Overview

This page outlines ongoing concerns about the lack of transparency in how the Amtrak Board of Directors (the “Amtrak Board” or “Board”) conducts its business.

When we published our original Transparency Assessment in October 2020, Amtrak’s Board meetings were neither open to the public nor accessible to the media. As a matter of practice, the Board did not release meeting agendas, minutes, transcripts, recordings, or any other documentation related to its deliberations or decisions.

In an effort to better understand the Board’s work, we submitted Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to Amtrak, seeking access to meeting agendas and minutes dating back to 2018. All available minutes can be found below.

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, enacted in November 2021, introduced, for the first time, a statutory requirement for Amtrak’s Board to hold at least one meeting a year with the public. Although this requirement represents only a limited form of transparency, it marked a modest but meaningful step forward.

In June 2023, legislation was introduced in both chambers of Congress that would require the Amtrak Board to comply with the federal Open Meetings Act. Although the House passed its version, the bill ultimately died at the end of the session. Similar legislation was reintroduced in January 2025, and the House version has been reported favorably out of committee and is awaiting a vote on the House floor.

In parallel, the Amtrak Board adopted a resolution in December 2024 that would increase transparency to some degree. The resolution included commitments to allow the public to observe Board meetings and to publish key materials, such as agendas and vote results, on a new public-facing Board webpage.

In May 2025, the Board allowed the public to observe, via Zoom, a 90-minute portion of its regularly scheduled two-day plenary meeting, which was another notable step forward.

Shortly thereafter, in June 2025, Amtrak launched a redesigned Board of Directors webpage with additional information related to the Board’s work.

Taken together, these developments suggest a slow but measurable shift toward greater transparency.

However, as discussed below, Amtrak remains far less transparent than its publicly funded peers — and significant gaps in public access and accountability remain.

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NEW – On May 17, 2026 the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee released the text of a bipartisan, five-year surface transportation reauthorization bill.

If approved, the legislation will subject meetings of Amtrak’s Board of Directors to federal open-meetings transparency requirements under the Government in the Sunshine Act (5 U.S.C. § 552b). (further information below)

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Contents

Transparency Assessment of the Amtrak Board of Directors
prepared in October 2020

1. Background

2. Amtrak compared to similar entities

3. Why are Amtrak’s board meetings not open to the public?

4. Conclusions and next steps

Other topics

Meeting agendas and minutes (January 2018 – )

Timeline of developments

Amtrak board of directors transparency initiatives

Legislation in Congress

Further reading

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Transparency Assessment of the Amtrak Board of Directors
(originally published in October 2020)

1. Background

The National Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak), created by the Rail Passenger Service Act of 1970, was incorporated in the District of Columbia in 1971.

The Secretary of Transportation, on behalf of the federal government, holds all issued and outstanding preferred shares, giving the government effective control over the corporation.

While Amtrak operates as a for-profit corporation under a federal charter, it functions in practice as a quasi-public entity. Its governance, funding, and strategic priorities are aligned with, and effectively directed by, the federal government through the President, Congress, and the Department of Transportation.

While Amtrak has at times claimed to be a private corporation, especially in legal or policy contexts, it operates in reality as a government-owned and controlled entity, and courts, Congress, and oversight bodies have largely recognized it as such. Its self-characterization has often reflected political and legal strategy more than operational or financial independence.

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Amtrak’s Board of Directors (the “Board”), as described in 49 U.S.C. § 24302, is composed of 10 directors, with no seats vacant.

The current members of the Board are listed on this webpage, along with links to their individual biographies —

The screenshot below of the Amtrak Board of Directors page, captured in March 2025, does not include any information about Board meetings.

There is also no mention of future meetings, or of past meeting agendas, minutes, or materials presented to or by the Board.

Between 2020 and May 2025, we were unable to find any published information online indicating that the public had opportunities to understand any aspect of the Board’s discussions or decisions.

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2. Amtrak compared to similar entities

o put the Amtrak Board’s lack of transparency into perspective, we created a chart comparing the Amtrak Board of Directors to six public-benefit corporations in the U.S.

The chart compares the Amtrak Board with six similar entities, all of which 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 passenger rail providers in the United States.

We found that almost all of these organizations have open and transparent board meetings.^a

Here’s a sampling of the organizations we reviewed, with links to their respective board of directors webpages.

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 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.

Of this group, the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority is the most transparent, with board meeting materials that include agendas and meeting minutes, presentations and other materials, and decision briefs and resolutions.

^a Neither the Connecticut Department of Transportation (operator of the CTrail Hartford Line) nor the Maryland Transit Administration (operator of the MARC Train Service) has a board of directors.

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3. Why are Amtrak’s Board meetings not open to the public?

