In the House of Representatives — Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials Subcommittee Chairman Troy Nehls (R-TX) introduced the H.R.8692 – Amtrak Transparency and Accountability for Passengers and Taxpayer Act, which if enacted would make Amtrak subject 5 USC 552b, the Open Meetings statue.
In the Senate — U.S. Senator Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), a member of the Senate Commerce Committee, introduced the S.4492 – Amtrak Transparency Act. The legislation would address concerns about closed-door decision-making at Amtrak, increasing accountability and transparency within the organization.
This assessment examines the general lack of transparency with which the Amtrak Board of Directors (“the Board”) operates.
Meetings of the Amtrak Board of Directors are not normally open to the public or the media.
In the normal course of business, the Board does not publish its meeting agendas, meeting minutes, transcripts, recordings or any other information related to its work or its decisions.
With this assessment we review this issue in some detail, compare the transparency of the Amtrak Board of Directors with similar boards of directors, and discuss steps that can be taken to increase the board’s transparency.
The National Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak) was created by the Rail Passenger Service Act of 1970. The entity was incorporated in the District of Columbia in 1971.
The Board, as described in 49 U.S.C. § 24302, is composed of 10 directors.
The current members of the Board are listed on this webpage, along with links to their individual biographies —
Note that the Amtrak page shown above does not include any information regarding meetings of the Board.
There is also no mention of future meetings, copies of past meeting agendas or minutes, or copies of material presented to or by the Board.
In fact, we were unable to find any published information online that advises the public of any opportunities to understand any aspect of Board’s discussions or decisions.
As a footnote to this section we must point out that H.R. 3684, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), which was signed into law by President Biden on November 15, 2021, realigned the criteria for appointments to the Amtrak Board.
This updates 49 U.S.C. § 24302 as noted in this document —
Of particular note is the new wording that requires the Amtrak Board of Directors to meet at least annually with, (a) representatives of Amtrak’s employees, (b) representatives of persons with disabilities, and (c) the general public, in an open meeting with a virtual attendance option, to discuss service results.
One meeting a year with the general public is not much transparency, but it is one small step in the right direction.
To put the Amtrak Board’s lack of transparency into perspective we created this chart which compares Amtrak’s board of directors to six public-benefit corporations in the U.S.
The chart compares the Amtrak Board with six similar entities, all of whom exist, like Amtrak, to serve the public interest.
We also reviewed the transparency of the boards that oversee each of the thirty–odd publicly-funded providers of passenger rail service in the United States.
We found that almost all of these organizations have both open and transparent board of directors meetings. a
Here’s a sampling of the organizations that we reviewed, with a link to the respective organization’s board of directors webpage.
Alaska Railroad
A freight and passenger railroad owned by the State of Alaska
The Capitol Corridor Joint Powers Authority
Provides administration and management of the Capitol Corridor in northern California
Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority
Provides administration and management of the Downeaster service between Maine and Boston
Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board
The operator of the Caltrain commuter rail service along the San Francisco Peninsula
Regional Transit Authority
The regional transit agency for the Denver Metro area
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority
The regional transit authority for the the New York City Metro region
Virginia Passenger Rail Authority (VPRA)
The VPRA has the administrative and fiduciary responsibility to promote, sustain, and expand the availability of passenger rail service in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
a The Connecticut Department of Transportation (operator of the CTrail Hartford Line) and the Maryland Transit Administration (operator of the MARC Train Service) do not have a board of directors.
Meetings of the Amtrak Board of Directors are not subject to the Government in the Sunshine Act.
If Amtrak was subject to this Act every meeting of its board of directors would be be open to public observation, each meeting would have been announced in advance with a published agenda, and the minutes and records of the meetings would have been made available to the public.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Congress passed a series of transparency laws designed to bring greater accountability to the federal government. 1
The first such law, the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), requires government agencies to provide access to agency documents upon public request so long as one of a series of exceptions (protecting documents related to national defense, trade secrets, and internal deliberative matters, among other things) is not met. 2
Another law, the Government in the Sunshine Act (Open Meetings Act), requires that, with notable exceptions, meetings of federal government agencies and regulatory bodies be open to the public, along with their decisions and records. 3
It is important to note that the FOIA and the Open Meetings Act normally only apply to federal agencies.
