live now to the u s senate where members open the day with an hour of general speeches before returning to work on a bill funding amtrak and passenger rail service the bill would authorize more than eleven billion dollars for amtrak over six years and includes five billion to provide states with funds for railway infrastructure live coverage of the u s senate on cspan to we make agreements but suspect that we haven't agreed we flex the muscles of our might to reassure ourselves and caution aggressors we feel anxiety lord show us the way keep our senators presuming that you are automatically on their side instead let them earnestly seek to be on your side enable them to find unity with each other because of their connection with you keep them sensitive to see you at work in our world with your intervening lo we pray  doctored nine amendments to the legislation number other men misread to be considered by the manager share my view that action on this bill and hope we concluded during today's session so it's anticipated the number of votes with respect to amendments and pending closure motion could occur this morning part of the senate recessing for the caucus meetings members have until twelve o'clock noon to file any germane second green amendments to the bill as president last evening i had a conversation  counterpart senior senator from kentucky senator mcconnell and indicated to him that we're going to move and complete s chip this week in some form or fashion now that may require some time into the weekend we can change everything by unanimous consent we'll see what the mood of the senate is but everyone should be alerted less than a moment mcconnell and i and the other ninety eight members can work something out we may have to be here this weekend we've been very fortunate as i've indicated and we haven't had have we haven't had many weekend sessions this year and that's really good if we can get our work done that's fine but i do have an obligation to move to the farm bill it's every five years we have to complete that an organ very very best to do it in a way that makes a lot of sense the next two weeks after we complete this week there are other things we have to do we have to send an appropriations bill to the president and get that process started some say that no matter what he's what we sent him he's going to veto it and that may be the case i don't know but at least we'll get the process going to see if we can work out something rather than a number of short term c r is to complete the funding of the government and hope that we can do that we also have other things that we need to work on mr president that arson are extremely important to do and something that must be done before we leave here on november sixteenth so we do have a lot of work to do and i understand i've had democrats republicans come and talk to me my legislation is important let's get it done mr president it's really difficult to do and rules have developed in the senate over two hundred thirty years i think of serve the country well if you look back when you're right in the trenches trying to work your way through this sometimes it's very very difficult trying to be as fear and inclusive to everyone  we can be during the next twenty half weeks getting it takes sixty votes to pass most significant legislation senators are always thinking about many different numbers but today today's number is really quite simple the number is five yes the president's desk i mean just give one example the senate passed the military construction veterans affairs appropriations bill which provides critical funds for our wounded warriors deserving veterans and bases for lessons that house our senior members and their families in a bipartisan ninety two to one vote nearly two months ago yet that bill now sits idle as we wait for the majority to call it up conference meanwhile as early as today the majority could proceed to take up valuable for time on another yet another version of the astra bill which is certain to be the toad once again the president republicans want to strengthen and secure the strip program and the exact wrong way to do that is to lose focus on the low income children it was designed to protect so let's work together on a compromise that will keep the focus where it belongs on low income children but i suspect i'm going to have plenty of chances to come back to the floor and debate this issue very soon the point is working on a bill we know will be vetoed is not the best way to is precious legislative time so why do they insist that we go through  this further mr brett i think we can all agree that we should do everything in our power to provide for our veterans and for our troops over that november the eleventh is veterans day i think the senate ought to honor our veterans and the brave men and women who serve under our country's flag by sending the military construction veterans affairs and defense appropriation bills to the president's desk by veterans day without any gimmicks and without any games it's the least this congress can do for those who  this congress can do to meet the minimum threshold of conducting the government's important business bad weeks and counting control of the majority eight introduced earlier today without objection kirk were born after twenty two fifty eight a bill to temporarily extend the programs under the higher education act one hundred sixty five and so forth in front of purpose enormously appreciative of the people of massachusetts all of their thoughts and good wishes and prayers that were extended to me and i'm very thankful to a so many of our colleagues this side of the island and on the other side as well that wish me well and in fact there are a number of those on the other side of the aisle that urge me to take even additional time in the senate can function very well without my presence i appreciate their good thoughts but we're back in business and ready to deal with the issues that hand and one of the very important issues at hand is that reminding of the country of this extraordinary achievement an accomplishment by a magnificent a sports team  from my home a city of boston massachusetts the country knows about it but it's i know senator kerry joins with me and in taking a moment to say how much we are cheering