The short answer

Meetings of the Amtrak Board of Directors are not subject to the Government in the Sunshine Act.

If Amtrak were subject to this Act, every Board meeting would be open to public observation, announced in advance with a published agenda, and accompanied by publicly available minutes and records.

The long answer

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 none of a series of exceptions (protecting documents related to national defense, trade secrets, and internal deliberative matters, among other things) applies.²

Another law, the Government in the Sunshine Act (also known as the 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

Another law, the Government in the Sunshine Act (also known as the Open Meetings Act), requires that

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 two 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, courts have treated Amtrak as a governmental entity for constitutional purposes in cases addressing whether it may participate in establishing metrics and standards for private rail operators providing passenger rail service under its authority.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 Meetings 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 statute 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 is that Amtrak is subject to 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:

• “open its Board meetings to the public;”
• “take votes to go into executive session (since it can keep all sessions closed in any case) or disclose the contents of those sessions or information that can be withheld under FOIA;”
• “provide advance public notice of its meetings and their anticipated subject matter;”
• “keep transcripts, recordings, or minutes of any meeting closed to the public, or make any such records available to the public”; or
• “promulgate regulations concerning the conduct of its meetings.”¹²

While some of this information may be available through FOIA requests, there is no statutory right for the public to be notified of or attend these meetings.

Bottom Line —

Amtrak has no legal obligation to open its Board meetings to the public or provide advance notice of such meetings.

It does, however, have an obligation under FOIA to disclose transcripts, recordings, meeting minutes, or other records of those meetings, subject to applicable FOIA exemptions.

As a matter of policy, Amtrak could benefit from greater transparency in its Board of Directors to both the public and public officials. Matters requiring confidentiality could still be handled in executive session portions of Board meetings.

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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.

³ Government in the Sunshine Act,  Pub. L. 94-409. See 5 U.S.C. § 552b.

⁴ 5 U.S.C. § 551(1).

⁵ 5 U.S.C. § 552b(a)(1).

⁶ 49 U.S.C. § 24301(a)(3).

⁷ See Dept. of Transportation v. Association of American Railroads, 572 U.S. 43 (2015).

⁸ See Lebron v. Nat’l R.R. Passenger Corp., 513 U.S. 374 (1995).

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).

¹⁰ “The Corporation shall be subject to the provisions of section 552 of title 5, United States Code”, To amend the Rail Passenger Service Act of 1970 in order to provide financial assistance to the National Railroad Passenger Corporation, and for other purposes., Pub. L. 92-316, §3(g). See 49 U.S.C. § 24301(e). Aug v. National Railroad Passenger Corp., 425 F. Supp. 946 (D.D.C. 1976).

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).

¹³ 5 U.S.C. § 552b.

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4. Conclusions and next steps

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, minutes, and other materials presented to the Board should be publicly available without the need to submit FOIA requests.

Every other publicly supported passenger rail service in the country holds open and transparent board meetings, and Amtrak should do the same.

This issue could be remedied if Congress were to make Amtrak subject to the Open Meetings Act (5 U.S.C. § 552b), as some have argued was the intent when the Government in Sunshine Act was enacted in 1976.¹⁴

We encourage like-minded individuals and organizations to contact Congress and support efforts to address this issue.

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¹³ Boardman, Joseph A. (May 10, 2018), “Amtrak: Where is the public input? Where is the transparency?”, Railway Age.

¹⁴ See Printing of Notices for Amtrak pursuant to the Sunshine Act (Washington: Comptroller General of the United States, September 8, 1978).

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Meeting agendas and minutes (January 2018 – )

We began submitting Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to Amtrak for Board of Directors meeting agendas and minutes in September 2018.

Each request was submitted using the MuckRock online platform, which automates the FOIA process.

Amtrak typically responds by sending approved meeting minutes for each Amtrak Board of Directors meeting, with portions redacted under FOIA exemptions.

In some cases, Amtrak has taken more than two years to respond to FOIA requests.

The agendas and minutes for each Amtrak Board of Directors plenary meeting that have been released are listed and linked below for ease of access.

As an example, below is the agenda for the January 28–29, 2026 Amtrak Board of Directors plenary meeting:

2018 – 2024 (drop down lists)

2026

January
January 28–29, 2026 | NEW – Agenda | Minutes
At the end of the January 28th meeting the Board hosted a virtual “Public Business Meeting.” A video of this meeting and the presentation deck can be found on the Amtrak Board of Directors page.

May 11, 2026 | A FOIA request was submitted for the minutes for any scheduled meeting of the Amtrak Board of Directors held during the month of January 2026.
NEW – May 19, 2026 | Amtrak FOIA office closed the request with the comment, “The January minutes have not been approved.”