The term “agency” under the FOIA means, with certain non-relevant exceptions, “each authority of the Government of the United States.” 4
The term “agency” under the Sunshine Act has the same meaning as it has under the FOIA so long as that “agency” is headed by a “collegial body” having 2 or more members, the majority of whom are appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate. 5
A special statute, however, provides that Amtrak, “is not a department, agency, or instrumentality of the United States Government.” 6
Interestingly, Amtrak has been held to be a governmental agency under the Constitution for purposes of determining whether it could be a participant in adopting metrics and standards for private rail operators to follow when they provide passenger rail services to Amtrak. 7
It has also been held to be a governmental agency for purposes of the First Amendment. 8
However, where no Constitutional rights are at issue, Congress is free to exclude Amtrak from the strictures of statutes which impose obligations on other public entities. 9
There is no Constitutional right to have agencies take action as required by the Open Meeting Act, so Congress is perfectly free to provide that Amtrak is not subject to that Act by defining it not to be a federal agency for non-Constitutional purposes.
By itself, the special statue noted above would exclude Amtrak from both the FOIA and the Open Meetings Act.
However, in 1972 Congress amended the Rail Passenger Service Act of 1970 by adding a statute that required Amtrak to be subject to FOIA. 10
And in 1997 Congress passed the Amtrak Reform and Accountability Act which included a statute that required Amtrak to [only] be subject to the FOIA, “for any fiscal year in which Amtrak receives a Federal subsidy.” 11
The upshot of this is that Amtrak is subject to the FOIA, but for some reason Congress has never made Amtrak subject to the Open Meetings Act.
By not being subject to the Open Meetings Act, Amtrak is not required to —
It is possible that some of this information could be contained in documents which might be obtained under the FOIA, but there is no statutory right for the public to be notified of or to attend these meetings.
Amtrak has no legal obligation at the moment to open its Board meetings to the public or give advance notice of such meetings.
It does though have an obligation to provide copies of transcripts, recordings, meeting minutes, or other records of those meetings under the FOIA, except to the extent that the exceptions to FOIA disclosures apply.
As a political and policy matter, it would seem that Amtrak could benefit greatly by increasing the transparency of its Board of Directors in the eyes of both the public and public officials. Matters before the board that really need to be kept confidential could still be kept confidential by relegating such matters to the executive session portions of those meetings.
1 Reeve Bull, The Government in the Sunshine Act in the 21st Century (Washington: Administrative Conference of the United States, 2014), 2.
2 5 U.S.C. § 552. Bull, The Government in the Sunshine Act in the 21st Century, 2.
9 513 U.S. at 392; Riviere v. Dir. of HIDTA V.I. Div., No. 2012-50, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 52664, at *7-8 (D.V.I. Mar. 29, 2018).
11 “Section 24301(e) is amended by adding at the end thereof the following: ‘Section 552 of title 5, United States Code, applies to Amtrak for any fiscal year in which Amtrak receives a Federal subsidy.’ ” Amtrak Reform and Accountability Act of 1997, Pub. L. 105–134, §110(a).
As former Amtrak President Joe Boardman said in 2018, “Amtrak is not a privately held corporation whose fate is to be determined by a few individuals behind closed doors. It was created by the people and for the people and is funded by taxpayers who help to supplement Amtrak’s farebox revenue.” 13
As a publicly-funded passenger rail service, Amtrak’s Board meetings should be open to the public and the media and meeting agendas, meeting minutes, and other material presented to the board should be available, without the need to submit a FOIA request to obtain the information.
Every other publicly-supported passenger rail service in the country holds open and transparent board meetings, and we think Amtrak should too.
