Rep. Fattah on Amtrak: GOP Budget Cuts ‘Not a New Issue’

‘The appropriations committee decided to cut last year’s number, the money Amtrak was given last year’

RUSH TRANSCRIPT:
RUSSERT: "Sir, your reaction to speaker Boehner?" 
FATAH:  "The president along with the department of transportation Amtrak submitted a number to Congress in February for $2.4 billion in capital and safety improvements that Congress on yesterday decided to cut that by $1.3 billion. The appropriations committee decided to cut last year's number, the money Amtrak was given last year. Cut that by $252 million. This had nothing to do with this accident. This appropriations committee on transportation was set weeks ago. What Congress could have done N lieu of the accident postpone the meeting. The majority decided this was business as usual. They've always been tempted to cut Amtrak or have cut Amtrak. This is not a new issue that they have concerns about federal investment and Amtrak. Yesterday's derailed because it was going twice the speed. This brings the point that train control which is a safety mechanism would be funded and now not funded if we cut this money. Nobody is blaming the Republicans for whatever happened with this train. This is not a blame game. The point here is this is about responsibility that we have as a Congress around making sure bridges are safe, that our train tracks are safe. That our ports and airports are safe. We have the world economic forum that says America has dropped 12th in the world in terms of infrastructure. Republicans agree. A Congress from Pennsylvania yesterday said cutting Amtrak didn't make sense."

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