February

March
March 18–19, 2026 | NEW – Agenda | Minutes

April

May
May 20–21, 2026 | Agenda | Minutes
May 21 – Meeting with representatives of the disability community (*)

NEW – On May 21, 2026, the Amtrak Board of Directors will open a portion of its scheduled Board meeting to virtual observation by members of the public. For further information about this meeting, and to register for the Zoom link, use this link.

June

July
July 29–30, 2026 | Agenda | Minutes
July 30 – Meeting with employee representatives (*)

August

September
September 9–10, 2026 | Agenda | Minutes

October

November

December
December 2–3, 2026 | Agenda | Minutes
December 2nd or 3rd — Public Meeting (*)

(*) These meetings are held in accordance with provisions in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

The list of 2026 meetings listed above only include the Plenary Meetings of the Amtrak Board of Directors. The full schedule of meetings, including the committee meetings, can be on this link.

Notes

Delayed request for Board meeting minutes

Meeting minutes are not released until they have been approved at a subsequent meeting of the Board. Because of this procedural step, we delay our requests for meeting minutes to allow the Board to approve them before requesting copies.

Normally, meeting minutes are approved at the next Board meeting, but in some cases it can take multiple meetings before minutes from prior meetings are approved.

Meeting minutes for the Board committees

Amtrak’s FOIA office usually provides both regular Board meeting minutes and committee meeting minutes, including those from the Safety and Security Committee, Audit and Finance Committee, Personnel and Compensation Committee, and Government Relations, Legal, and Governance Committee.

Committee meeting minutes are not posted on this page but can be found at the linked MuckRock page. To locate a specific record, search by month and open the file provided in response to the request.

Redacted information

Meeting minutes labeled “redacted” in the list above contain information removed by Amtrak prior to release.

Redactions are typically 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 5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(4)–(5).)

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Timeline of developments

2025

January 3, 2025 | Rep. Troy E. Nehls (R-TX-22) introduced a bill requiring the Amtrak Board of Directors to comply with the open meetings requirements of Section 552b of Title 5, United States Code, and for other purposes. (Further details in the “Legislation in Congress” section below.)

January 21, 2025 | Sen. Deb Fischer (R-NE) introduced a bill that would increase Amtrak’s open meetings and public disclosure requirements. (Further details in the “Legislation in Congress” section on this page.)

May 22, 2025 | On this date, Amtrak’s Board allowed the public to observe (virtually via Zoom) a 90-minute portion of a regularly scheduled two-day plenary meeting. This marked a notable development, as it was the first time the Board opened any portion of a regularly scheduled plenary meeting to the public.

It is important to note that the public portion represented only a segment of the full two-day meeting, which began on Wednesday, May 21.

Amtrak senior management provided a Finance Report, a Commercial Report, a National Network Strategy Update, a Capital Project Delivery Review, and an update on NJ Service Area and Summer 2025 preparations. At the end of the session, Board members participated in a question-and-answer session with Amtrak management.

At no point during the meeting did the Board explain why this portion was opened to the public; however, it is assumed this action was pursuant to a resolution approved by the Board on December 4, 2024.

June 2025 | Amtrak launched a redesigned webpage for the Board of Directors. The updated page includes recorded videos and presentations from the Board’s public sessions, as well as a selection of corporate governance documents, including the corporation’s bylaws.

July 31, 2025
September 11, 2025
On these dates, Amtrak’s Board of Directors allowed the public to observe (virtually via Zoom) a 90-minute portion of regularly scheduled two-day plenary meetings. Recordings of the virtual meetings can be found on the Amtrak Board of Directors webpage.

2026

April 30, 2026 | We sent an email to the Amtrak Board of Directors suggesting that when the Board holds a meeting that is accessible to the public virtually — such as the one scheduled for May 21, 2026 — information about the meeting should also be posted on the Board of Directors page on Amtrak’s website.

While the Board of Directors page indicates that the Board has held virtual public meetings, it does not currently provide information about upcoming meetings of this kind. Posting this information on the Board’s page would place it where members of the public are most likely to look.

May 4, 2026 | The Board of Director’s page now includes a notice of the scheduled public meeting of the Board on May 21, 2026, and a registration link for this virtual meeting.

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Amtrak Board of Directors’ transparency initiatives

On December 4, 2024, the Board agreed to actions intended to make some of its work more transparent to the general public.

The meeting minutes stated that the Board was planning to open its regular meetings to “limited public session[s] where there will be remote access to an abbreviated session for the items the Board approves that do not involve commercial real estate or personnel matters.”

They also said that, “Amtrak will begin to post meeting materials, minutes and public resolutions on the Amtrak.com website under a Board of Directors web page.” (Ed., we assume this refers to the National Railroad Passenger Corporation Board of Directors page.)