them on on this magnificent beautiful day in boston and our greatest every great is missing what they call the rolling rally that will sell operate the world series victory of our beloved red sox and it is going to be an absolute spectacular day in boston and both of us and to kerry and i are very grateful to the senate floor last night for passing this wonderful resolution that express all of our feelings about to the boston red sox and their success this year just an extraordinary record and for the millions  of members of the red sox nation this year is been a dream come true we're proud of the team of what they've accomplished especially the way they came back after trailing the cleveland indians by some three games to one in the american league and they went on to win the seven straight games so it was an exciting a season full of brilliant performances but none of them were as a touching as the extraordinary and it was an extraordinary performance the great pitcher for the boston red sox who pitched five and two third says shutout innings in game four on sunday night less than one year after being treated for lymphoma and to thousands of families struggling with cancer his answer example is a really a true inspiration and i want to congratulate the colorado rockies as well they showed us what can be achieved when everyone pulls together winning an incredible twenty one out of their twenty two games to reach the world series of making history in the process and i have no doubt that their team will have a a brilliant future so congratulations red sox for the job brilliantly done in two thousand and seven wonderful year for baseball in boston enormously grateful to the whole team for an inspiring and exciting season when we look forward to another great year in two thousand and eight mr president i want to just add a brief word on this debate that is dealing with the amtrak legislation and track legislation rhode island and a claiborne pell of rhode island author of the play pell grants author of the arts national endowment for the arts author of the national endowment for the humanities author of the sea bed treaty that did more in terms of  arms control in the placement of weapons on the seabed as a whole legacy there but president kennedy said during his president kennedy's presidency that as a student of history it was extremely rare that any individual member of the senate could come up with a new idea and then see a real down payment on that particular program and this is the case with regards to pell was the first voice in terms of the rapid transportation between boston and washington and he struggled with that to program and during the early one nine hundred sixty s he was able to get some actually resources not great amounts but for the study of it for the feasibility of it and for building a sense of inevitability about it and he saw a long before others did about the importance of transportation this rapid transportation for our nation as an energy saver for the movements of people we anticipated the congestion so many of the other issues which have been talked environmental issues about the importance of this legislation that many times over the period of the last forty odd years this legislation was at risk but now it is well established not only for the card is which are highly populated but we're seeing as has been pointed out at other times during the debate about other examples of this kind of rapid movement of  individuals between various population centers in the difference that is made and contribution to this made in terms of not only passenger service but also in terms of our economy and also in terms of the environment make a comment on an issue which i have a spoken about to frequently over the period of the last ten years but one which i feel immensely strongly about and that will be a before the senate and the before on the national agenda in these next several hours and to draw attention to its importance to our future of our nation and particularly to the children of this nation and i know there's been a good debate and a good discussion i've spoken frequently about it but i welcome the chance once more as americans are beginning once again to refocus on this issue it takes and there's so many different issues that are before the senate it does take time we have to repeat and come back to these issues doesn't surprise me we've seen it at other times i was here in one nine hundred sixty four when we failed to pass the medicare a program i can remember the whole stream of our colleagues going down to the radio television gallery issuing their put press releases about their opposition to the medicare and then about eight months later i think it was eight months later the senate revisited the medicare program and a passed overwhelmingly and the one great difference in that period of time was the election of one nine hundred sixty four when american people really gave focus and attention to the issue of medicare and made the judgment decision that we ought to go and move ahead we heard i've heard all of those arguments of socialized medicine in medicine government control program we heard that when this program was initially introduce myself and others and we heard those echoes a time in and time out but it was under the leadership of a senator hatch that the judgment decision in terms of providing the help and assistance to these children would not be a replication of the medicaid program but be a program that would be basically run by the states with an outline by the congress about what would be included in terms of services it was a program that was built upon the private companies in these various states it was a program also that didn't quite batch the range of different services that were in the medicaid program but nonetheless as been invaluable and in terms of the children mr president i come through the senate floor today here to speak about the health insurance and not the health insurance available the senate is or members of the house or the president this cabinet as i was reminded again during my recent experience we have access to excellent insurance to pay the cost of whatever care we need our health coverage is never in question i speak of those who do not work in marvels halls or beneath