House likely to vote on $7.8B Amtrak bill Tuesday

The House is likely to vote on nearly $8 billion funding bill for Amtrak on Tuesday. 

The measure (H.R. 749), which calls for spending approximately $1.7 billion annually over the next four years on the rail service, was quietly approved by the House Transportation Committee last month. 

The legislation provides a slight increase from the federal government’s present level of funding for Amtrak, which has been highly controversial in years past. 

{mosads}Since its inception in 1971, Amtrak has historically received about $1 billion per year from the government for operations and construction projects, but some Republicans have pushed in recent years to privatize the company’s most profitable routes in the northeast U.S. 

The privatization effort was defeated by a combination of Democrats and Republicans who represent suburban districts in the Northeast and Midwest where Amtrak and other commuter railways are popular. 

The Amtrak funding measure that is scheduled to come to the House floor on Tuesday, which is known as the Passenger Rail Reform and Investment (PRRIA) Act, contains none of the controversial privatization language. 

Instead, the measure provides about $982 million per year for Amtrak’s national network and another $470 million annually for its popular Northeast U.S. routes.

The bill, which would expire in 2019, appropriates another $300 million per year for construction on Amtrak routes in the rest of country and about $24 million per year for the company’s inspector general. 

The rail service’s last appropriations bill in 2008 provided about $1.3 billion to the company for a combination of operations, construction and debt service.