Food Service Under Attack (again)

[jis]

They vote separately on each amendment. Until an amendment has passed in a vote, they are just proposed amendments, and mean nothing.

As the amendments stand, it is better to ask them to oppose all amendments, since trying to explain what is pro-Amtrak and what is anti-Amtrak leaves quite a bit of room for confusion. Some of the amendments that have nothing to do with Amtrak are pretty bad too, and some are irrelevant to passenger rail.

 

[Long Train Runnin']

NARP has the list of, and links to, the amendments.

The amendments prohibiting Federal funds being used to provide alcohol free of charge on Amtrak routes or providing free food to Amtrak employees riding for free on the Auto Train or long distance sleepers are reasonable in my opinion.

That's 15 amendments? Wonder how many, if any, will pass.

Do any Amtrak trains currently provide free booze?

Only place left I believe is Acela First Class

 

[Ryan]

It doesn't appear that Gosar's amendments were voted on, which means they're not in the bill that just passed (316-101).

 

[jis]

It doesn't appear that Gosar's amendments were voted on, which means they're not in the bill that just passed (316-101).

Right. The Goser and Posey amendments were never presented, and the McClintock amendment went down in flames. All other amendments presented, including Mica's passed. An attempt to recommit to discuss $150 million per year for Amtrak PD was defeated, having failed to get support from the Chairman Schuster.

 

[Paulus]

Were Posey's similarly ignored?

 

[mwmnp]

The main bill passed the full House 316-101. 132 Republicans and 184 Democrats voted for the bill, while 101 Republicans and no Democrats voted against.

Only seven of the amendments listed on that NARP page actually came up for a vote. They were the ones offered by McNerney (D-CA), Fitzpatrick (R-PA), Mica (R-FL), Brownley (D-CA), Perlmutter (D-CO), McClintock (R-CA), and Lipinski (D-IL). Except for the McClintock Amendment, they all passed by a voice vote. The McClintock Amendment to remove all federal funding for Amtrak went to a recorded vote, where the results were 147 in favor, 272 against. 147 Republicans and no Democrats voted for the amendment, while 89 Republicans and 183 Democrats voted against.

You can watch video of the House floor debate on the bill and amendments right here, on C-SPAN’s website. The debate starts at about the 35 minute mark.

 

[Ryan]

Yes (Jishnu said that).

 

[jis]

Were Posey's similarly ignored?

They did not come to the floor. An amendment has to come to the floor to be voted on. If it does not then effectively it has been withdrawn by its sponsor for whatever reason.
In case of Posey, he did a face saving stand up in support for the grade crossing safety amendment. I suppose Schuster basically told him to bag it, and unless you are crazy you do not ignore a committee chair.

Schuster also stood up in opposition to the McClintock amendment and urged a vote against it.

 

[Ziv]

Ok, I am going to go full newby here and display my lack of understanding, but this looks pretty decent to me. $1,412,000,000 a year is to be split between NEC and the national network, plus $300,000,000 for infrastructure per year, plus $23,000,000 for the IG and these numbers increase over a full 5 years. And it mentions a study on the merits of spending $100,000,000 more on rolling stock from that. $100Mn could make some interesting additions to Amtrak routes.

Is the bad part that they separated out the NEC and the national network and Amtrak might not be able to defend the national network? Because $1.7Bn is not bad, or at least it looks decent for someone who supports Amtrak but isn't an expert on funding it.

Thanks for any feedback!

On edit: Ah, Page 42... That looks like an intentional poison pill.

 

[jis]

Just remember, this is authorization, not appropriation. you cannot actually spend any of the promised/authorized money until it is actually appropriated in the usual annual appropriation bills.

So look out for the DOT Appropriation bill for next FY and see what is there in it.

 

[Bob Dylan]

As usual jis nailed it! Its good that the Rez passed and the kookiest amendments went down , but what the Appropriations Committee does, as was said, and the Budget for DOT will be what really matters!