Without objection so ordered. This is a hybrid hearing i want to remind members of key regulations from the House Committee on rules to ensure that the hearing goes mooths smoothly. Members must be visible on screen for the purposes of identification when joining this hearing. Members must also continue to use the video function on todays Software Platform cisco web x for the remainder of the time attending this hearing unless experiencing connectivity issues or other technical problems. If a member is experiencing any connectivity issues or problems, please inform the Committee Staff as soon as possible so you can receive assistance. A chat function is available for members on the web x platform for this purpose and members can also call the committees main phone line at 2022254472 for Technical Assistance by phone. Members may also not participate remotely in any other proceeding that may be occurring simultaneously. It is the responsibility of each member seeking recognition to unmute their microphone prior to speaking to avoid any inadvertent background noise i request every member keep their microphone muted when not seeking recognition to speak. Should i hear any background noise i request that member mute their microphone. Finally, despite this being a hybrid hearing, all the standard rules of decorum apply. As the chair of todays hearings ill make a good faith effort to provide every member experiencing issues to participate fully in the proceedings. Members will have five minutes to ask questions. To insert a document into the record, please have your staff email it to the clerk. This hearing also is being live streamed for the public to view. And with that, i will now recognize myself for five minutes for an opening statement. Good morning. I want to welcome everyone to todays subcommittee hearing on amtraks response to covid19. As you can see were doing a hybrid hearing today with both members and our witnesses remote to safely conduct this hearing. I want to wish everyone participating or watching this hearing my best during these tough times and i hope everyones family and loved ones are safe. Before we get started, this is my first opportunity to publicly congratulate William Flynn who became amtraks ceo less than five months ago. There could not be a much tougher time to Begin Service full and healthy, the world is yours. How old are you all, 31, 32 . All right. Rules. Okay. I think we got that correctd and the mute there. I wishing mr. Flynn well. Covid has wreaked havoc on the health and economic welfare of americans just as it has done across the globe. Economically the travel industry has been especially hard hit. I understand amtrak faces a serious Financial Issues and other strains on its operation. Well hear specifically about this directly from mr. Flynn. Ive always been a strong advocate from amtrak because it provides an important public service, the rail service. It is critical that all of us, especially everyone at amtrak, always keep in mind that it is first and foremost a National Public service. Though this does not mean that it should not be run well. In addition, as everyone watching knows ive been a staunch advocate for the men and women who work at amtrak. It is essential that especially in the midst of an unprecedented pandemic thats caused economic hardships for millions of americans and their families. That brings me to the issue of furloughs recently announced by amtrak. Congress recognized the financial difficulty amtrak had been experiencing because of a steep drop in ridership and provided over 1 billion in cares act funding for amtrak, with the understanding that part of the funds would be used to prevent furloughs. So amtraks announcement they will furlough over 2,000 employees october 1st is extremely disappointing. I understand that technically were about to begin a new fiscal year, but one of the biggest frustrations that i and others have had amtrak has had months to come to congress to help keep workers on payroll. The principle reason amtrak didnt get money in the heros act passed by the house was that amtrak didnt submit a supplemental request until ten days after passage. To make matters worse, amtrak is just now submitting their amend fy 21 request one month before the current fiscal year expires and amtrak plans to implement these furloughs. I believe that Congress Needs to act quickly to prevent furloughs and avoid Long Distance service cuts. The furloughs wont save the federal government that much money because a workers furlough will be eligible for Unemployment Insurance funded through taxes paid by workers and their employers, in this case amtrak. Second, we tried cutting Long DistanceService Three days a week prior under president clinton in 1994. Congress on a bipartisan basis led by Missouri RepublicanMississippi Republican senator lott eventually rejected those cuts and restored Long Distance service to seven days a week because cutting Long Distance service economically hurts rural communities, undermines amtraks role and actually doesnt save that much money. Congress view has not changed in the past 25 years. Finally we should reject those cuts because most of us on this committee believes whenever this pandemic is over amtrak should go back to the service it had before this pandemic. We cannot just flip the switch so to speak if amtrak is going to lose valuable workers, know how and riders because of these cuts. Ultimately the furloughs and Long Distance service cuts are misguided and we get our National Rail service. Its important we hear from amtrak ceo William Flynn today