Perhaps cats and dogs can get along after all, at least on Amtrak. The furry friends could soon join their human owners riding the railroad’s Northeast Corridor — presumably not in the quiet car, though. House lawmakers passed the Passenger Rail Reform and Investment Act by a vote of 316 to 101 on Wednesday, reauthorizing Amtrak for four years and voting down an amendment from Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) to cut its federal subsidies. Another California Republican, Jeff Denham, decided he want...
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[[{"fid":"321","view_mode":"default","fields":{"format":"default","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":""},"type":"media","attributes":{"class":"media-element file-default"}}]] Watch Rep. Denham’s full remarks on the House floor about much-needed Amtrak reforms contained in PRRIA and his Pets on Trains legislation, which is included. The House of Representatives today passed the Passenger Rail Reform and Investment Act (PRRIA) with widespread...
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From the rubble of hurt feelings and partisan gridlock that Congress has become, Lily the French bulldog has emerged as a peacemaker. The 15-pound dog, with the jowls of a young Winston Churchill and the pluck of a latter-day Snoopy, is the inspiration for of Rep. Jeff Denham's (R-Turlock) measure approved Wednesday to allow dogs and cats to ride on Amtrak trains. “Lily’s got a lot of friends here on Capitol Hill,” Denham said in an interview. Denham said he has used the measure -– and Lily’s ch...
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An unusual statement came out from the White House on Monday evening: Support for House legislation. The Republican-controlled House is expected to pass a bill Tuesday reauthorizing funding for Amtrak, and while the Obama administration isn’t 100 percent happy with it, the White House declared its support. A bipartisan bill is a rarity these days (the vote on the rules of debate for the bill passed unanimously!), and so is GOP legislation that President Obama wouldn’t veto. Tucked into that popu...
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A multiyear highway bill would need to include outside-the-box funding proposals for a broad coalition in Congress to support it this year, Rep. Jeff Denham (R-Calif.), a top transportation authorizer in the House, said Feb. 24. “My focus is making sure that we don’t just have a patch; we don’t have a quick fix. I know everybody is talking about repatriation. That is something that could be helpful in funding a five-year or six-year bill. But then we’re still stuck in the same situation. I’m hop...
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[[{"fid":"325","view_mode":"full","fields":{"format":"full","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"Rep. Denham Talks Pets on Trains on MSNBC ","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"Rep. Denham Talks Pets on Trains on MSNBC "},"type":"media","attributes":{"alt":"Rep. Denham Talks Pets on Trains on MSNBC ","title":"Rep. Denham Talks Pets on Trains on MSNBC ","class":"media-element file-full"}}]] Rep. Jeff Denham, R-Calif., talks about his proposed legislation that would require Amtrak...
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(AP) — It all began with Lily, a 15-pound snowball of a French bulldog with the face of a tough guy and the personality of a princess. She and her owner, Republican congressman Jeff Denham of California, take the occasional coast-to-coast plane ride together. But when he tried to take her on Amtrak a couple years back, he learned that only service dogs were allowed aboard. It's a policy he's been trying to change ever since, and he appears to be gaining momentum. Denham chairs a House subcommitt...
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Cassie was moving from New York City to Spring Lake, North Carolina, and she was devastated by the idea of giving up her five-year-old cat, Boots, who had been her beloved companion since he was a kitten. She was traveling to her new home by Amtrak, which still doesn’t allow pets, and Cassie couldn’t afford to fly Boots separately on an airplane. Fortunately, The Humane Society of the United States arranged a flight for Boots to Raleigh-Durham, and a volunteer rented a car to drive the cat 75 mi...
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U.S. Representative Jeff Denham (R-Turlock) today re-introduced his bill, the Pets on Trains Act, which seeks to ease the stress of traveling for pet owners by requiring Amtrak to implement a pet policy that would allow passengers to bring their pets on board certain trains. U.S. Representative Steve Cohen (D-TN) signed on as an original co-sponsor of the bill. The Pets on Trains Act of 2015, or H.R. 674, would require Amtrak to establish a pet policy that permits train passengers to carry small...
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“I wasn’t sure where we were going to get the rest of the money. Don’t worry about it. We are going to get it.” Gov. Jerry Brown’s words at the groundbreaking ceremony this month for the California High-Speed Rail Authority tell us a great deal about the viability of our state’s plans. If you follow the governor’s line of thinking – “don’t worry about it” – you might manage to forget the tens of billions of dollars the authority needs to generate to come anywhere close to financing its proposal....
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