Congressman Denny Rehberg

WASHINGTON, DC - Montana’s Congressman, Denny Rehberg, today led a successful effort on the floor of the U.S. House, resulting in the restoration of full-funding for Amtrak. In an impassioned speech before Congress, Rehberg spoke on an amendment to save Amtrak by restoring funds that had been cut by the House Appropriations Committee last week:

“I, too, recognize the difficult position the Appropriations Committee has been put in with the cost of Amtrak, and the on-going cost. I just caution the members of this body that there are states like mine. I represent an entire state. The distance of my district spans the distance from Washington, D.C. to Chicago. Our cities were not established in Montana because of rivers or ports. Ours were established because of the rail. Rail in Montana is not an essential service, it’s a critical service. In many cases we have good bus service; it just doesn’t happen to be in the area where Amtrak is. We have good air service; unfortunately, it just doesn’t happen to be in the area where the rail is. So in our particular case, having a large geographical area with very little population, it becomes a critical service to provide not only our products, but our passengers, as well.

“The Empire Builder in Montana has as many as 500,000 people traveling on it. Do we recognize it’s subsidized? Yes, we do. But I don’t think Congress ever intended it to be run entirely like a business. We want good quality service, we want a cheap price, but the problem is there cannot be competition because you can’t set up a railroad next to the other - you can’t have two railroads competing against each other.

“So Amtrak is one of those entities that cannot entirely be run like a business. So I hope you’ve listened to Mr. LaTourette’s amendment, because what it does is lay the foundation for implementing the beginning of a reform initiative within Amtrak that will make it run more like a business. It can be supported, and ultimately we will have the rail service in states like Montana, and the rest of the long lines that are so critical within our transportation system. I thank you and I hope you’ll support the amendment.”

Moments later, the full House approved the amendment, restoring funding to Amtrak. On his own last week, Rehberg began the momentum to preserve Amtrak by pressing an amendment in the House Appropriations Committee to restore funds to Montana’s Empire Builder service. Out-voted in Committee, Rehberg, from that point on set out to build a bipartisan coalition to help persuade wavering Members to support Amtrak.

“This is not about being a Republican or a Democrat, this is about doing what’s right for Montana,” Rehberg said of his breaking ranks with the White House and his own party leadership.

“We still have some technical issues to work out with the Senate on specifics, but I’m just grateful that so many of my colleagues had the courage to restore funding to our critical passenger rail service.”