[www.al.com]

All the usual arguments. Apparently part of the annual zero-out-Amtrak ritual. Annotated from the speech:

"Just as airlines [NOT!!], bus services [NOT! Who pays for the roads? Except for a few main line runs, who pays for other service? And note that in much of the country Greyhound has a near monopoly (OK, Megabus & friends cherry-pick a few routes, competing more with Amtrak than with Greyhound) on long-distance bus service but provides little if any local service - that's left in the hands of THE PUBLIC aka local transit agencies], and freight rail [at least he got this mostly right; but where are the barges and ports and ABSOLUTELY SAFE pipelines?] operate without government subsidies, Amtrak will do the same if this House of Representatives has the courage to wean Amtrak from the taxpayer nipple," Brooks said.

The transportation bill is going forward with a significant Amtrak budget cut [rationale: if it's not safe, in part because they haven't had enough money to spend as fast as it needed to be spent, cut funding - huh?], but the amendments to zero it out apparently failed.