WASHINGTON — Republican members of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure have asked Amtrak board chairman Tony Coscia for a briefing to explain “six-figure bonuses to top executives paid largely from taxpayer funds, even while the company experienced historic financial and ridership losses.”
A letter released by Missouri Rep. Sam Graves, ranking member of the committee, and Arkansas Rep. Eric A. (Rick) Crawford, ranking member of the Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials, cites recent articles by the New York Times [see “Amtrak paid $2.3 million in executive bonuses …,” Trains News Wire, Aug. 5, 2022] and New York Post. The two legislators write that “we remain concerned about plans for awarding executive bonuses when the company expects billions of dollars in annual future losses” and that such bonuses “seem inappropriate, wasteful and disrespectful to Amtrak’s nonexecutive front-line employees and taxpayers.”
So, by Nov. 17, they seek a briefing to address five topics:
— The metrics on which the bonuses are based;
— How they compare to bonuses in similar transportation-industry businesses and in those “substantially owned or financed by the federal government.”
— The Amtrak executive board’s role in determining and approving executive bonuses.
— Whether Amtrak employs an independent compensation committee to determine executive compensation, including bonuses.
— How Amtrak will measure performance compensation on projects and activities funded by the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
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