vaulted ceilings of those who work at the local bakery or the repair shop or make their living stocking shelves or cleaning offices this debate is about our commitment to millions of american men and women who work hard every day pay taxes to care for their children but who stay awake at night wearing because they can't afford the cost of sudden illness used to be when we had debated this issue ten fifteen twenty years ago we talk about current cost of an emergency room being two hundred fifty dollars and wondering whether a child was two hundred fifty dollars sick that's the cost of going to emergency room and we used to debate about how do you measure the pain the anxiety the anguish that that parent has wondering whether they are child is two hundred fifty dollars sick whether they'll get better tomorrow whether that ear rate will expand or be an indicator of more serious illness so that's rogue element be the same whether that child will get better now is four hundred seventy five dollars average across this country mr president that is what this said children's health insurance debate is all about healthy lives for children peace of mind for parents congress acting for the common good chip isn't a republican idea or a democratic year it's not a state program or a federal initiative it's not a public sector private over the past decade since it was first in acted we have seen what it can do to transform young lives since then the percentage of uninsured children has dropped from almost twenty three percent in ninety seven to fourteen percent in two thousand and five this is a bout a clear indication of what this program is really about mr president just below twenty five percent uninsured for children this is nine hundred ninety seven look where it is now thirteen percent but we see another if you talk about what has been the growth of the uninsured among adults to be just the opposite to be all going to the other way this is a success a success story there's an old saying committee every first year law student the laws against you you pound the facts of the law if the facts are against you you pound the law the law and the facts are against you you pound the table the president and his supporters in congress have been pounding the table hard and often on this issue in recent months it's time to set the record straight they have pounded the table about all the families making eighty three thousand dollars a year who are supporting supposedly eligible for chip let me tell you how many families making eighty three thousand a year enrolled in chip none none in massachusetts none in new york none in new jersey none in california nowhere zero not a single child in a family making eighty three thousand dollars is eligible for chip the new bill approved by the house last thursday goes even further than current law it makes it illegal to cover anyone in families making over sixty two thousand dollars a year or three hundred percent of the poverty level there it is the black leg of lettuce page seventy five of the bill denial of payments for children with effective family income that exceed three hundred percent of the poverty line now according to the congressional research service ninety one percent of the children covered by chip are in families with incomes below two hundred percent of the poverty level or forty one thousand dollars a year for a family of four and almost all of the nine percent of families about this level pay premiums to defray the cost of coverage for their children that was a key part of the chip program states will have a right to make judgments and decisions to be able to vary the premiums the deductibles and the co pays we let the states to do that but those at the that would benefit from the program at this particular level the need for genuine outreach to more of the low income children is a serious problem but it's a foolish solution to address it by denying chip to children who also need facts are stubborn things and all the table pounding of the worldcon change the basic fact of champ is that it began as a principle bipartisan compromise and remains so even now nevertheless the white house has called upon the supporters a  compromise and compromise in compromise and we have but this much is clear we will not compromise the future of a generation of american children just because they come from the working poor surely they are more important than multi billion dollar tax breaks for the wealthiest individuals of the largest corporations and they are more important than the subsidies for big oil companies they are more important members serving the obscene tax breaks for the so called carried interest these are american this deserving children mr president and democrats in congress will stand up for them every time and courageous republicans will too we have been more than willing to work with republicans in congress on reasonable and realistic compromises that still meet our obligations to these children many of us initially called for a much larger bill the properly serve the needs of the nation's children but we accepted a less costly bill in order to obtain broad bipartisan support year after year mr president the administration has granted covering forty thousand adults in new mexico in october two thousand and two they said yes to three hundred and thirty four thousand in oregon in january two thousand and three they said yes to twelve thousand more adults in new jersey in a may of this year amid statements from the president that champ should put kids first his administration said yes to thirty nine thousand adults in wisconsin but now they want to say no the white house is now discover that adults are covered under a chip it's actually cites the consequences of their own decisions as a failing of our proposed legislation the senate approve last month reversed this policy by moving adults out of the program over the next two years the bill now before us goes one step further it moves childless adults in the program by the end of next year but that still not enough kill on a requirement that children produce on a risk documentation listen to this mr president to prove their citizenship has been shown to be a barrier to care for american children because they often had great difficulty in getting the burdensome