Senators debate merits of high-speed rail
By Bernie Becker
02/03/11
The Hill
"It’s perhaps not too surprising that Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) is not the biggest fan of President Obama’s push to expand high-speed rail. But that doesn’t mean he won’t get the hard sell from his Democratic colleague, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island.
At a Senate Budget Committee hearing on Thursday, Sessions, the panel’s ranking member, said the government didn’t have the money for rail projects. But Whitehouse pressed the Alabama senator to keep an open mind on the idea, likening high-speed rail to the development of highways.
“You'd find that it was actually worth spending that money because it carried follow-on economic effects that were worth far more than it,” Whitehouse said..."
http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-mone...igh-speed-rail