on his longterm vision for amtrak and why amtrak is making these cuts. Finally i feel it necessary to remind amtrak that while i strongly support our nations railroad, amtrak must heed and not ignore congress desire that works well with others including commuter railroads like metra in illinois and states and local municipalities. Too often it feels like amtrak has had to take money from congress and ignore congress directives. That is not helpful. Especially when amtrak needs much more from congress right now. With that, i recognize Ranking Member crawed f member crawed for for his opening statement. Thank you, mr. Chairman, thank you for holding this hearing. I want to thank our witnesses for hearing. Also want to thank our witnesses for being here today. Our hearing today is to review amtraks response to the covid19 pandemic. In march Congress Gave amtrak since that time amtrak has significantly cut its routes and announced its laying off 20 of its work force, thats almost 4,000 people by october 1st, 2020. Amtrak has also more than doubled its fiscal year 2020 request from just over 2 billion to almost 5 billion. Im troubled amtrak is receiving and requesting record amounts of funding while cutting thousands of jobs. When i asked for more specifics amtrak could not provide even the basic information. Amtrak should not be spending its money on foreign goods while cutting american jobs and services. I welcome the amtrak ceo bill flynn and look forward to hearing how he responds to the covid19 crisis and also his plans for meeting amtraks congressionally mandated requirement of making a profit. Thank you again to all our witnesses for being here today, and i yield back the balance of my time. Mr. Crawford, chair odonnell will recognize the Ranking Member for an opening statement. Sorry, about that, mr. Chairman. I was muted. Okay, go ahmed. I want to thank you for holding this hearing and thank all the witnesses for attending. Obviously todays hearing is great opportunity to review amtrak has handled the covid19 pandemic. Prior to crisis amtrak was coming off its best year ever. In 2020 amtrak was expected to make a profit for the first time in almost 50 years. But after the pandemic amtrak obviously reported that its ridership dropped by 95 and its revenues were down 82 compared to 2019 levels. Today also amtraks ceo bill flynns first apeerps as you pointed out before the committee. His experience includes high level positions in obviously the Aviation Industry and Maritime Industries and also working in class one fright railroad. And i know many members of the committee on both sides are work would bill as hes served in various roles. And ive always found him to be forthright in many of his past positions, and i expect thats going to be the same case for amtrak and his leadership at amtrak. I look forward to hearing from there flynn on his update when it comes to amtraks covid19 response. And im also interested in hearing about his future plans for amtrak including recovery for the pandemic and restoring ridership and meeting the congressional mandate for profits. So with that, again, thanks to all the witness and i look forward to the discussion. I would now like to welcome the witnesses on our panel. The president of amtrak, the National President communications union. Ms. Amy griffon, president of local 1460, and mr. Jim matthews, president chief executive officer of the Rail Passenger association. I look forward to your testimony. This written testimony will be made part of the record and request you limit your oral testimony to 5 minutes. And with that, mr. Flynn, you may proceed for five minutes. Good morning, chairman, Ranking Member gray, Ranking Member crawford and members of the subcommittee. Thank you for the kind welcome and the opportunity here to address the committee. As you know im bill flynn, amtraks recently appointed president and ceo. And im here to discuss our companys response to covid19. But i have to start my remarks by thanking our dedicated employees who have more than risen to the pandemic challenge. Our highest priority is always going to be the safety of our customers and the safety of our employees. And am truly proud of the efforts. Were also partnering a leading university to study airflow and ventilation in our rail cars and working with others to strengthen our disfecting protocols. I want to thank you you for the invest in america act, and if enacted wed finally have the funding we require to modernize our system, add more trains and new routes across our nation and receive the priority treatment from our host railroads that your constituents deserve. Simply put its the game changer weve always hoped for. Amtrak did deliver record performance in fiscal year 19 and fiscal year 20 was set to be another record year. But our ridership plummeted by 97 . In february we carried more than 80,000 daily passengers. But in april there were less than 4,000 passengers with correspondenting impacts on our revenues. Thank tuesday the cares act weve managed to survive these difficult times for fy20, but unfortunately our ridership and revenue are still down more than 80 . We recently updated our forecast for fiscal year 21, and we now anticipate get needing up to 4. 