Source Notes 7

The High-Speed Rail Investment Act of 2001 (S. 250) (General Accounting Office, 06/01/2001)

Summary:

The Government Accountability Office published a summary of the High-Speed Rail Investment Act of 2001, which would allow Amtrak to issue over $12 billion in “tax credit bonds” over the next 10 years to develop high-speed rail corridors.  This relates to my source because Amtrak is the main high-speed rail provider, and will be the main company to develop it.

Topic:

High-Speed Rail Policy

Category:

Institutional

What is it?

a summary of government legislation

Publication Information:

The General Accounting Office published the summary.  The summary was published on June 25, 2001 in Washington D.C.

Author:

no author listed

Location:

http://gao.gov/products/GAO-01-756R

Accessed:

February 7, 2009

Support:

National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Amtrak

U.S. Treasury

Paul Henry O’neill, Secretary of the Treasury

Department of Transportation

The National Railroad passenger Corporation would be issuing the “tax credit bonds to improve portions of railroad tracks to run high-speed rail.  The U.S. Treasury is the originally proposed financier of the bonds.  The Secretary of the Treasury would have to report every year on whether the funds the U.S. Treasury provides are enough to cover the costs of projects.  The U.S. Department of Transportation has to approve every project that Amtrak proposes.

Audience and Agenda:

Quantcast puts the number of visitors to the Government Accountability Office’s website at approximately 185,000 in a month.  The majority of visitors are above 35 years old, female, Caucasian, childless, wealthier, college-educated, and just passing by the site.  They are most likely using this source to generally keep up documents that tell what the government is doing.  One specific reason they check out the Government Accountability Office is to read about recent legislation.  They expect objective reports and full text copies of legislation that will help them become and stay informed on what the government is doing.

Funds allocated to the Government Accountability Office are paying for this summary to be published and displayed.  They are seeking a national audience, including anybody interested in high-speed rail and mass transit legislation.  The purpose of the Government Accountability Office is to provide objective, full text copies of public government documents so that citizens know how Congress is spending their money.  The offices of the Government Accountability Office literally made the document.

Usefulness:

The document was created as a simplified version of a long piece of legislation.  Shortening the legislation creates a higher chance that people outside of politics (and politicians) will read it.

It was made to quickly inform Americans about the legislation, ultimately helping the congressional representatives who introduced it.  As the legislation garners more grassroots support, more politicians will support it.

The main audience it is trying to address are those interested in high-speed rail and mass transit, and also professional politicians.  Those are the people who would also be drawn to my topic question, and the leaders who would answer it.

There is no argument.  It is simply displaying the material that severel congressional representatives introduced.

The summary leaves out many of the details of the full report so that people will be more willing to read through it to get a general idea about the actual legislation.

Focusing on a piece of legislation, this source relates to Source Notes 2, Source Notes 6, Source Notes 12, Source Notes 21, and Source Notes 15.

Works Cited:

“gao.gov.” Quantcast.  <http://www.quantcast.com/gao.gov>

“History of the Treasury.”  United States Department of the Treasury.  <http://www.treas.gov/education/history/secretaries/poneill.shtml>

“About GAO.”  General Accounting Office.  <http://gao.gov/about/index.html>

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Filed under: Institutional