requirements of the policy these high buy areas were imposed because of a fallacy the myth that they prevented america prevented children in america illegally from using these services now a recent le from the congressional budget office at the democratic or was not the republican office but the congressional budget office refutes that claim saying available evidence based on state reports and other information provided by state officials suggest that virtually all of those who have been unable to provide the required documentation are u s citizens that statement couldn't be clearer i was american children eligible for chair or medicaid who were denied services by these requirements not the undocumented the cost of this which has been high according  recent report by the center on budget and policy priorities the six states that have examined this issue in detail spent seventeen million dollars seventeen million dollars to administer the requirements have denied health insurance to tens of thousands of needy children and parents as a result and of a genocide a great total of eight eight undocumented alien individuals the number of low stand up and be counted to see who is for the children's health insurance and who is against it ask the channel if you know when i three minutes the center's time has expired  r president i asked for the proceedings that to my complete statement be put in the record that objection sword president senator from nebraska mr president i rise today to try to bring the focus of the debate about iraq back to iraq specifically the iraqi government's continuing failures to meet benchmarks for progress on political military and security matters for the past several weeks the news out of iraq as event consumed by coverage of the blackwater security transgressions now to be sure the allegations against blackwater are serious and need to be addressed oversight needs to be tightened action should be taken to ensure that security needs are being met and force is used only when necessary by no means do i believe we should do anything but hold blackwater and its government oversee those overseers responsible for their actions but what is happening here is the iraqi government is successfully  focus of the debate from their failures in meeting benchmarks for progress to the blackwater security matter we need to really focus everyone here remembers and the american people remember this past spring law eighteen benchmarks that were identified by the iraqi government and the bush administration and as a member of the senate appropriations committee i pushed to include benchmarks in this bill since returning from iraq having spent thanksgiving day there with the troops in two thousand and four my second visit to our troops in iraq i began to call for the iraqi government and u s military leaders to a met to to establish a method of measuring progress on the stated goals of standing up the military and security forces and establishing a functioning government during my third visit to our troops in april of in iraq in april of this year i delivered a strong message to a rocky leaders that they needed to show progress on an oil agreement quelling sectarian violence and building a functioning government very quickly or the us would continue to lose patience with the war this supplemental presented an opportunity to send that message and codified into law it was the hope of the senate to provide measurable benchmarks that could provide an outline  progress in iraq as part of the benchmarks requirement congress asked the white house to provide an assessment in july and september the congress also directed the g a o to provide its own assessment on the iraq benchmarks in july congress received an assessment from the white house on the status of the eighteen benchmarks at that time the white house indicated that satisfactory progress on eight of the benchmarks had been made on the remaining ten to ten benchmarks the white house indicated that the iraqi government had failed to make satisfactory progress in september the g a o review indicated that three benchmarks said been met four had been partially met and eleven had not been met at all in september the white house provided its final assessment of the eighteen benchmarks of the benchmarks out of the bench more of the benchmark satisfactory progress had been made on ten to more than in july and that eight benchmarks still received in one satisfactory rating to less than july and now everyone here remembers  that this is an important issue because of the importance of making positive gains by the iraqi government i visited iraq for a fourth time in september just after general petraeus testified before the senate armed services committee but before the benchmark reports were issued little it changed iraq's political leaders were still entrenched there were still there was still very little hope for progress on the benchmarks and  delivered the message that time was running out on the blank check policy the administration seems to have implemented in iraq at this critical juncture of u s policy toward iraq iraq iraq and policy toward the united states seems disjointed disconnected and disassociated the level of progress on the benchmarks is debatable that's what is undeniable is the fact that progress is needed on some of the most urgent issues to bring peace and stability in iraq the iraqi government has failed to enact a bath of occasion law enacted a law on equitable distribution of hydrocarbon resources and revenues that's essentially all of the oil and the revenues that they have collected and they failed to provide the three trained and ready big raids brigades to support baghdad operations and the disarm of the militias the level of the progress is undebatable the iraqi government has failed to deliver on the promises on these three important important  benchmarks these are fundamental failures by a government that continues to expect the united states to invest in iraq with our soldiers and our dollars and these failures are unacceptable we can't continue on this path and cycle of iraq the dependence on the united states as we prepare to deal with another supplemental bringing the total off budget additional war spending this year to just under two hundred billion dollars making