{"id":1723165,"date":"2022-11-03T12:03:50","date_gmt":"2022-11-03T16:03:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1723165"},"modified":"2022-11-03T12:04:09","modified_gmt":"2022-11-03T16:04:09","slug":"gop-house-members-investigate-following-report-of-amtraks-lavish-bonuses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/gop-house-members-investigate-following-report-of-amtraks-lavish-bonuses\/","title":{"rendered":"GOP House Members Investigate Following Report Of Amtrak\u2019s \u2018Lavish\u2019 Bonuses"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fgop-house-members-investigate-following-report-of-amtraks-lavish-bonuses%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1723165&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Two GOP lawmakers are looking for answers after a recent report regarding Amtrak executives receiving six-figure bonuses despite the company losing money and receiving billions in taxpayer-funded support.<\/p>\n<p>Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials Subcommittee Ranking Member Rick Crawford (R-AR) and Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Ranking Member Sam Graves (R-MO) sent a letter to Amtrak\u2019s Chairman Anthony Coscia on Thursday to address the concerning information.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPayment of lavish executive bonuses when Amtrak services and revenues remain below pre-pandemic levels, and financial losses appear permanent, seems inappropriate, wasteful and disrespectful to Amtrak\u2019s nonexecutive front-line employees and taxpayers,\u201d the Republican lawmakers <a href=\"https:\/\/republicans-transportation.house.gov\/uploadedfiles\/2022-11-03_amtrak_bonuses_final.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">wrote<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese concerns are only exacerbated by the $66 billion in guaranteed funding Amtrak received as a result of the\u00a0Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), which should be spent on improving the existing system rather than needless expansions or excessive executive rewards,\u201d they added.<\/p>\n<p>Last year, Amtrak\u2019s bonuses of more than $200,000 per executive represented more than 50% of the salaries of the company\u2019s leaders, according to the lawmakers. Amtrak claims the bonuses were due to performance.<\/p>\n<p>An Amtrak report, however, showed that the company\u2019s adjusted operating earnings for fiscal year 2020 were negative $789 million, growing to negative $1.03 billion in fiscal year 2021, as cited in the letter by the lawmakers. Further, the losses were covered by approximately $3.7 billion in taxpayer-funded COVID support.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGiven Amtrak\u2019s struggles are expected to continue indefinitely, we remain concerned about plans for awarding executive bonuses when the company expects billions of dollars in annual future losses,\u201d the GOP leaders added. \u201cAmtrak Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Stephen Gardner\u2014who received a bonus of over $261,000 in 2021\u2014confirmed in September that Amtrak\u2019s recent operating losses are $910 million and that the company will never achieve profit.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The lawmakers also said that between fiscal years 2019 and 2021, Amtrak\u2019s total revenues declined by nearly 41%, with an income loss of almost 124%.<\/p>\n<p>The letter further noted that Amtrak\u2019s customer satisfaction remains below pre-pandemic levels, including reports that intercity commuter trips have increased in price.<\/p>\n<p>The New York Post recently <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2022\/11\/03\/lawmakers-seek-answers-from-amtrak-about-lavish-bonuses\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reported<\/a> that Amtrak\u2019s top ten earning executives had received large bonuses.<\/p>\n<p>William Herrmann, Amtrak\u2019s vice president senior managing deputy general counsel, appears to have received the largest additional pay that included more than $300,000 in 2021.<\/p>\n<p>The New York Times previously <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/08\/05\/us\/politics\/amtrak-executive-pay-bonus.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">revealed<\/a> that most of Amtrak\u2019s top executives were given more than $200,000 in bonuses in the last fiscal year, despite declining company profits.<\/p>\n<p>Transportation Workers Union International President John Samuelsen has also questioned Amtrak\u2019s bonuses.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is outrageous that while Amtrak\u2019s workforce put their lives on the line to see this carrier through its most trying time yet, bosses who got to work from the comfort of their homes \u2014 and who are so wealthy they can decline regular paychecks \u2014 walked away with millions in bonuses,\u201d Samuelsen said in a <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2022\/10\/05\/amtraks-10-highest-earners-raked-in-six-figure-bonuses\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">statement<\/a>, The Post reported.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis isn\u2019t just an affront to Amtrak workers \u2014 every tax paying American should be livid,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two GOP lawmakers are looking for answers after a recent report regarding Amtrak executives receiving six-figure bonuses despite the company losing money and receiving billions in taxpayer-funded support. Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials Subcommittee Ranking Member Rick Crawford (R-AR) and Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Ranking Member Sam Graves (R-MO) sent a letter to Amtrak\u2019s Chairman &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":325,"featured_media":1723168,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[541],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1723165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-daily-wire"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1723165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/325"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1723165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1723165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1723168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1723165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1723165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1723165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}