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NJ Senators support Bill encouraging more irresponsible federal spending
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2011
BY HERB JACKSON
WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT
THE RECORD
Congress kept Amtrak running another year and gave the railroad $15 million to plan a new Hudson River tunnel, but high-speed rail funding was eliminated in a spending package that passed both houses on Thursday.
Bigger mortgages will also qualify for government backing under the bill, a grant program for hiring local police survived possible elimination, and several disaster aid programs got extra money.
The spending bill provides $1.4 billion to keep trains rolling. That includes $15 million Sen. Frank Lautenberg sought to start planning a two-tunnel project under the Hudson, known as Gateway.
“The existing tunnel is more than a century old and not capable of adequately servicing our state’s growing number of commuters,” said Lautenberg, D-N.J. “I’m pleased this bill includes funding to move forward.”
Lautenberg originally sought $50 million for the project, which would ease a bottleneck blamed for frequent delays on NJ Transit commuter trains. But many programs were cut: President Obama sought $8 billion for high-speed rail projects nationwide that Congress did not fund at all.
https://www.northjersey.com/news/134103563_Bill_includes__15M.html