total off budget spending on the war in iraq nearly five hundred billion dollars off budget spending in iraq nearly half a trillion dollars we need to refocus on what's happening in iraq we need to reexamine these benchmarks and others those who call for another six months to allow more progress got what they wanted the question is when will we get what we want will rock step up and take over when will we be able to bring most of our troops home when will a cycle of dependence and the answers to these questions lie in the benchmarks we established progress on the bench marks can give us a time frame for the future lack of progress on the benchmarks could only extend our commitment indefinitely if we allow it to continue thank you mister mr chairman mr president and finally let me say we do need to focus on the iraqi government's progress on the benchmarks and their lack of it if they had made more rapid progress we would need private security outfits protecting american at assets and personnel if they continue to fail to make progress and meet the benchmarks to meet the benchmarks we will need to fundamentally reassess what our future role might be in iraq we can't sustain this pace forever our soldiers deserve better our taxpayers deserve better and the iraqi people deserve better from their own government than the failed leadership they have shown today thank you mr president and i now yield the floor  bill senator lott and i have been working on together for many years and i'm glad that we're moving closer to passing this bipartisan bill our bill has had support with over forty co sponsors this is our fifth day on the have tracked bill and we've really made very good progress we've been able to work through most amendments some we were able to agree to well some required votes we still have a few amendments our that we need to address but we should be able to finish this bill soon hopefully today and it's critical that we do so when we think about how crowded our roads are the high price price of gasoline airport delays as an alternative the potential fuel savings and reduction in greenhouse gases from more people riding the tracks the need for multiple modes of transportation for evacuations during emergencies rail is common if the gentleman w the need for multiple modes of transportation for evacuation during emergencies is a critical factor and rail is one very important answer right now we know that people will ride the train when there is service available amtrak just set a new company record of almost twenty six million passengers in the last fiscal year we've seen successes in the northeast corridor between boston and new york on to new jersey to washington but there's no reason why we can't have world class rail service in other regions of the country many states are ready to develop new rail routes carders and our bills going to meet this need by creating a new state grant program for real projects in all it would authorize almost two billion dollars a year for amtrak and for the states over the next six years instead of barely giving him track enough resources to survive our bill paves the way for an improved modern passion no rail network by providing funding for amtrak capital and upgrading needs our legislation will also reduce train delays by allowing the federal surface transportation board to issue fines to freight railroads when their trains delay and track fas trains when it comes to overseeing use of taxpayer funds our bill requires that amtrak improve its efficiency and its management overall and we require a forty percent reduction in federal operating subsidies folk for six years and we were acquire a new financial accounting system to increase the transparency of the company's financial management  last congress our bipartisan compromise bill plan was approved by the senate ninety three to six now i hope we're going to see is similar show of support in this chamber later today consider two four eight two three four eight two is or objection i object to objections heard mr president i'd note that this amendment could be considered non germane afterwards and could have been number three four seven five as objection three four seven five this is a straightforward amendment last night at eleven o'clock i arrived at union station taking the cell express from new york city to washington the great value good service one of the areas where amtrak money but what the american public need to see about this this bill and i'm going to talk about this women specifically is that we're right here nail and total subsidies don't go down they go up over the next five years or amtrak if you consider that operating subs disease and capital subsidies here's where they are what we're going to have is about a six hundred million dollar increase per year not per year between now and two thousand and twelve in the amount that the american taxpayers going to subsidize amtrak and that may be something we want to do this amendment  specifically deals with an area where amtrak can make a difference right now and it's on food service over the last three years american taxpayers have subsidized food service on amtrak to the tune of a quarter of a billion dollars now anybody that travels knows that when you get on american airlines you can buy a milky way for three dollars the same thing cost seventy five cents on amtrak they know that you can buy beer for five dollars three dollars on amtrak why is it that we have food programs and food sales programs that the american taxpayer are subsidizing on and crack that we refused to subsidize on airlines now we've heard during this debate that well we subsidize amtrak but we subsidize all the rest of them well here's a department of transportation analysis on how much we do subsidize the other forms of transportation in this country it is pretty revealing if you're driving the car you're paying into the federal government it's a negative subsidy to the individual driver paying a dollar and seventy nine cents for every thousand miles you drive to the federal government just for the privilege to be driving but if you ride a bus it's four dollars and sixty six cents subsidy from us the taxpayers to us the riders if you're flying it's six dollars and eight cents for every thousand miles that we travel is