPR, Tiger, FRA Railroad safety program, FTA grants for energy efficiency, and the $150 million the federal govt is supposed to provide to the Washington DC Metro system for capital funding.

The FY2011 funding for Amtrak capital and debt service grants is cut to $850 million, down from $1 billion in FY2010, and the $1.2 billion that was in the House appropriations for Amtrak FY11 capital & debt last year. Don't see any mention of the $563 million for Amtrak operating subsidy.

The ugly part is that the unobligated funds for the FY2010 $2.5 billion for HSIPR, $600 million for Tiger, $50 million for FRA railroad safety, and $78 million for FRA Capital Assistance to States Intercity Passenger Rail Service is rescinded. Which is pretty much all of the FY10 HSIPR and Tiger grants because little or none of them have been obligated yet. So it this comes to pass, besides the CA and FL HSR FY10 grants, no funding for Chicago to Iowa City, Michigan for Chi-Detroit corridor, New Haven to Springfield, CA to buy new rolling stock, Surfliner corridor projects, NY state, NC, VA for engineering and Tier II EIS for the DC to Richmond corridor.

What all this suggest is that it is time to light up the switchboards at your respective Senators' offices.