WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) on Wednesday questioned U.S. Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao during a U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and other Related Agencies on the administration’s FY 2020 budget request which cuts funding for the Northeast Corridor (NEC), the busiest rail line in the United States. In her department’s budget request to the House and Senate Appropriations Committees, Chao noted that the NEC is one of the most important transportation assets in the United States, but the budget President Trump submitted to Congress earlier this month cuts Amtrak-NEC funding in half and completely eliminates funding for the Federal-State Partnership for the State of Good Repair grant program. As a member of the Appropriations Committee that will approve this funding, Murphy intends to fight against these proposed cuts.

“Help me square your recognition that this is the lifeblood of our region’s economy with these very draconian cuts. We feel like we have been targeted by this administration and the president for specific cuts in infrastructure funding, and I may ask you another question about that but help me figure out how I explain to my constituents why we’re going to be levied with these enormous cuts even though the administration seems to recognize that this is a vital important transportation corridor,” Murphy said.

A transcript of Murphy’s exchange with Secretary Chao is below:

MURPHY: Thank you very much Madam Chair. Thank you Madam Secretary for being here today. In your request to Congress you note that, “the Northeast Rail Corridor is one of the most important transportation assets in the United States. The lifeblood of the region’s economy, the NEC carries more than 800,000 people each day on Amtrak and commuter services.” That is in your submission to Congress. And so I’m seeking to square that with a budget request to us that guts funding for the Northeast Corridor that is going to make it fairly impossible for us to even maintain the state of good repair on what is the busiest rail corridor in the country. We carry about half of the country’s passengers on a stretch of rail that is relatively short compared to the size of the nation. Your budget cuts the Amtrak NEC program in half from $650 million to $325 million and then completely eliminates the State of Good Repair program which is a federal and state match program that benefits us greatly in the Northeast Corridor so help me square this. Help me square your recognition that this is the lifeblood of our region’s economy with these very draconian cuts. We feel like we have been targeted by this administration and the president for specific cuts in infrastructure funding, and I may ask you another question about that but help me figure out how I explain to my constituents why we’re going to be levied with these enormous cuts even though the administration seems to recognize that this is a vitally important transportation corridor.

CHAO: Well they’re not exactly cuts. Amtrak receives about $1.5 billion overall from the federal government. Indeed it’s the Northeast Corridor which is very important, I take Amtrak all the time myself, is $325 million to support the capital needs and that has traditionally been the amount that the President’s budget requests. There have been enacted amounts which are much higher but also Amtrak has more than, almost $1 billion in cash if you look at their balance sheet. That is still money on the books that they can be drawing down upon as well.  

MURPHY: But that’s nothing new. I mean how can you say they’re not…

CHAO: Why is there idle cash of $1 billion? 

MURPHY: But I guess how can you say they’re not cuts. I mean they are cuts. You are cutting the Northeast Corridor by $325 million.

CHAO: That’s against the enacted but compared with the President’s request it has always been around this level. 

MURPHY: Compared with enacted. Right, well that’s how we measure cuts is what we got last year versus what we get this year. So let me ask you another question about something we’ve talked about before. And that is two particular projects which clog the Northeast Rail Corridor and that’s Gateway and the Portal Bridge. A few weeks ago FTA released its annual report and funding recommendations and the capital investment grants and there were 53 projects on that list. Only 4 of those 53 received ratings under the median threshold and these…

CHAO: Doesn’t that tell you something?

MURPHY: These two projects were amongst those for anyone who has spent anytime riding the Northeast Corridor…     

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