by Sean Jeans-Gail, Vice President of Gov't Affairs

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The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (T-HUD) held a markup of its Fiscal Year 2025 T-HUD draft bill on June 27, advancing a transportation and housing budget that includes significant cuts to Amtrak and transit. The meeting essentially a pro forma session, with Chairman Steve Womack (R-Ark.) requesting that Members hold off on any amendments until the full Committee markup on July 10th.

Summary of Cuts to Transportation Funding: The Committee budget proposal would cut operational funding to Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor by $139 million compared to Fiscal Year 2024 (FY24) levels, with a $163 million cut to the National Network account. It would also zero out discretionary funding for the Federal-State Partnership for Intercity Passenger Rail, a popular program that is helping states upgrade and expand America’s intercity passenger rail network, and reduces funding for railroad safety research by $8 million.

The draft bill also cuts funding to the Federal Transit Administration by $1.3 billion compared to FY24, with a 66 percent reduction to Capital Investment Grants—a critical program for building new rail transit and bus rapid transit routes.

Highways would receive $63.5 billion, an increase of $552 million above FY24; and the Federal Aviation Administration would receive $21.7 billion, an increase of $1.6 billion.

[A full funding table is included at the bottom of this page.]

The bill also included a few policy riders aimed at passenger rail and transit, including language prohibiting the use of funds from this bill going to the California High-Speed Rail project; a $15 million earmark for the Union Station Redevelopment Corporation (USRC) to rehabilitate and repair Washington Union Station complex, with a requirement the USRC Board of Directors to include designees from the Commonwealth of Virginia and the State of Maryland; and a prohibition on the use of funds from this bill going towards the implementation of congestion pricing in New York City.

[A full list of policy riders is included at the bottom of this page.]

What it Means for Passengers: This bill does not contain the catastrophic cuts to rail we saw outlined in last year’s House T-HUD bill—which included a 64 percent cut to Amtrak operations, including a 92 percent cut to the Northeast Corridor!

That’s a testament to how effective our coalition was in killing that extreme bill, which never got to a vote on the floor of the House due to bipartisan opposition.

However, we need to be clear: these cuts will result in further degradation of service. Amtrak and transit operators are already struggling with inflation, and these cuts mean less operational funding for day-to-day maintenance, cleaning crews, onboard services, staffing at stations, etc.

It will also slow the work being done by Amtrak and the states to address decades of underinvestment, which is being financed by guaranteed funding from the bipartisan infrastructure bill.

“The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act has provided a bipartisan framework for correcting decades of underinvestment in rail and transit, and it’s disappointing to see House appropriators reject that bipartisan approach with this budget proposal,” said Rail Passengers Association President Jim Mathews. “It’s particularly frustrating because, absent these cuts, work on upgrading and expanding the U.S. intercity rail network is poised to finally take off this summer. Amtrak is on pace to almost double the capital expenditures it’s making to upgrade and replace aging bridges, tunnels, stations, and railcars long past their useful lifespan. We’ve seen millions of American passengers suffer through infrastructure failures over the past month, particularly on the Northeast Corridor. Congress should be working to accelerate modernization work, not cutting the operations budget Amtrak needs to run the trains and oversee construction.”

These cuts to rail and transit are being used to pay for increased spending on highways and aviation programs. Rail Passengers need your help in asking for continued investment in trains and transit ahead of the July 10th full Committee hearing! Use our advocacy platform to quickly and easily write your Members of Congress in support of investing in passenger rail!

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Federal Funding for Intercity Passenger Rail Programs

(Millions of dollars)
	FY24 Enacted	FY25 IIJA Authorized	FY25 President’s Request	FY25 House Proposed
Amtrak - NEC	$1,141	$1,300	$1,200	$1,002
Amtrak - National Network	$1,286	$2,700	$1,304	$1,123
FRA Operations	$268	$271	$294	$288
Fed-State Partnership for ICPR	$75	$1,500	$100	$0
CRISI Grants	$199	$1,000	$250	$299
RR Crossing Elimination Grants	$0	$500	$0	$0
Restoration & Enhancement Grants	$0	$50	$0	$0
Total	$2,969	$7,321	$3,148	$2,712

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T-HUD Policy Riders

• Prohibits the use of any funds from this bill going to the California High-Speed Rail project;
• Stipulates CRISI funds may be used for railroad systems planning (including the preparation of regional intercity passenger rail plans and state rail plans) and railroad project development activities (including railroad project planning, preliminary engineering, design, environmental analysis, feasibility studies, and the development and analysis of project alternatives);
• Strikes a requirement that the FRA give preference to CRISI applications for which the proposed Federal share of total project costs does not exceed 50 percent;
• Prohibits IIJA Fed-State Partnership money being used by the FRA to issue phased funding agreements, which allows the agency to commit future funding for major capital projects (subject to availability);
• Earmarks $15 million for the Union Station Redevelopment Corporation to rehabilitate and repair Washington Union Station complex, and requires the USRC Board of Directors to include designees from the Commonwealth of Virginia and the State of Maryland; and
• Prohibits the use of any funds from this bill going towards the implementation of congestion pricing in New York City.