Centrists in Senate Push to Cut Billions From Stimulus, $850 million for Amtrak targeted

The New York Times reported that some lawmakers are anxious over the increasing size of the proposed economic stimulus package and are looking to strip tens of billions of dollars from the bill. This effort is being led by two centrist senators, Ben Nelson, Democrat of Nebraska, and Susan Collins, Republican of Maine. They say they'd like to pare from $50 billion to $200 billion from the package. Among the initiatives that could be cut are $850 million for Amtrak.

The final Senate vote on the stimulus package was expected sometime Thursday. This would hurt any near term Amtrak/NEC improvements but the bill is not yet final.