Kevin Frey reports at New York State of Politics that last week Congress passed and President Joe Biden signed a budget bill that largely maintains Amtrak’s operational funding, after Republicans had threatened to slash $1 billion from Amtrak's budget. Rail Passengers Association President Jim Mathews said, “Overall, this is not a bad outcome considering where we started.... If you compare this to the bill that was circulating last summer and into the fall - which would have been just disastrous on all counts and it was effectively a kill Amtrak bill - this is much, much better.” Mathews gives credit, in part, to New York’s freshmen Republicans, who publicly asked for the Amtrak funding to remain in place. Read more about this story at New York State of Politics.