Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
U.S. House of Representatives
2029 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
RE: Letter of Support for the Amendment in the Nature of a Substitute to
H.R. 8692 Offered by Mr. Nehls of Texas
To Whom It May Concern,
We, the members of the Rail Users Network (RUN), a national rail advocacy
with home office in Massachusetts, write to offer our strong support for
the Amendment in the Nature of a Substitute (ANS) to H.R. 8692 which wouldmake Amtrak subject to 5 USC 552b, the Open Meetings statute.
M r. Joseph Boardman who was the president of Amtrak at the time said in
2018, “Amtrak is not a privately held corporation whose fate is to be
determined by a few individuals behind closed doors. It was created by the
people and for the people and is funded by taxpayers who help to supplement Amtrak’s farebox revenue.” 1
As a *publicly-funded* national passenger rail service, Amtrak’s Board
meetings should therefore be open to the public and the media, with its
meeting agendas, minutes, and other materials presented at and to the board made available so that those interested can better understand how Amtrak conducts its business.
Research on this issue has shown that almost every other publicly-supported entity that provides passenger rail service in the United States (for example, the Capitol Corridor Joint Powers Authority, the Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority, and the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority, and other such entities in the Midwest and West) holds open and transparent board meetings, and we strongly believe that Amtrak, in the best public interest, should do so as well. In 1972 Congress amended the
Rail Passenger Service Act of 1970 by adding a statute that required Amtrak
to be subject TO Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
In 1997 Congress passed the Amtrak Reform and Accountability Act which updated the statute so that Amtrak to be required to be subject to the FOIA, “for any fiscal year in which Amtrak receives a Federal subsidy.” Our understanding is that the members of the Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials have agreed to the text of the ANS to H.R. 8692 by bipartisan agreement.
We applaud the membership of this subcommittee for taking bipartisan action to prepare legislation that, if enacted, would finally make Amtrak subject to 5 USC 552b, the Open Meetings statute.
Sincerely,
Richard Rudolph, Ph.D., Chairman, Rail Users Network
1 Boardman, Joseph A. (May 10, 2018), “Amtrak: Where is the public input?
Where is the transparency?”, Railway Age that required Amtrak to be subject TO the Freedom of Information Act”