Yesterday, Republican U.S. Representative Tom McClintock introduced a legislative amendment to kill 1.4 billion dollars in spending to support Amtrak passenger rail service. Amtrak rail enables the airline industry to keep running by reducing air traffic control delays due to congestion in the skies – though the airline industry pays nothing for this favor. Passenger rail is much more efficient, both economically and environmentally, than any other method of inter-city transportation (besides walking, bicycling, and horseback riding). McClintock, and 147 other Republican members of Congress who voted for his amendment, didn’t find these details compelling. They say that the 1.4 billion dollars to Amtrak is wasteful spending.
The odd thing is that many of these same Republican members of Congress voted for much higher amounts of transportation spending not very long ago. They’re dead set against allowing 1.4 billion dollars for Amtrak to maintain the rails upon which its trains run, but just months ago, they voted to approve more than 26.8 billion dollars for the maintenance of the roads upon which the vehicles of the automotive industry putter along (at lower speeds, greater per-passenger cost, higher pollution, and lower passenger safety).
The following are the names of the Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives who voted to block little spending on efficient travel infrastructure yesterday, but also voted to approve big spending on inefficient travel infrastructure a few months ago:
Robert Aderholt
Andy Barr
Joe Barton
Dan Benishek
Gus Bilirakis
Rob Bishop
Kevin Brady
Mo Brooks
Michael Burgess
Jason Chaffetz
Mike Coffman
Michael Conaway
John Culberson
Sean Duffy
John Duncan
Chuck Fleischmann
John Fleming
Bill Flores
Randy Forbes
Bob Goodlatte
Tom Graves
Sam Graves
Brett Guthrie
Gregg Harper
Vicky Hartzler
Joe Heck
Jeb Hensarling
Jaime Herrera Beutler
George Holding
Richard Hudson
Bill Huizenga
Duncan Hunter
Will Hurt
Darrell Issa
Sam Johnson
David Jolly
Steve King
Robert Latta
Blaine Luetkemeyer
Kenny Marchant
Thomas Massie
Michael McCaul
Patrick McHenry
Cathy McMorris Rodgers
Randy Neugebauer
Kristi Noem
Devin Nunes
Steven Palazzo
Steve Pearce
Robert Pittenger
Ted Poe
Tom Price
Tom Rice
Mike Rogers
Dana Rohrabacher
Todd Rokita
Tom Rooney
Peter Roskam
Dennis Ross
Ed Royce
Paul Ryan
Steve Scalise
Pete Sessions
Jason Smith
Adrian Smith
Lamar Smith
Chris Stewart
Mac Thornberry
David Valadao
Jackie Walorski
Daniel Webster
Brad Wenstrup
Joe Wilson
Robert Woodall
Kevin Yoder
Todd Young