Amtrak restoral part of COVID relief bill passed by Senate

Part of the COVID-19 relief package passed on party lines by the Senate last weekend including something directly impacting the Hi-Line — restoration of full service to Amtrak’s long-distance trains, including the Empire Builder.

Amtrak had cut days of service to long-distance routes and furloughed employees, citing loss of traffic due to the pandemic.

The members of Montana’s congressional delegation all called on the passenger rail service to restore seven-day-a-week runs and put the employees back to work, and the bill passed by the Senate included an amendment to add a bill sponsored by Sen. Jon Tester, R-Montana, and co-sponsored by Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., to do just that.

The COVID-19 relief bill from the House was amended in negotiations with moderate Democratic senators, and will have to be voted on again by the House.

The House is expected to start discussing the bill by Tuesday and the $1.9 trillion relief bill, including relief payments of up to $1,400 per person, unemployment assistance, funding to states and local governments as well as to schools to help them reopen and funding for issues like coronavirus testing and vaccine distribution, could be to President Joe Biden later this week.

The Amtrak amendment being included and passed in the relief was praised.

The Empire Builder is one of the 15-long-distance routes Amtrak operates in the country, running along the Hi-Line as it passes from Chicago to Seattle and Portland and back.

“Folks on the Hi-Line depend on Amtrak to stay connected, and its full return will boost the economy and create good-paying jobs across the region,” Tester said in a press release. “Returning Amtrak service to Northern Montana has been one of my top priorities since the service was cut, and I won’t stop fighting until this bill is signed into law by the President and the Empire Builder is fully restored.”

Daines voted against the final version of the relief bill — as did all other Republican senators — but signed on as a sponsor of Tester’s bill last week.

Daines attempted to add Amtrak restoration to a continuing funding resolution last fall, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., never scheduled it for the floor. He also supported Amtrak funding in previous COVID relief bills.

“Amtrak supports Montana jobs, helps connect Montanans across the state and brings visitors from all over the country to Big Sky Country,” Daines said in a release Thursday when he co-sponsored Testers bill. “The Empire Builder is critical to the Hi-Line and I will continue fighting to restore this much-needed service.”

Tester personally secured a Senate Commerce Committee hearing on the cuts last year, inviting Havre’s Paul Tuss, executive director of Bear Paw Development Corp., to testify about how critical long-distance rail is to rural and frontier economies in Montana and across the country.

“Restoring daily service to the Empire Builder and returning ticket agents to Havre and Shelby will help northern Montana recover from the economic calamity of the pandemic,” Tuss said in Tester’s release Saturday. “Sen. Tester has pushed tirelessly on this issue because he knows firsthand how important a well-functioning Amtrak is to the economy of Montana. Sen. Tester’s legislation that passed the Senate will help with our state’s recovery, get people back to work and assure a rail transportation system that meets the needs of rural Montana.”

“The Empire Builder keeps families and communities in Montana connected, while supporting good-paying jobs and helping out small businesses,” Havre Mayor Tim Solomon said in the release. “Restoring full service has been a huge priority for us on the Hi-Line, and we are thankful to Sen. Tester for defending Northern Montana by bringing full Amtrak service back to the region.”

And praise came from farther down the Hi-Line, as well.

“Great news today to hear that Sen. Tester has been successful in restoring Amtrak service from three days to seven days a week,” said Valley County Commissioner John Fahlgren. “Rail passenger service is a critical economic and social connection for the Hi-Line. We depend on this service to connect us with Seattle, Portland, Minneapolis and Chicago. Amtrak is one of the many great things about life on the Hi-Line.”

But Daines bashed the overall relief bill, which included the Amtrak amendment, after he voted against it Saturday.

“I voted against wasting over $1 trillion of taxpayer money on liberal wish list priorities for President Biden, (Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.,) and (Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.,) disguised as COVID relief,” he said in a press release. “Shoveling all this money into an economy that is on the rebound is deeply irresponsible and will cause our debt to soar to new heights. Its partisanship is exceeded only by its recklessness. Montana taxpayers deserve better.”

But Tester praised the bill.

“I voted for this package because it will make sure every Montanan who wants a vaccine can get one — allowing us to get folks back to work faster and to fully reopen schools and our economy as soon as possible,” Tester said in a release Saturday. “But this crisis won’t end overnight, which is why in the meantime this bill provides targeted relief for hard-hit Montanans, including support for small businesses and delivering on former President Trump’s bipartisan goal of sending larger checks to Montana families. Montanans want this virus under control so we can get our economy cooking with gas again, and I’m going to keep defending Montana and holding the federal government accountable until we get it done.”