Fiscal 2026 Rail Money Bill: Could Be Much Worse

by Jim Mathews / President & CEO

So now we know what’s in store for rail appropriations for the rest of Fiscal 2026. There are some wins and some losses, Amtrak operations are largely untouched, and overall it could have been much, much worse. Even so, the bill still ain’t pretty: there’s deep cuts in capital grants for rail and transit, including kneecapping the landmark Fed-State Partnership for Intercity Passenger Rail program, and gutting most transit capital grants.

As we've been warning for months, House Republicans decided it's okay to siphon off dollars already appropriated in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and to redirect them to other purposes.

Everyone on Capitol Hill has been racing to work out some kind of deal on a package of spending bills in time to avoid the Jan. 30 government shutdown deadline, and both Republican and Democratic leaders today were urging colleagues to support these compromise spending packages.

The so-called three-bill “minibus,” -- a play on the word “omnibus,” in which Congress wraps all of its separate appropriations into single, much-maligned umbrella package -- should head for a vote this week. Homeland Security is being voted on separately from the other three bills (Defense, Labor-HHS-Education, and Transportation-HUD) as a way to get more votes for these must-pass bills.

So yes, it’s true, Amtrak funding gets a relatively small FY 26 haircut — $115 million below Fiscal 2025 levels — and that’s pretty good news for keeping operations going and our trains moving. But the compromise was to fund those dollars at the expense of the landmark Fed-State Partnership for Intercity Passenger Rail program, or FSP, which really was the heart of the rail infrastructure revitalization kicked off by that legislation in 2021.

This bill effectively kneecaps the Fed-State program and siphons off $2.3 billion in funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which was a significant source of capital funds for really important and long-overdue investments. This covered big things like Gateway in New York and New Jersey, Chicago Union Station improvements, as well as smaller things like improving track between Charlotte and Raleigh or expanding SunRail in Florida.

There were more than 60 Fed-State Partnership projects funded with about $4.6 billion in FY 22 FSP money; 75 projects in FY 23 for nearly $9 billion; another 30-plus in FY 24 for just over $2 billion. This measure funds FSP at only $65 million, and then only by rescinding $40 million in other money from Bipartisan Infrastructure Law programs to fund it.

The CRISI program (Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements) funding stands at $137 million in FY 2026, including about $87 million in what we used to call “earmarks” from individual members of Congress. To be fair, there are worthwhile programs on the CRISI list -- Alabama Port Authority gets $2 million for Port Rail Expansion, the North County Transit in San Diego gets $600,000 for Positive Train Control Safety Enhancement at Oceanside, and Fort Collins and Loveland, in Colorado, got $900,000 for station planning.

There are many projects like this on the list. But there are also many more programs that won’t get funded at all because of deep capital program cuts, and overall, it amounts to a 91 percent cut to the Federal Railroad Administration. That’s $2.7 billion below Fiscal 2025 levels, and it zeroes out discretionary funding for Amtrak’s National Network and Northeast Corridor.

The Federal Transit Administration’s Capital Investment Grants, or CIG, program absorbed a 95 percent cut. In practical terms, that halts transit safety infrastructure improvements throughout the country.

Let’s look, however, at a few “silver linings.” Thanks to the Senate, Congress began tentatively reasserting its power of the purse after a year in which we watched the new Trump Administration unilaterally yank funds from programs whose money had already been appropriated and contracts had been awarded.

“The DOT and the HUD shall not carry out any federal award terminations that are not in accordance with the procedures established in the governmentwide guidance for federal financial assistance in 2 CFR Part 200,” Senate appropriators said in a joint statement summarizing the 1,000-plus page legislation.

The statement went on to say that DOT and HUD must tell Congress within 90 days which grants and contracts they cut or canceled in 2025, where, how much money was affected, who was hurt, and why they did it.

The budget agreement also “continues the directives in” the previous Senate report on expanding the Confidential Close Call Reporting System (C3RS). Last year FRA dissolved the C3RS Working Group (of which I was a member) claiming the effort was at an impasse.

If the three-bill minibus passes this week, and if Congress is able to work out controversies around Homeland Security funding, the government will avoid a shutdown and this will be the funding picture for rail between now and September 30. And of course talks on Fiscal 2027 will have to start in earnest to avoid this same go-round on October 1.

(You can read all 1,059 pages of this spending package by clicking here. Rail programs start on page 466 and Federal Railroad Administration-specific sections begin on 559. But if you want to save yourself the eye-watering exercise of reading the entire bill, Senate Appropriators created this jointly approved summary which might be an easier read. You can read the summary by clicking here.)