This issue could easily be remedied if Congress were to make Amtrak subject to the Open Meetings Act (5 U.S.C. § 552b), as some have said was their intent when the Government in Sunshine Act was passed back in 1976. 14
We would encourage like minded individuals and organizations to reach out to Congress and ask them to remedy this situation.
14 See Printing of Notices for Amtrak pursuant to the Sunshine Act (Washington: Comptroller General of the United States, September 8, 1978).
We started sending Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to Amtrak for the agenda and meeting minutes for the Amtrak Board of Directors starting in September 2018.
Each request was submitted using the MuckRock on-line platform which automates the entire FOIA process for us.
Amtrak responds to each request — normally after a few months time has passed — by sending us the approved meeting minutes for each meeting of the Amtrak Board of Directors.
Portions of the meeting minutes are redacted in accordance to exemptions that are provided under the FOIA law.
Sometimes Amtrak has taken a long time (more than two years in a few cases) to respond to our FOIA requests.
Most of the time Amtrak responds by not returning the agenda for the meeting.
And we’ve recently discovered that sometimes Amtrak does not respond with the minutes for a particular meeting, even though a meeting was held.
Why these anomalies occur with Amtrak’s processing of our FOIA requests we do not know.
The agenda and minutes for each plenary meeting of the Amtrak Board of Directors (that has been released) are listed and linked below so that it is easily accessible to interested parties.
As example, here is a copy of the meeting agenda for the Amtrak Board meeting that was held on January 25 & 26, 2023:
January 2018
January 24, 2018 | Agenda | Minutes
January 25, 2018 | Minutes
February
March
March 21, 2018 | Agenda | Minutes
March 22, 2018 | Minutes
April
May
May 16, 20218 | Agenda | Minutes
May 17, 2018 | Minutes
June
July
July 18, 2018 | Agenda | Minutes (redacted)
July 19, 2018 | Minutes (redacted)
August
August 7, 2018 | Agenda | Minutes
September
September 17, 2018 | Agenda | Minutes (redacted)
September 18, 2018 | Minutes (redacted)
October
October 18, 2018 | Agenda | Minutes
November
November 14, 2018 | Agenda | Minutes (redacted)
November 15, 2018 | Minutes (redacted)
December
December 4, 2018 | Agenda* | Minutes
* The agenda for this meeting was not provided.
▼ 2019 – Amtrak Board of Directors Agendas and MinutesJanuary/February 2019
January 31, 2019 | Agenda | Minutes (redacted)
February 1, 2019 | Minutes (redacted)
March
March 28, 2019 | Agenda | Minutes (redacted)
March 29, 2019 | Minutes (redacted)
April
April 8, 2019 | Agenda* | Minutes
May
May 22, 2019 | Agenda | Minutes
May 23, 2019 | Minutes
June
July
July 17, 2019 | Agenda | Minutes (redacted)
July 18, 2019 | Minutes
August
September
September 26, 2019 | Agenda | Minutes
September 27, 2019 | Minutes (redacted)
October
October 18, 2019 | Agenda | Minutes (redacted)
November
November 13, 2019 | Agenda | Minutes (redacted)
November 14, 2019 | Minutes
November 20, 2019 | Agenda* | Minutes (redacted)
December
December 16, 2019 | Agenda* | Minutes
* The agenda for this meeting was not provided.
