Lawmakers say Amtrak facing bankruptcy

WASHINGTON — Lawmakers on Tuesday warned that Amtrak, the financially struggling national passenger railroad, could go out of business next year if Congress goes along with a $900 million funding level supported by the Bush administration.

“At this level, there should be no surprise next spring when Amtrak must curtail services,” said Rep. John Olver, D-Mass., as the House began debate on an $89.9 billion bill to fund Transportation and Treasury Department programs in the coming budget year.

The administration, said Rep. James McGovern, another Massachusetts Democrat, was engaged in “the continued conscious and deliberate underfunding of Amtrak.”

Showing the strength of the opposition to the railway, Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., succeeded in raising a procedural point of order that, for the moment, eliminated all funding for Amtrak from the bill. ” ‘Scamtrak’ has been a train wreck for the American taxpayers,” he said.

Rep. Ernest Istook, R-Okla., chairman of the subcommittee in charge of the bill, gave assurances that all the money for Amtrak, and many other programs temporarily deleted from the bill in a turf battle among different committees, would be restored as the legislation advances.

But he added that “the administration believes and I agree that realistic Amtrak reform has to be enacted before we start putting more money into that passenger rail service.” He said the federal government had provided $40 billion over the past 30 years for Amtrak.

A Senate subcommittee approved $1.2 billion for Amtrak, while Amtrak officials say $1.8 billion is needed to keep the railway operating.

On another controversial issue, the House voted to remove language in the bill that would have barred American banks from accepting as identification a document the Mexican government issues to Mexicans in the United States, many of whom are illegal immigrants.