Furthermore, the Board approved the following resolution,

QUOTE
WHEREAS, The charter for the Government Affairs, Legal and Corporate Governance Committee (Committee) of the National Railroad Passenger Corporation’s (Corporation) Board of Directors (Board) requires the Committee to stay abreast of the significant legislative and regulatory issues and key trends that affect or could affect the Corporation; and

WHEREAS, Congressional staff of other offices have contacted Corporation’s Government Affairs regarding various legislative proposals with requirements for greater Board transparency, including specific requirements for the Corporation to comply with the Federal Government in Sunshine Act; and

WHEREAS, Management has presented to the Committee and the Board various proposals to proactively increase board transparency with the general public while maintaining and respecting certain confidentiality required for the operation of a private corporation; and

WHEREAS, The Committee and the Board, have, on multiple occasions, reviewed and discussed the proposed initiatives to increase Board transparency and the Board recommends the proposed transparency initiatives be adopted by the Board; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, That the Board hereby approves Management’s recommendation to increase Board transparency to the general public in a manner that creates more opportunity for public observation at Board meetings (e.g., virtual public attendance options at standing board meetings) and coordinated release of Board activities and decisions (e .g. , creation of a public facing Board webpage that includes materials such as Board meeting dates, agendas , and vote results) ; and

FURTHER RESOLVED, That the Board hereby authorizes the Chief Executive Officer, President, Chief Legal Officer, Corporate Secretary (or their respective designees) to create any Board policy or guidelines necessary to implement the new Board transparency procedures the Board adopted pursuant to this resolution within an appropriate timeline .
UNQUOTE

This development became known to us after Amtrak released the meeting minutes for the December 4, 2024 Board meeting in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.

Importantly, the Board’s plan to increase transparency would be impacted if Congress votes to require Amtrak to be subject to the Government in the Sunshine Act (5 U.S.C. § 552b), as is the intent of H.R. 188.

May 22, 2025 | Amtrak’s Board permitted the public to observe (virtually via Zoom) a 90-minute portion of its regularly scheduled two-day plenary meeting.

As far as we are aware, this is the first time the Amtrak Board has opened any portion of a regularly scheduled plenary meeting to the public.

Amtrak senior management provided a Finance Report, a Commercial Report, a National Network Strategy Update, a Capital Project Delivery Review, and an Update on NJ Service Area/Summer 2025 Preparations. At the end of the meeting board members participated in a question and answer session with Amtrak’s management.

June 2025 | Amtrak launched a redesigned webpage for the Board of Directors. The updated page includes recorded videos and presentations from the Board’s public sessions, as well as a selection of corporate governance documents, including the corporation’s bylaws.

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Legislation in Congress

119th Congress (2025–2026)

H.R. 188 – Amtrak Transparency and Accountability for Passengers and Taxpayers Act

Text of H.R. 188

Sponsor: Rep. Troy E. Nehls (R-TX-22)

January 3, 2025 | The bill was introduced and referred to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.

April 2, 2025 | The Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure favorably approved an amended version of the bill and reported it to the House floor. (Video of the debate)

June 6, 2025 | The bill was placed on the Union Calendar, a procedural step that sets it up for a vote on the House floor.

May 17, 2026 | The text of the bill was incorporated in the H.R. 8870 under Section 10202.

NEW – H.R. 8870 – Surface Transportation Reauthorization Act of 2026

Text of H.R. 8870

May 17, 2026 | Transportation and Infrastructure Committee released the text of a bipartisan, five-year surface transportation reauthorization bill.

Section 10202 of the bill, titled “Amtrak transparency and accountability for passengers and taxpayers,” is identical to H.R. 188, (the Amtrak Transparency and Accountability Act for Passengers and Taxpayers Act). The Committee previously reported H.R. 188 by voice vote on April 2, 2025.

If enacted, this section will subject meetings of the Amtrak Board of Directors to the federal open meetings transparency requirements of the Government in the Sunshine Act (5 U.S.C. § 552b).

S.174 – Amtrak Transparency Act

Text of S.174

Sponsor: Sen. Deb Fischer (R-NE)

January 21, 2025 | The bill was introduced and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

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Further reading

Amtrak Board of Directors
Official page

Revision of the Freedom of Information Act Regulations of the National Railroad Passenger Corporation
Federal Register | Vol. 82, No. 25 | February 8, 2017

“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

Reporter’s Handbook – The Federal Government in the Sunshine Act: A Mandate for Open Meetings
By Joseph Fleming and José León | Florida Bar Association | 2008

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

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Thank you

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: May 21, 2026
Page last reviewed: May 3, 2026