▼ 2020 – Amtrak Board of Directors Agendas and MinutesJanuary 2020
January 29, 2020 | Agenda | Minutes
January 30, 2020 | Minutes
February
February 20, 2020 | Table of Contents | Minutes
March
March 20, 2020 | Agenda* | Minutes (redacted)
March 26, 2020 | Agenda | Minutes
April
April 7, 2020 | Agenda | Minutes
May
May 8, 2020 | Board of Directors Check-in
May 21, 2020 | Agenda | Minutes
May 22, 2020 | Minutes****
June
June 18, 2020 | Agenda | Minutes***
July
July 23, 2020 | Agenda | Minutes (redacted)
July 24, 2020 | Minutes (redacted)
August
August 12, 2020 | Agenda | Minutes (redacted)
September
September 24, 2020 | Agenda** | Minutes (redacted)
September 25, 2020 | Minutes (redacted)
October
October 30, 2020 | Agenda* | Minutes (redacted)
November
November 19, 2020 | Agenda | Minutes (redacted)
November 20, 2020 | Minutes (redacted)
November 30, 2020 | Agenda* | Minutes (redacted)
December
December 16, 2020 | Agenda | Minutes of Meeting***
January 28, 2021 | The minutes for the December 16, 2020 Board of Directors meeting were approved by the Board
September 23, 2022 | Amtrak’s response included no agenda or minutes for a plenary meeting of the Board
* The agenda for this meeting was not provided.
** The agenda for this two-day meeting was not provided.
*** The minutes for this meeting were not been provided. (need to follow up)
**** The minutes of this meeting were not provided, even after requesting them a 2nd time.
January 2021
January 28, 2021 | Agenda | Minutes (redacted)
January 29, 2021 | Minutes (redacted)
February
March
March 25, 2021 | Agenda | Minutes (redacted)
April
April 6, 2021 | Agenda | Minutes (redacted)
April 12, 2021 | Agenda | Minutes (redacted)
May
May 20, 2021 | Agenda | Minutes
May 21, 2021 | Minutes
June
July
July 22, 2021 | Agenda* | Minutes (redacted)
August
August 19, 2021 | Agenda* | Minutes (redacted)
September
September 24, 2021 | Agenda* | Minutes (redacted)
October
October 12, 2021 | Agenda* | Minutes (redacted)
November
November 18, 2021 | Agenda* | Minutes (redacted)
December
December 13, 2021 | Agenda* | Minutes (redacted)
* The agenda for this meeting was not provided.
*** The minutes for this meeting were not provided.
January 2022
January 5, 2022 | Agenda* | Minutes
January 19, 2022 | Agenda | Minutes
January 20, 2022 | Minutes
February
February 18, 2022 | Agenda | Minutes (redacted)
March
March 22, 2022 | Agenda* | Minutes
March 30, 2020 | Agenda | Minutes
April
May
May 18, 2022 | Agenda** | Minutes
May 19, 2020 | Minutes
June
July
July 20, 2022 | Agenda | Minutes (redacted)
July 21, 2022 | Minutes
August
September
September 14, 2022 | Agenda** | Minutes (redacted)
September 15, 2022 | Minutes (redacted)
September 21, 2022 | Minutes (redacted)
October
November
November 14, 2022 | Agenda* | Minutes (redacted)
November 30, 2022 | Agenda* | Minutes (redacted)
The Amtrak Board of Directors held its first ever open public meeting at the St. Louis Union Station Hotel in St. Louis, Missouri on December 1, 2022.
This meeting was held in accordance with provisions in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act which requires that the Board meet at least annually with the general public, in an open meeting with a virtual attendance option.
The two hour meeting include one hour of presentations by members of the Board and Amtrak’s executive leadership team followed by a one hour questions and answer session. It was reported at the start of the meeting that 60 people had registered to attend he meeting in person and 250 registered to attend on-line.
December 9, 2022 | Agenda* | Minutes (redacted)
December 16, 2022 | Agenda* | Minutes
* The agenda for this meeting was not provided.
** The agenda for this two-day meeting was not provided.
*** The minutes for this meeting were not provided.
January 2023
January 9, 2023 | Minutes
January 25, 2023 | Agenda | Minutes (redacted)
January 26, 2023 | Minutes
February
March
March 15, 2023 | Agenda* | Minutes (redacted)
April
May
May 3, 2023 | Agenda* | Minutes (redacted)
May 24, 2023 | Agenda** | Minutes (redacted)
May 25, 2023 | Minutes
June
July
July 27, 2023 | Agenda** | Minutes (redacted)
July 28, 2023 | Minutes
August
September
September 27, 2023 | Agenda** | Minutes (redacted)
September 28, 2023 | Minutes (redacted)
October
November / December
November 9, 2023 | Agenda* | Minutes
November 30, 2023 | Agenda** | Minutes
December 1, 2023 | Minutes (redacted)
December 1, 2023 | The Amtrak Board of Directors held an open public meeting at the Richmond Main Street Station in Richmond, Virginia.
