Rep. Matt Salmon on May 1, began his annual legislative initiative to highlight and cut wasteful and duplicative programs in every area of government. Rep. Salmon is reintroducing the initiative for the 114th Congress and announced his first bill, which would end federal subsidies to Amtrak.
The National Rail Passenger Service Corporation, popularly known as Amtrak, was created by Congress at the behest of President Nixon in 1970 to bail out private railroad companies of their duty to provide passenger service in tandem with freight service. It is a quasi-government entity, a corporation whose stock is almost entirely owned by the federal government. Amtrak has received over $66 billion (in 2014 dollars) in taxpayer-funded federal grants since its inception, despite running a deficit each year. As part of the fiscal year 2015 budget, Amtrak is scheduled to receive $1.390 billion in taxpayer-funded grants.
“The first bill in this year’s Shrink our Spending initiative is a prime example of Washington elites presuming that they can spend your hard-earned dollars better than you can. Amtrak, the government’s perpetually uncompetitive railroad company, is praised by some as preserving passenger rail service in the United States. Unfortunately, Americans have voted with their dollars that they would prefer almost any other method of transportation to trains in most instances,” said Salmon in a statement released last week.
“America offers a robust market with numerous other transportation companies, with bountiful providers of air and land travel at competitive prices. Conversely, the market for train service is so abysmal that the only way a national provider can continue to exist is by leeching funds from the U.S. taxpayer,” continued Salmon.
“Our nation is a nation of innovation and creative destruction.” Salmon concluded, “It’s time for Congress to get out of the railroad business and allow private companies to operate rail service where the market will freely support such a service instead of wasting funds where it can’t compete with the countless other options available to our citizens.”
For full bill text, click here.