Amtrak, updating its forecast for fiscal year 2021, anticipates needing up to $4.857 billion to support the company and employees due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Also, as Congress considers programs for stimulating the economy, Amtrak has identified $5.193 billion in additional need as part of an economic recovery proposal to help the nation recover from the impacts of the pandemic. The combined requests total $10.050 billion.
Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Chairman and CEO Patrick J. Foye and the leaders of 14 public transportation agencies serving communities who generate 35% of the nation’s GDP in the United States requested additional emergency federal aid for transit systems in a joint letter to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and U.S. House of Representatives Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy.
LEGISLATIVE REPORT, APRIL 2019 – Knock, knock. Who’s there? If at the door are those laboring in official Washington, the answer is, “many new faces”—new congressional committee chairs, regulators, association chiefs, lobbyists and labor negotiators. Does not danger dwell where unfamiliarity and uncertainty lurk?
On the heels of Tuesday’s House Ways and Means Select Revenue Measures Subcommittee hearing on Temporary Policy in the Internal Revenue Code, American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association President Chuck Baker submitted comments to Congress to take action on tax-extender policies that include the 45G Short Line Tax Credit.
Testifying on Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2015 in Washington before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee, Association of American Railroads President and CEO Edward R. Hamberger cautioned lawmakers not to tamper with a successful formula for U.S. freight railroads.
U.S. public transit users headed for work, school, or other tasks as 2014 began once again were receiving unequal fiscal pre-tax transport treatment from the federal government, something that was commonplace through 2008, though less so in recent years.
Association of American Railroads (AAR) President and CEO Edward R. Hamberger on Wednesday told the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation that freight railroads are positioning themselves to meet future transportation demands in this country, including those related directly and indirectly to the expansion of the Panama Canal.
Approval by the House of Representatives Thursday of Senate spending levels for the remainder of fiscal year 2013, approved a day earlier, results in Amtrak’s funding remaining relatively intact.
The Association of American Railroads late Thursday voiced strong objetction to introduction of the Railroad Antitrust Enforcement Act, earlier in the day, by Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Sen. David Vitter (R-La.).
Amtrak President and CEO Joe Boardman, addressing a Congressional committee Tuesday, said Amtrak is leveraging record ridership to reduce dependence on federal operating subsidies.