what we pay to fly when you get the public quite a bit bigger one could you make justification for that i'm not saying we should but when we get to amtrak we're talking about two hundred ten dollars per thousand miles travel on average and we know that in on certain rail lines there's not certain routes there's not much subsidy amtrak actually makes money and they have slightly improved in certain areas especially with their latest data but two hundred ten dollars now if you take their total subsidy which right now is i think is about eight hundred million dollars a year if you'll put it's one point three billion which all the subsidy both capital another if you were to take out the losses on  food save another hundred twenty five one hundred fifty million dollars nobody expects when you get on an amtrak rail passenger service that the rest of us ought to pay for your beer nobody expects that we ought to pay for your three musketeers yet in essence that's what's happening on amtrak so this amendment is really fairly straightforward what it says is three things it says that amtrak cast a calculator and report quarterly to the department of transportation and congress on the quarterly profit and loss by route or rail line food and beverage services what that means is they ought to know where they're losing their money and we ought to know where they're losing their money the second thing is this is amtrak to restructure their for their food and beverage service contracts for any rail line that's losing money on  food and beverage services this isn't rocket science this is if you're going to sell it you ought at least sell it for enough to cover the cost and yet we continue to not do that if we continue not to want to hold them accountable to do that and then finally if they can't present a way to be able to sell food and beverage at a breakeven at least then they ought to have to discontinue selling food and have a food service and they've done that on one line because it was losing so much money the question is why have the the raise the prices or done it on the other line so that all this is a management audit tool for amtrak that says you're going to tell us every three months by a route or you're making your money they need to know that anyhow they just don't right now they don't account for it right now they can't tell you how much byliner route what they're making or losing on third service and any manager of any knows that if you don't know the information if you don't have metrics you can't manage it if you don't have the metrics you can't manage it it's interesting the history in this debate on amtrak because in one thousand nine hundred seven the amtrak reform and accountability act of one thousand nine hundred seven was supposed to solve all the problems and by two thousand and three we were supposed to have a subsidy in amtrak that's what the bill says it said that we will in fact by two thousand and three solve this drain of one point three billion dollars per year coming out of everybody else's hands into those people who ride and train we haven't had an authorization since two thousand and three this bill kline's that in fact the subsidies will go dale but they won't that's their numbers that's the bills numbers so now we're saying we're fixing the problem except the problem continues to grow if in fact we would fix the food service portion of this this would do this it would be a flat line there would be no increase in subsidies capital or otherwise if in fact we were just breaking even on all the food so it's a real straightforward amendment know there's some consternation with this imam on the authors of the bill and the managers of bill i understand that but the fact is is hard to explain the american people why we're subsidizing the three musketeer and a package of presses and a beer that people who ride amtrak and we are you know it's interesting i fly every week travel times eight hours each way and i prized bottles of water in the airport bottled water on amtrak a dollar ninety nine you know what the average is in airports around this country that's not a monitor plus two dollars and forty nine cents and yet we're selling twenty percent cheaper on amtrak than you can buy it in an airport now if you go by to convene a stor g buy for ninety nine cents but we have a captive audience airlines know how to take advantage of that and we're not subsidizing makes up the six dollars that we pointed out per thousand miles that comes to six cents a mile by the way versus twenty two hundred ten dollars a mile or twenty one dollars a mile for those on amtrak so my hope is is that we'll at least look at this and say ok if you're not going to management at least look the food side of it measure it and then if we want to come back in a year and take this amendment away saying ok you've done all we have to do with this amendment if they start breaking even on food it doesn't have any effect on him other than reporting and if they're not going to break even on food and beverage service what it says is give us a pliant to show how you're going to do it very simple but if you're not going to do either of those then stop losing money on food service and every service on amtrak without ideal time until eleven forty five a m before the debate with respect to the coburn amendment number three point seven four times the equally divided control the usual form that noman be in order to the amendment prior to the for getting involved in the process here he made some requests last week and terms of need more time to actually look at this legislation and think about a members that should be offered senator reid greed to that and then the have been limited in that way they still haven't got the cost where they should be but the opportunity is there for the do that and i want them to continue to work to get better prices and cut the subsidies cut the cost  be transparent we all know where the costs are where the profits are we should increase the profits and cut the cost but to say that you should limit such service on amtrak lines that incur a loss but i still believe that what you're saying here is easy to say ok if you can't get this under control we're going to land one of the line is actually doing pretty good but the food service is still costs