Date: 2003-01-16
Speaker: KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON (republican)
Chamber: S

who has been the chairman of our Surface Transportation Committee. Senator OLYMPIA SNOWE of Maine. Senator LINCOLN CHAFEE of Rhode Island. and Senator ARLEN SPECTER of Pittsburgh. When I approached Senator SPECTER earlier today. he said: Let me Just do some checking. He wanted to make sure this was in consonance with what the administration was having done. That is the case today. So the good news is that we are on course with what Mr. Gunn calls the conservative. tight budget. We are not in the red there right now. Yes. this $1.2 billion allows for the payback to the Department of Transportation. In other words. it Is just swapping moneys of a $100 million loan back to the Department of Transportation. But he Is working again on the reservation system with the Internet reservations and otherwise. Some economies can be had there with the personnel. A lot of these reservations now are coming through with the Internet. I coud list out many other good things. There is a bill in Chairman MCCAINS committee with 30 cosponsors for reform. I pledge to work with the distinguished Senator from Arizona. with whom I have worked during the past few years in perfect harmony. We have agreed on just about everything. We wanted reform. He wants reform. I want reform. I was having difficulties from time to time trying to explain what they were doing because I couldnt get the information. But we now have an open operation there with David Gunn. What happens is. with the $1.2 billion the Appropriations Committee Just reported out. they thought they had some carryovers and everything else and cut it back to $826 million. With that cutback to $826 millionit was not considered by us or anybody on the committeethat actually is a 27percent cut under the present operation. We presently are operating on a continuing resolution of 1.1. plus the $100 million loan to pay back to the Department of Transportation. So what happens is. that is a 27percent cut. Mr. Gunn comes In in distress and says: Look. if that occurs. we will run out. We are operating very economically. very conservatively. I have some other initiatives that I will put in. but by April. under this particular $826 million amount. I will have to be closing down sometime this spring. None of us wants that. I am sure the chairman of the committee and all of us want to make sure we do the right thing. Incidentally. we have an operator in Mr. Gunn who is not going to play games. We have had others who evidently liked the job. needed the Job. or wanted the job. or whatever It was. and so they went along over the last 30 years. To give colleagues some grasp of this situation. Amtrak has always come for over $1 billion in requests. and they have always compromised at around $500 million. So at $500 million. on an average. per year. it amounts to about $15 billion in a 30year period. Now. wait a minute. 9/11. the airlines immediately got $15 billion. Plus the airport and airways transportation act is another $15 billion. Here comes where we really need some reform. $30 billion in 1 year. and we keep jumping and picking and picking and nagging and fussing at Amtrak when we ought to be fussing at each other. We are the ones who really havent gotten into it. Thanks to the leadership of Senator MCCAIN. we are getting into it because. as chairman. he has said: We are not going to let this one go unless we work together on reform. With that in mind. let me yield the floor and thank these particular Sen. ators and Chairman MURRAY here on her leadership also.