Tell Congress: $7 billion for passenger rail!
Issue in brief: On July 12, the House T-HUD subcommittee made a direct attack on high-speed and regional rail by proposing to slash total funding for passenger rail to just $1.4 billion in 2024. Please tell your Representative in Congress that this is unacceptable. It is urgent that we expand the program by making use of the full $7 billion authorization.
More background:
Unlike highway funding, high-speed and intercity passenger rail programs must be appropriated every year. The FY2023 budget appropriated $3.3 billion for this.
The first step in the annual appropriations debate takes place in the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development subcommittee of the House, or T-HUD for short.
On July 12, T-HUD proposed slashing rail funding to just $1.4 billion in 2024—less than half of this year’s amount. That isn’t enough to keep existing trains running, let alone build the fast, frequent, and dependable trains we need to reconnect our cities.
In 2021, Congress passed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which authorized almost $7 billion in funding for FY2024. Now we need Congress to actually appropriate that amount, which we need in order to start making significant improvements in our national rail system.
Please send a message to your Representative in Congress now: We need $7 billion for passenger rail!