(2003-11-07) — Pentagon officials, traveling on government business, will be required to use Amtrak trains rather than airlines if Congress approves a measure introduced by a Senate Republican today. The bill comes in response to a General Accounting Office (GAO) report which alleges that Pentagon staffers have spent millions of dollars on first-class and business-class airline tickets when government regulations call for flying coach.
“Amtrak loses about $1 billion of taxpayer money each year,” said the legislation’s author, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-IA, “If our top military planners need to travel in style, there’s nothing more elegant than the train. Let them fly Amtrak. Not only will they get to their destinations refreshed and ready, but they’ll get to see vast swaths of this land they’ve pledged to defend.”
Mr. Grassley noted that a typical Amtrak trip from Washington, D.C. to Los Angeles, CA, takes only about 75 hours.
An unnamed Pentagon spokesman said the GAO report was unfair, since Pentagon officials were simply trying to help revive the airline industry after 9/11 by purchasing high-margin seats.

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