Amtrak, high-speed rail, public transit take cuts in Home 2026 price range proposal

Dive Temporary:

• Federal spending on Amtrak, high-speed rail and public transportation could be lower by a invoice marked up Monday by the Home Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and City Growth.
• The subcommittee invoice proposed $22.1 billion in discretionary spending for the transportation division in fiscal yr 2026, $3.149 billion beneath the fiscal 2025 enacted degree and $4.744 billion beneath the president’s price range request.
• The invoice will increase spending for the Federal Aviation Administration by $2.3 billion over fiscal yr 2025 funding and for the Federal Freeway Administration by almost $2 billion.

Dive Perception:

“The invoice displays the priorities of the Trump administration and implements staffing reductions whereas sustaining important companies,” Subcommittee Chair Rep. Steve Womack, R-Ark., mentioned throughout the markup session. “Transportation security stays our highest precedence for DOT.”

The invoice allocates $14.9 billion for the Federal Transit Administration, $1.777 billion beneath the fiscal yr 2025 enacted degree. It rescinds $40 million from unobligated 2025 funds for transit infrastructure grants. Nevertheless, the invoice supplies funding for all initiatives prepared for development in 2026 by using unallocated balances from the prior fiscal yr and $1.6 billion upfront appropriations from the Infrastructure Funding and Jobs Act.

The Home invoice asks for $2.3 billion for Amtrak, beneath the president’s price range proposal that will hold Amtrak funding flat at $2.427 billion. The Home invoice and the White Home proposal shift funding from the Northeast Hall to the nationwide rail community.

“The Republican proposal takes an axe to the Northeast Hall, reducing funding for Amtrak and New Jersey Transit,” Rep. Bonnie Watson Colema, D-N.J., mentioned on the session. New Jersey Transit makes use of Amtrak’s line to New York Metropolis. 

Below the Home proposal, $75 million in funding for capital initiatives, upkeep and new or expanded intercity passenger rail initiatives below the Federal-State Partnership for Intercity Passenger Rail Grant Program could be rescinded. Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., mentioned the lower “zeros out investments for Amtrak, leaving little to no room for making the required infrastructure upgrades for passenger rail.”  

The Home invoice additionally prohibits funding for California’s high-speed rail mission to attach Los Angeles and San Francisco, which is below development, and a proposed Texas high-speed rail mission between Dallas and Houston.