This meeting was held in accordance with provisions in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act which requires that the Board meet at least annually with the general public, in an open meeting with a virtual attendance option.
* The agenda for this meeting was not provided.
** The agenda for this two-day meeting was not provided.
*** The minutes for this meeting were not provide
January
January 24, 2024 | Agenda** | Minutes
January 25, 2024 | Minutes
February
March
March 20, 2024 | Agenda | Minutes (scheduled meeting)
March 21, 2024 | Minutes (scheduled meeting)
June 4, 2024 | A FOIA request was submitted for the March 2024 meeting agenda and minutes.
June 11, 2025 | Amtrak’s FOIA office reported that, “the requested information is not available at this time.”
July 25, 2024 | A FOIA request was submitted for the March 2024 meeting agenda and minutes.
NEW – August 23, 2024 | Amtrak’s FOIA office reported that, “the requested documents are not available at this current time because they are still in draft.”
April
May
May 22, 2024 | Agenda | Minutes (scheduled meeting)
May 23, 2024 | Minutes (scheduled meeting)
June
July
July 24, 2024 | Agenda | Minutes (scheduled meeting)
July 25, 2024 | Minutes (scheduled meeting)
August
September
September 25, 2024 | Agenda | Minutes (scheduled meeting)
September 26, 2024 | Minutes (scheduled meeting)
October
November
December
December 4, 2024 | Agenda | Minutes (scheduled meeting)
December 5, 2024 | Minutes (scheduled meeting)
* The agenda for this meeting was not provided.
** The agenda for this two-day meeting was not provided.
*** The minutes for this meeting were not provided.
Meeting minutes for the committees of the board
Amtrak’s FOIA office usually sends us both the minutes for the regular board meetings and the minutes for the committees of the board, which include — the Safety and Security Committee, the Audit and Finance Committee, the Personnel and Compensation Committee, and the Government Relations, Legal, and Governance Committee.
The minutes for the committee meetings have not been posted on this page but they can be found on this link (to the MuckRock site) for those who may be interested in this information. (search for the month that you are interested in and then open the file that was sent in response to our request.)
Redacted information
The meeting minutes noted as “redacted” in the list above are minutes that have had information removed by Amtrak prior to the release of the document.
The redactions made by Amtrak are normally made under FOIA Exemption 4 [“trade secrets and commercial or financial information obtained from a person and privileged or confidential”] or FOIA Exemption 5 [“inter-agency or intra-agency memorandums or letters that would not be available by law to a party other than an agency in litigation with the agency, …”] (See U.S.C. § 552(b)(4).)
September 4, 2018 | We submitted our first request to Amtrak FOIA office for, “the agenda and minutes for any meeting of Amtrak’s Board of Directors that occurred during the month of January 2018.” Amtrak responded with the requested information six months later on March 8, 2019.
October 6, 2020 | An official in Amtrak’s FOIA Office wrote and said, “the Board of Directors is not currently meeting, we have no meeting minutes from 2020 to provide you. When the Board meets again in person, we will provide them to you.”
November 16, 2020 | We submitted a FOIA request to Amtrak for a copy of the bylaws for the corporation in an effort to understand how it could be that the board is not meeting via Zoom or teleconference during the covid pandemic.