9 billion in funding to operate and invest in our network, support our partners and address various congressional concern such as avoiding employee furloughs and maintaining day Long Distance service. Given the uncertainty of covid19 supplemental funding or fy21 appropriations levels we must be prudent and prepare for the situation at hand while hoping for it the best. We are implementing our plans to adjust our service and work force levels beginning in october. As difficult as these actions are if we do not take such cost saving measures and fail to receive supplemental funding we anticipate burning nearly 250 million each month. At this rate of loss we would be forced to traik drastic measures with long lasting impacts on the company, on our employees and on our network. As you know we have already reduced service on both the northeast corridor and state supported routes. And we now plan to extend temporarily frequency adjustments to most of our Long Distance trains. But let me be clear these adjustments are temporary. There is no secret plan or hidden agenda as critics may suggest. Ive heard your concerns loud and clear. And please know im 100 committed to our Long Distance network and to its future. By way of example we continue to make investments that demonstrate this commitment today, and i can point to our purchase of 75 Diesel Locomotives for this service line. We must make difficult work force adjustments as we cannot continue to indempt fund a work force too large for the number of passengers were serving. Many states have told us they will be unable to partner with amtrak unless we reduce our cost to better align with ridership. Having grown up in a rail labor family i know how hard furloughs can be, and were working hard to minimize impacts to our employees. Earlier this year we implemented several cost saving measures, but given the continued lack of riders and uncertain funding we plan to reduce our work force by approximately 2,050 agreement and management positions. Going forward we will do everything in our power to return furloughed employees to work as soon as possible, and we are going beyond our contractual requirements to provide extended Health Care Coverage during this period. Inner city Passenger Rail remains one of the safetiest, most efficient and most sustainable forms of transportation. Once the pandemic passes amtrak stands ready to grow and serve more of america in large cities and in rural communities. Thereby providing thousands of good living wage jobs for skilled employees in the process. Please know that i am committed to working flow this crisis with you and with other stakeholders to manage these nearterm challenges while safeguarding amtraks future. Thank you for your time and support, and i look forward to your questions. Thank you, mr. Flynn. We will now move onto mr. I hope i pronounced that correctly this time. Thank you, mr. Chairman and i want to thank you for allowing me to speak today on the impact of covid19 on the amtrak work force. Im the National President of the Transportation Communications unit. Tcu is the largest unit on amtrak representing approximately 6,800 workers in the clerical im here on behalf of amtrak workers to urge congress and President Trump act now and preserve our railroad, protect amtrak workers from getting furloughed and reauthorize the extension and expansion of party wide benefits so that thousands of railroaders continue to put food on the table. Today the immediate future of amtraks work force is large and uncertain. With the additional funds from the cares act drying up the overall ridership has been severely reduced compared to last year. Cam track now stands at the edge of a fiscal cliff. This house of representatives passed their fy21 bill which included 10 billion in operating capitol, the Emergency Response grants for amtrak and requirements to maintain the work force and route frequencies. On behalf of amtrak workers i call on the senate to pass the house bill for President Trump to sign it today. The covid crisis has been a nightmare for all of us, particularly for the transportation sector. Thats why tcu has now spoken about the size of amtrak. Last week amtrak finally increased their fy 21 supplemental request to 2. 9 billion which includes maintaining the work force in Long Distance frequencies. Unfortunately they also began issuing furlough notices in the Event Congress doesnt provide adequate funding. Just to be clear amtrak receives no supplementing funding on october 1st the damage will be catastrophic. According to Amtrak Service cuts would be severe. And furloughs would amount to approximately 60 of the work force. These are the same front Line Transportation workers that have been coming in to workday after day during the pandemic at great risk to themselves and their families. Many have contracted the virus. Some have died. You can understand my frustration why amtrak workers are so scared for their future. While Many Americans have had a luxury working from home these amtrak workers have putting their lives on the line to keep our fragile economy moving. Our people have sacrificed and now theyre faced with losing their jobs october 1st. These people need action and need it now. Unfortunately, amtrak workers are indeed furloughed. The cares act, expansion of railroad insurance has already expired. At least thousands of railroaders will be immediately thrown into a system thats already under immense pressure. President trumps memo addressing Unemployment Insurance attempts to provide a 300 expanded benefit of regular state based Unemployment Insurance. Unfortunately President Trumps bill does nothing for railroaders. It doesnt even mention Railroad Unemployment issues. And to make matters worse unlike any other Unemployment Insurance program in the country Railroad Unemployment is unique since it is the only one this means not only will furloughed railroaders not receive the expanded bene