A group of Democratic lawmakers on Wednesday called on Congress to increase funding for high-speed rail in President Joe Biden’s infrastructure package.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Seth Moulton, D-Mass., urged for an increase to the proposed $80 billion in rail projects included in the proposal, which industry experts say will mostly be spent on updating existing Amtrak lines than building new high-speed railways.
“We have a once in a generation opportunity to invest in infrastructure,” Moulton said during a press conference. “We cannot squander that by investing in the last generation’s infrastructure. High-speed rail, high-speed broadband this is the future and that’s why we’re here today.”
The lawmakers launched a high-speed rail coalition, including the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and the U.S. High Speed Rail Association, declaring that an electric high-speed rail network would create millions of new jobs and reduce the United States’ carbon footprint.
“Rail is climate infrastructure,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “For every buck that we’re going to put into a car and a bridge, we want to put a buck into a rail. We want equity. That’s what we’re here to demand.”
They also noted that while high-speed rail lines are present throughout large portions of Europe and Asia, no trains currently deployed in the United States are classified as high speed.
“We’re the strongest, greatest economy in the world when it comes to entrepreneurialism and when it comes to innovation, and we should never be ceding that leadership anywhere in the world,” Gillibrand said.
Biden has dropped the price of the infrastructure plan, originally totaling more than $2 trillion when first proposed in March, amid a lack of support from Republicans.
Last week, a group of 10 Democrats and Republicans said they had reached an agreement on a “realistic, compromise framework to modernize our nation’s infrastructure and energy technologies” and would not be funded by tax increases.
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“We want equity. That’s what we’re here to demand.”
This child’s mother must have given birth from the top of a ferris wheel and baby AOC fell to the ground and landed on her head. Somebody made a comment on here yesterday that incompetence and ignorance must be a requirement to serve in Congress. I am inclined to agree.
AND as i keep asking. HOW THE HELL is “high speed internet”, somethig PRIVATE COMPANIES are providing, “INFRASTRUCTURE”!?
Yep, “invest” in Amtrak. Boy, what a great “investment” of taxpayer money, as all Amtrak does is lose money. The Government: Let’s lose money and call it an “investment”.
Has there been ANY YEAR in the past 4 decades, where Amtrak has NOT LOST money?
FIfty billion for this project, 40 billion for that one, this other one is only five trillion…pretty soon it adds up to some real money.
We are dooming our future by spending money as if all you need to do is print more to have it.
Remember when the phrase was “A million here, a million there. Soon we will be at a billion, now that’s real money”.
“and would not be funded by tax increases.”
This LIE OF THE DAY is the work of some unnamed “reporter” under the auspices of UPI. I wonder exactly where does this mental midget think the fund come from? He/She/It thinks the government has money of it’s own – they just go to the backyard and pluck some off the money tree!
It should be noted that the three who sponsor this idea are in the Northeast corridor serviced by Amtrack already so the ‘infrastructure upgrade would benefit their districts more than the rest of the country. It is deceptive to use the climate as the excuse because how long it will take to offset the envirnmental impact of such projects is not part of the formula.
Hell, how many “Rail roads/bridges” to no where, have we already HAD in the past 2 decades?!
I wonder if AOC has heard of the term “pulling train” speaking of rail service. I’m sure she has a history.