WASHINGTON — The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation on Wednesday approved three nominations for the Amtrak Board of Directors, advancing those nominations to the full Senate for approval and ending a deadlock that has seen board members with long-expired terms continuing to serve, pending the approval of new nominees.
The news site Roll Call reports the committee approved, by voice vote, nominees Anthony R. Coscia, the current board chairman; Christopher Koos, mayor of Normal, Ill.; and Joel Matthew Szabat, a former Undersecretary of Transportation for Policy who was Secretary Elaine Chao’s representative on the Amtrak Board from 2019 to 2021.
Those nominations and three others have been held up by several senators because the nominees, as a group, did not meet a legislative mandate requiring geographic balance among members of the Amtrak board. Of the six nominees, only Koos was from outside the Northeast Corridor region, and a provision in 2021 legislation limits that area to four board members. But the Biden administration has reportedly agreed to replace one of the remaining nominees to comply with that requirement, leading to Wednesday’s vote [see “News report says Biden administration will withdraw one nominee …,” Trains News Wire, Oct. 12, 2023].
But Roll Call reports that two of the senators involved in the earlier hold on the nomination — Jon Tester (D-Mont.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) — said they will block approval from the full Senate if the administration doesn’t follow through on that agreement.
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