Amtrak's President David Gunn announced Tuesday at a press conference that he was seeking $1.8 billion in funding for FY2005, double what the White House has proposed for the rail agency. This is an exact replay of FY2004, when the administration originally proposed spending $900 million and Gunn countered with the $1.8 billion figure. Gunn again emphasized this year that if the administration only funded Amtrak at the $900 million number, "the entire system would not be viable", causing Amtrak to shut down operations.

Last year Congress ended up funding Amtrak at a $1.2 billion level.