April 19, 2021 | During the Rail Passenger Association’s (RPA) Annual Meeting the Chairman of the Amtrak Board of Directors, Anthony Coscia, answered the following question about the transparency of Amtrak’s Board of Directors:
Question asked by Jim Mathews, President of the RPA —
“There’s a lot of interest from of our supporters in to the inputs and the deliberation that goes in to the decisions that are made by the Amtrak Board. How do you balance the need to protect the railroad’s propriety information — I mean, you’re a government-supported agency but you’re also a business with the need to provide transparency for taxpayers and for the Congress and for the folks that are writing the checks. That’s a tough balance, how are you wrestling with that?”Answer provided by Anthony Coscia —
“Well, you know its a great question and [I] appreciate you sort of framing it that way because it is a challenge. The interesting thing about Amtrak and its history is that it has always been that half the world thinks its a business and the other half thinks it a government agency. The reality is it probably it isn’t purely one or the other and I know that most of your members are well versed enough to understand the nuance associated with that.Having said that I have to tell you that my view and I think this is a view largely shared by the board is that we should err on the side of transparency…“
Source:Day on the Hill 2021 Keynote Speaker (YouTube) Rail Passenger Association. April 19, 2021.
August 9, 2021 | Amtrak’s FOIA office responded to our request for Amtrak Bylaws. The bylaws can be found on this link — Amended and Restated Bylaws of the National Railroad Corporation a District of Columbia Corporation (PDF) as adopted January 28, 2021
September 7, 2022 | The U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation held a hearing to consider five (5) Presidential nominations for new members of the Amtrak Board of Directors.
March 27, 2023 | The Rail Passengers Association introduced at its annual Spring Advocacy Summit in Alexandria, Virginia, a list of legislative initiatives which would improve Amtrak responsiveness to passengers and increase transparency for taxpayers.
Bullet #1 on the list below, a portion of which is shown, would apparently require Amtrak Board of Directors to be subject to the federal Open Meetings Act.
June 11, 2024 | Bills were introduced in the both the House and the Senate to open Amtrak’s Board of Directors meetings to the public.
In the House of Representatives — Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials Subcommittee Chairman Troy Nehls (R-TX) introduced the Amtrak Transparency and Accountability for Passengers and Taxpayer Act, which if enacted would make Amtrak subject to the Government in the Sunshine Act.
In the Senate — U.S. Senator Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), a member of the Senate Commerce Committee, introduced the Amtrak Transparency Act. The legislation would address concerns about closed-door decision-making at Amtrak, increasing accountability and transparency within the organization.
September 18, 2024 | The House Committee on Transportation & Infrastructure approved an amended version of H.R. 8692 The Amtrak Transparency and Accountability for Passengers and Taxpayer Act and reported it to the House floor.
Sponsor: Rep. Troy E. Nehls (R-TX-22)
June 11, 2023 | The bill was introduced and referred to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.
September 18, 2024 | The Committee on Transportation & Infrastructure approved an amended version of the bill and reported it to the House floor.
The amended version of the bill (which can be found here) would make Amtrak subject to 5 USC 552b, the Open meetings statute, during any fiscal year in which Amtrak receives a Federal subsidy.
Sponsor: Sen. Deb Fischer (R-NE)
June 11, 2023 | The bill was introduced and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
“Amtrak: Where is the public input? Where is the transparency?”
By Joseph Boardman | Railway Age | May 10, 2018
Joe Boardman was the president of Amtrak from 2008 until 2016. From 2005 until 2008 he held the job of Federal Railroad Administrator.
Access to Government Information in the United States: A Primer (PDF)
By Wendy Ginsberg and Michael Greene | Congressional Research Service | 2016
The Government in the Sunshine Act in the 21st Century (PDF)
By Reeve Bull | Administrative Conference of the United States | 2014
Berg, R. K., Klitzman, S. H., & Edles, G. J. (2005). An interpretive guide to the Government in the Sunshine Act. Chicago.: ABA, Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice. ISBN 9781590315842
Thanks goes out to the many people who offered comments, feedback and encouragement as we worked our way though this complex issue.
Page last updated: September 19, 2024
Page last reviewed: November 7, 2020
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