In response to President Biden’s announcement of a historic $16.4 billion for passenger rail projects, DNC spokesperson Sarafina Chitika released the following statement: 

“Today’s historic investment is just the latest in President ‘Amtrak Joe’ Biden’s work to get our infrastructure back on track. Under Donald Trump, progress on rail projects stalled and his long-awaited ‘Infrastructure Week’ became a punchline and not a reality. While Trump’s MAGA minions in the House remain hellbent on slashing funding for the infrastructure Americans rely on to get to work, go to school, and get home to their families, President Biden is delivering safe, reliable infrastructure for the American people and helping to create good jobs along the way.” 

President Biden announced the biggest investment in passenger rail the United States has seen since Amtrak’s founding, thanks to the historic Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. 

Associated Press: “‘Amtrak Joe’ Biden touts $16 billion for passenger rail projects near his home in Delaware.”

Associated Press: “The money comes from the roughly $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure law that Biden signed nearly two years ago, one of several legislative achievements that the president is touting as he gears up for his reelection bid.” 

Delaware News Journal: “Biden, who famously logged more than 2 million miles by train as a U.S. senator while commuting between Wilmington and Washington, is expected to lay out the specifics of a $66 billion Amtrak investment contained in the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.”

MAGA House Republicans are turning their backs on local communities – both urban and rural – and undermining American infrastructure transportation by proposing draconian cuts. 

Roll Call: “House Republicans from the Northeast temporarily derailed the chamber’s plan to proceed with the fiscal 2024 Transportation-HUD spending bill, which would slash 64 percent, or $1.6 billion, from Amtrak’s fiscal 2023 level.”

Insider: “Many congressional Republicans have repeatedly attempted to slash funding for passenger rail and other infrastructure priorities. The House is poised to vote in early November on a transportation funding bill that would strip about $1.5 billion in funding from Amtrak — an approximately 64% cut in the rail system’s annual federal funding.”

White House Fact Sheet: “This reduction in funding would require Amtrak to reduce most, if not all, long-distance services, reduce certain Northeast Corridor regional train frequencies, and reduce or defer nearly 400 capital projects across the country.” 

As President Biden is announcing billions in rail grants today, MAGA House Republicans are planning to vote on new rail cuts later this week.

Politico: “A split screen on rail”

“President Joe Biden travels to Wilmington, Del., today to announce $16.4 billion in grants for passenger rail along the Northeast Corridor, including $9 billion in fiscal 2022 and fiscal 2023 funds and $7.4 billion in future commitments of the FRA’s Federal State Partnership for Intercity Passenger Rail grant program. … Later this week, however, the House is scheduled to vote on a bill that would cut funding for Amtrak by about $1.5 billion.”

The MAGA House majority has been hellbent on slashing critical infrastructure funding – including projects that would improve rail safety. 

Washington Post: “It took decades for Congress to deliver on its promise to pour new money into the nation’s roads, bridges, pipes, ports and internet connections. Now, House Republicans are trying to slash some of the same funds. A series of GOP bills to finance the federal government in 2024 would wipe out billions of dollars meant to repair the nation’s aging infrastructure, potentially undercutting a 2021 law that was one of Washington’s rare recent bipartisan achievements. The proposed cuts could hamstring some of the most urgently needed public-works projects across the country, from improving rail safety to reducing lead contamination at schools.”

Under Donald Trump, “Infrastructure Week” was a complete joke.  

CNN: “No fewer than seven times – including this very week – has Trump’s White House declared that its chosen theme of a week would be infrastructure – only to see those plans thwarted, often by the President himself.”

The New York Times: “At this point in the Trump presidency, ‘Infrastructure Week’ is less a date on the calendar than it is a ‘Groundhog Day’-style fever dream doomed to be repeated.

“Roughly two years after the White House first came up with the idea of discussing, for all of seven days, the pursuit of a bipartisan agreement to rebuild the nation’s roads, bridges and broadband networks, President Trump more or less torpedoed those plans on Wednesday in a Rose Garden speech.”