The National Association of Railroad Passengers said Thursday that the Trump administration budget for Amtrak for the fiscal year 2018 appears to have been adopted from a model proposed by the conservative Heritage Foundation.
The administration described the budget blueprint as a “skinny budget” and it contains few program details.
NARP contends that while President Donald Trump has talked up the need for transportation infrastructure investment, “his administration’s first budget guts infrastructure spending, slashing $2.4 billion from transportation. This will jeopardize mobility for millions of Americans and endanger tens of thousands of American jobs.”
The budget, which must be approved by Congress, would end all federal funding for Amtrak’s national network trains.
NARP said this would leave 23 states, including Ohio, without rail passenger service.
The Trump budget would also cut $499 million from the TIGER grant program, which has been used to advance passenger rail and transit projects and eliminate $2.3 billion for the Federal Transit Administration’s “New Starts” Capital Investment Program, which is used to fund the launch of transit, commuter rail, and light-rail projects.
Political analysts have noted that no budget proposal sent to Congress has emerged without changes.
It is likely that transportation advocacy groups will lobby Congress hard to restore the funding that Trump wants to cut.
Tags: Amtrak, Amtrak funding, Amtrak long-distance trains, Congress, Donald Trump, Public transit grants, Public transportation, public transportation funding, public transportation grants, TIGER funding, transit funding, Trump administration
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