AOC, Gillibrand and Moulton call for more high-speed rail funding in infrastructure package
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) on Wednesday called on Congress to increase funding for high-speed rail in the infrastructure package.
President Biden's $2.3 trillion infrastructure proposal invests $80 billion in rail projects, but industry experts say that money will mostly be spent on updating existing Amtrak lines rather than building new high-speed railways. Biden's plan includes far more funding for roads, bridges and electric cars than public transit.
"Rail is climate infrastructure," Ocasio-Cortez said at a press conference Wednesday. "For every buck that we're going to put into a car and a bridge, we want to put a buck into a rail. We want equity. That's what we're here to demand."
The lawmakers launched a high-speed rail coalition that includes the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and the U.S. High Speed Rail Association. They say an electrically powered high-speed rail network would create millions of new jobs and drastically reduce the nation's carbon footprint.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/ocasio-cortez-gillibrand-and-moulton-call-for-more-high-speed-rail-funding-in-infrastructure-package/ar-AAL776L