too much we should keep the pressure all but i don't  we've had trouble controlling our food costs but we have heard stories about airline passengers stranded on planes with no food couldn't get all the planes kind of conservation that is call calls unlike air travelers who may be purchased food at airports during layovers rail passengers don't have time during stops to get off and come back home even if they could most amtrak stations don't have snagged bars so this is this is a question of what in reality you are the gold standard we had of all of amtrak services like sulla serving the numbers of people and the quality of the service and all that then we'd be a lot better all but the department of transportation inspector general found that amtrak has reduced its food and labor costs by twelve million dollars over the past three fiscal years i think that pressure from the last amtrak bill has been leading to this and they understand we've got to do a better job we believe that number can drop even further to ninety four we reduce subsidies forty percent over the life of the bill this includes section two ten which requires amtrak re evaluate own board amenities and services including food for these long distance rail routes we w it's in the bill back to i think some people when they actually read this bill have been surprised that there are reforms and there are improvements are going to be demanded some people might say well that we need even more that's a legitimate argument but if a particular rail and suffers a loss on the food service and they would be required to reason go shake the contract relating to food beverage including labor contracts you might say well even that may not be bad but if a particular rail line suffers a loss in two consecutive years they would be required to terminate food service on that line that therein is the problem and track would be permitted to reinstate food and beverage service on a discount of land only after a one year moratorium and the secretary certifies a profit raise your costs you get a different contractor a lot of options we should continue to press this point but i don't think we ought to make it such that we wound up having to terminate service if we can get the food situation straight now and i don't think it's necessary given the for service and i've learned from past experience don't mess people stumps or you will get into real trouble if the present in that connection i won't read the entire piece but i'd like to insert in the record at this point an article from parade magazine seen let me ask and said that it be included in its entirety without objection just some of what it says it said with plain delays and high gas prices americans are asking can we save our trains and it goes into some detail about all of the delays and inconveniences and problems now the congestion on our highways the delays the discomforts on airlines and people are saying is there another alternative that alternative should be a national rail pass your system but surely the government and amtrak we could all do a better job of making it a good experience and living within their means they've not done that in this bill hopefully in their present form with additional amendments that can be added will pressure amtrak to provide a service but i think we're going to need it for the future transportation needs of our country before the senator from new jersey president  reduce costs reduce costs of government in many ways we can that certainly is what is being attempted to do and in this bill that senator lott and i have  its food and beverage service to passengers who take amtrak long distance trains may be in transit for as long as two or three days and some may be diabetic  how much time do we have left available just a little over one minute mr president summarize and very quickly to say that these long rides a person  may be diabetic may need food as part of the what route transportation offers and it's a track that tracks more passengers to know that they can be comfortable and still have some nourishment along the way if we want to reduce subsidies that we all look at the airlines where we're subsidizing them to the tune of fifteen billion dollars a year and say cut out the many pretzels cut out the little bag of nuts it's plus a lot of money when you multiply it by all the passengers to get in airplanes mr president the objective here is to make amtrak a more viable part of our transportation network and i hope that we will not start things apart maybe we ought to look at what they do mechanically see whether we can reduce the mechanic you're there that's that we want to do we're going to all this is going to be reported i thank the senator from oklahoma for his for his amendment but i'm  it hope all of our colleagues well this president senator from oklahoma thank you it's interesting two thirds airlines don't have pretzels anymore because they have to make a profit and they have to report to their shareholders so it's not there anymore the fact is we heard statement that the subsidies been reduced by forty percent that's the operating systems the tone subsidies have been reduced at all they're actually going up they're actually going up by this amount over the next five years that's amtrak's numbers based on this bill that's department of transportation's numbers based on this bill now if you would break on food service there wouldn't be any increase in total subsidies but none of us would run a business with a loss leader that would continue to undermine our ability to put the capital in the business to stay in business we would in fact make a change in this i'm in it gives them two years and says the first year you get two years to lose money so the first year if you've lost money renegotiate it raise your prices cut your labor costs the cost of food service amtrak is fifty two percent labor costs the average person though it out the food on amtrak makes twice what somebody does in the private sector doing the same thing so what we really have is a subsidy  the food service workers on amtrak because that's fifty two percent of the cost rather than the subsidy the food again the question american people are asking is should we be subsidizing somebody three musketeers on amtrak when we don't do it