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1
AMENDMENT TO HOUSE RESOLUTION 724

2     AMENDMENT NO. ___. Amend House Resolution 724 by replacing
3 everything after the heading with the following:
 
4     "WHEREAS, High-speed rail is a very effective tool for
5 economic development that ties together cities and towns 600
6 miles apart into one economic unit; and
 
7     WHEREAS, High-speed rail is an environmentally-friendly
8 means of moving people, reducing our dependence on foreign oil
9 and reducing greenhouse gas emissions; and
 
10     WHEREAS, High-speed rail is an essential part of our
11 national security agenda, both because of its reduction in
12 foreign oil consumption and because it is an effective method
13 of conducting mass evacuations from cities, especially if air
14 travel were to become impaired; and
 

 

 

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1     WHEREAS, Creating jobs through new infrastructure is key to
2 the nation's economic recovery; and
 
3     WHEREAS, A 2,250-mile Midwestern passenger rail network as
4 envisioned under the United States Department of
5 Transportation's high-speed corridor designations could create
6 more than 1 million permanent jobs and more than 450,000
7 constructions jobs in the region; and
 
8     WHEREAS, Outside of California, the Midwest has the highest
9 concentration of cities with a population of more than 300,000;
10 most of those cities, including Chicago, Detroit,
11 Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Cleveland, Minneapolis, St. Louis,
12 and Cincinnati, could be served and joined together
13 economically into a stronger unit by a Midwest high-speed rail
14 network; these metropolitan areas alone represent nearly 10% of
15 the U.S. population and the Midwest region is home to one-third
16 of the U.S. population; and
 
17     WHEREAS, In 2009, President Obama and the United States
18 Congress demonstrated leadership and vision by including $8
19 billion in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009
20 for high-speed rail; and
 
21     WHEREAS, The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009
22 funds sparked a national resurgence in interest for high-speed

 

 

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1 rail, generating more than $103 billion in pre-application
2 requests to the Federal Rail Administration; and
 
3     WHEREAS, In order to meet the demand for high-speed rail,
4 the federal government must dramatically increase its
5 financial commitment over the next few years; and
 
6     WHEREAS, The U.S. House of Representatives voted to spend
7 $4 billion in FY2010 on high-speed rail; and
 
8     WHEREAS, The U.S. Senate only voted to spend $1.2 billion
9 in FY2010 on high-speed rail; and
 
10     WHEREAS, Ultimately, Congress spent $2.5 billion on
11 high-speed rail in FY2010; and
 
12     WHEREAS, The State of Illinois has appropriated funds for
13 high-speed rail; the Illinois General Assembly has allocated
14 more than $850 million for railroad infrastructure in the
15 capital program, the single largest legislatively-enacted
16 appropriation of any state in the history of the nation for
17 railroad infrastructure; and
 
18     RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
19 NINETY-SIXTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we
20 urge the United States Congress to spend $4 billion on

 

 

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1 high-speed rail in the FY2011 budget in order to match the
2 historic commitment to high-speed rail demonstrated by the
3 State of Illinois; and be it further
 
4     RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be
5 presented to the members of the Illinois congressional
6 delegation and President Barack Obama.".