[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 9]
[Senate]
[Page 11678]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                 AMTRAK

  Mr. CARPER. Mr. President, the attention of a lot of people in the 
Northwest and in the Midwest and in California has been drawn to the 
potential shutdown not just of the Amtrak passenger rail service, but 
commuter rail service in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Wilmington, 
Delaware, Chicago, Los Angeles, and a lot of places in between.
  Amtrak has sought to negotiate a loan from a consortium of private 
lenders. Literally in the middle of the negotiation, the administration 
put on the table its restructuring plan for Amtrak. That plan was, in 
my view, a ``dismantling'' plan for Amtrak. That was the end of the 
negotiations with the private lenders, for the most part.
  Now Amtrak faces a difficult decision as to when to begin curtailing 
and shutting down its operations. When they do that, it will have a 
cascading effect on the operations of many commuter railroads in 
America as well.
  The Secretary of the Department of Transportation, Norman Mineta, was 
before one of our committees today testifying. Knowing him as an old 
colleague and somebody who I respect, I think he is in a tough spot. I 
have not been inside his heart to see what he would want to do in his 
heart. Given that independence, I think he would favor going ahead with 
the loan guarantee, or support the Congress in going through and 
including a $200 million emergency supplemental for Amtrak. The 
administration, which created this crisis before us, is now still in a 
very good position to end the crisis, the threat. They can do that by 
saying, yes, we will provide the full loan guarantee, or we will 
support the appropriation from the Congress.
  Our thanks to the chairman of the Appropriations Committee, Senator 
Byrd, and Senator Stevens, the ranking Republican, for their 
willingness to support $200 million in the emergency supplemental to 
help us get through this difficult time, and later this fall we will 
resolve more fully the passenger rail service in this country.
  I have said for a long time--and I will say it again today--the 
problem with passenger rail service in this country is we have never 
provided adequate capital support for passenger rail service. We need 
to do that, to find an earmark source of revenue. I hope in the months 
to come we will debate that and come to a consensus on that point.
  I thank the Chair.

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