anywhere and common sense that if you're going to offer food service it at least ought to breakeven what we know is the testimony from the head amtrak as they use it as a loss leader the only problem is is for the use of the loss leader t continue to lose more money on their profitable routes they make money on food service so the question is is should we in fact subsidize food nobody wants a diabetic not to have available and they won't be that's why we put two years in here the first year you recognize you've got a problem the second you fix it this isn't an amendment this design to get rid of service in terms of train routes this is a mammoth that says none of us would run a business losing this kind of it's a knowing the situation that we've run into with the airlines where their people are stuck out for hours at a time is it a good idea to eliminate the center suggests we even are happy that we eliminated pretzels on the on the on the airlines know the different out of it idea mr president the difference is that becomes a management decision of the airline who has to compete and track has no competition competition so therefore they continue to do things because we will subsidize them that somebody in the private sector would not do that is a decision that is made that says american airlines saved thirty million dollars last year by their restriction and food services is in the paper today thirty million dollars they saved on all the routes by restriction those are to them in an airline industry that's been struggling that's a significant amount of money you know what we still flew american airlines we just bought it before we got on and the statement that there's not food available at all amtrak stops is not true that's true in the very remote rural areas but there is food available so if in fact we would pass this amendment and amtrak would run the food service like any other business would run it this number would become a flat line no rigo up here and then we come across an american taxpayer would save about a billion dollars over the next five years if in fact we would do that so the opposition i want to finish my point the opposition to this amendment is is the fear that we may lose a route because we may not offer food service i would be happy to offer would you question i would be happy to offer the manager this mehmet to make a second agree to this amendment that says on long haul routes if in fact there is no possibility that you could never do that on a certain subsidy level i'd be happy to accept that the purpose is this we lose a quarter of a billion dollars subsidizing somebodies heineken every day every year when we have this system where we don't make a management decision this in the best interest and the reason here here's the real reason the decisions aren't made on food service is because they don't have to be because we're still going to put the money there that's the real reason why it's not there in the private sector it would have happened already if there were struck private trains compete i'll guarantee the prices be higher for the food component that nobody's going to lose so it's a straight forward him and i mean my time the reason that we do subsidize is six dollars per thousand miles travel on the airlines subsidize it two hundred ten dollars per thousand mile travel on the railroad that is a significant reason why we ought to be all the more efficient with what we do in that you are correct this last year we only lost we only subsidize eighty million dollars worth of food bought on average every three years it's a quarter of a billion dollars and that was my statement so a yourself should we be subsidizing eighty million dollars worth of food on amtrak mr president this is a straightforward commonsense amendment that most americans would say god makes sense when it least ought to cover the costs and if we can't cover the cost then maybe we ought to renegotiate the contract with the food service workers who make forty three thousand dollars a year who are selling you a bottle of water now compare that to somebody is working in an airport or a stewardess on an airplane that serving you which is making less than that so the consequences of our actions have great impact why is it important is because the subsidy we give amtrak you know what it is it's really borrowed from our grandkids we can't deny it we have an administration claim a hundred sixty billion dollars deficit this year and the real deficit is going to be three hundred billion because we're going to borrow one hundred forty billion dollars from so security pay for medicare and then we're going to borrow two hundred billion dollars pay for a war that we're charging to her grandkids so that's important because the subsidy isn't coming from us it's coming from the next two generations with that mr president i yield i understand all yield all times  mr by mr bennett mr biden mr bangs and then mr bond mrs clinton mr mr cochran mr coleman ms collins mr conrad mr corker lautenberg mr leahy mr eleven mr lieberman mrs lincoln mr mr menendez sanders mr schumer mr sessions mr shelby and mr smith mr webb mr white house mr wyde mr nelson of nebraska no mr sanders mr sanders no miss collins ms collins no mr lieberman now mr cole mr call no m mr salazar no mr specter mr specter no are there any senators wishing to vote or change their vote on this the eyes are twenty four the nays are sixty seven the amendment is not agreed to the senate will come to order start now without objection it will come to order that it will come to order under the previous order the clerk will report the motion to invoke cloture cloture motion way the undersigned senators in accordance with the provisions of rule twenty two of the standing rules of the senate here by move to bring to a close the debate on calendar number one fifty eight  please take your conversations out of the senate the senate will come to order may have order then it will come to order order take your conversations out of the senate that includes senate staff by unanimous consent the mandatory quorum call is waived the question is is that the sense of the senate the debate on s two nine for a bill to reauthorize amtrak and for other purposes shall be brought to a close mr bingaman mr bond this is boxer mr kennedy