If a special safety system had been installed on the Amtrak train that derailed in Philadelphia, the accident could have been avoided according to National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigator Robert Sumwalt.
While the federally-mandated safety system has been installed on some trains, Amtrak has not been able to install it on every train because of budgets cuts.
According to congressman Paul Ryan, however, Congress has fully funded the installation of safety features.
Ryan noted that Congress had already “authorized and mandated the sort of speed control systems to be put in place,” though he noted “it wasn’t put in place here at this time.” Asked by Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade whether Congress had actually funded those systems, Ryan claimed that they had.
“Yes!” Ryan responded, “Yeah, we already passed an Amtrak funding, an authorization bill earlier this year. And the appropriations process is working its way through right now.”
What you need to know about Paul Ryan's exclamation is that it's not true.
In fact, in 2008 Congress mandated that Amtrak install the system on every train by this year of 2015, but Congress is currently considering a bill to delay the mandate until 2020 because Amtrak does not have enough money to meet the current deadline.
Furthermore, House Republicans voted to cut Amtrak's budget just yesterday.
Rather than fully and adequately fund the nation's infrastructure, Ryan insists that we can "do better" by "by saving more money" and "being more efficient."
It's not clear what the fuck that's suppose to mean. There's certainly nothing efficient about delaying necessary investments for so long that the lack of investment leads to even more expensive and costly accidents.
Don't they teach you that in Run Government Like a Business School?