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Fresh off of Florida Governor Rick Scott’s abrupt rejection of federal funds for the Orlando-Tampa HSR line, Rep. John Mica (R-Winter Park, FL) will be visiting Vancouver WA this Monday to moderate a town hall on federal transportation priorities.  The Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Listening Session will be held in Vancouver because it is home to freshman Representative and Transportation Committee member Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Vancouver).  The meeting is from 9-11am at the Clark County PUD.

Rep. Mica is one of the more interesting House Republicans on rail issues.  A vocal but narrow supporter of HSR projects, with a strong skepticism for most projects outside of the Northeast Corridor, Mica expressed anger over Rick Scott’s seemingly unilateral cancellation of the project.  Since the second hour of the Vancouver forum is reserved for public comment, it would be a great chance to tout the virtues of our rail work in the Pacific Northwest to perhaps the most receptive Republican ear in the House.

Due to the early start you’ll either have to drive down, take Cascades the night before, or suffer through a midnight Greyhound.  But if you care about rail in the Northwest and can articulate yourself well, it would be worth your time and effort to attend.

18 Replies to “John Mica Comes to Washington”

  1. Clark County is notoriously conservative on transportation policy. It will be interesting to see the turnout and what comes out of this meeting.

  2. The Couv will be the Wisconsin in cancelling high speed rail between Portland and Seattle.

    1. Lewis County will be far worse than Clark – look at the voting history there – truly astonishing.

  3. Is there any way we can get one of the Vancouvers to change their name.

    It’s so confusing..especially for outsiders! Wait, there’s also Vancouver in Washington…but it’s near Portland…which is in Oregeon…right?! And the other one is in Canada….?

    3. No, because one Vancouver was the first northwest city, and the other one is in Canada and doesn’t have to care what Americans think about its name.

      2. Vancouver BC named their city more recently than the others; one of the other potential names was Granville. If they had been in the same country as the other Vancouver, I think they would have taken the issue of a duplicate name more seriously.

        On another note, a Cascades conductor once announced that every day there’s at least one person who gets on the wrong train going to the wrong Vancouver. I don’t know if it’s really that often but that’s what he said.

  4. Clark County surrounding Vancouver,USA has the best rail corridors suited for commuter rail in the US. It has three existing rail lines into Portland Union Station from Camas, Battle Ground and Ridgefield just waiting to be developed. But Rep. Mica will talk about the High Speed Rail capabilities of Seattle to Portland. Also he will talk of the Columbia River Crossing for Interstate 5.

  5. You need to correct the spelling of the Congresswoman’s name.
    It’s now Jaime Herrera Beutler.

  6. On Thursday, Mica and Herrera Beutler both voted YES on a proposal to cut Amtrak’s current year funding by almost $447 million. The proposal failed, with 60 GOPs voting against the cuts, but it would be interesting to hear their reasons for their votes.

    1. Mica and most Republicans hate Amtrak because it is basically a government-backed monopoly. I frankly don’t blame them. I wouldn’t want Amtrak’s funding cut right now, because it is all we have, but clearly it is an inefficient model that leads to poor service. Most other countries with good passenger rail build the infrastructure and then enter into contracts with private companies to operate the service. Sometimes multiple companies can operate on the same tracks. That would be better than Amtrak.

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