WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden will nominate five people, including current chairman Anthony Coscia, to the Amtrak board of directors, the White House has announced.
Reuters initially reported the nominations, citing information from “an official.”
Coscia been on the board since 2010, and was elected as its chairman in 2013. He would be joined by Christopher Koos, mayor of Normal, Ill.; David Capozzi, former executive director of the U.S. Access Board and former national advocacy director for the Paralyzed Veterans of America; Samuel Lathem, retired Delaware State AFL-CIO president and a former autoworker active in a number of civic organizations; and Robin Wiessmann, executive director and chief executive of the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency.
Koos was previously nominated to the board in 2020, but the Senate never acted on the nomination. He was featured in a Trains Interview in the September 2020 issue of the magazine, now available online.
The 10-member board also includes Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Amtrak CEO Stephen Gardner. Senate Republicans can select the other three nominees.
Under reforms required in the Surface Transportation Investment Act reauthorization, the board is required to include at least two members each from Northeast Corridor, state-supported, and long-distance routes [see “Infrastructure bill addresses Amtrak priorities, congressional requirements,” Trains News Wire, Nov. 8, 2021]. Of the five nominees, only Koos is from outside of the Northeast.
— Updated at 3:15 p.m. CDT with White House announcement; updated at 3:55 p.m. with link to Chris Koos interview.
