House Republicans may have a new speaker but they still have the same issues in coalescing to pass spending bills.

The Transportation, Housing and Urban Development bill was derailed for the second time in less than a week over concerns about the bill’s cuts to Amtrak.

The bill clocks in at just over $90 billion, which is below President Biden’s requested funding. One of those areas that suffered a steep cut was Amtrak, which was whittled down by about $1.5 billion — a 64% reduction from last year’s levels.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, Louisiana Republican, said he was not sure if the bill would come back to the floor this week.

“We’ll work with the whip team to make sure we’re tracking it, and soon as you got the votes you move it,” Mr. Scalise said.

Issues with the Amtrak cuts are not new within the conference. In September, nearly a dozen House Republicans signed a letter to House leaders opposing the slashed spending on the quasi-public national passenger railroad company.

“Underfunding Amtrak’s annual appropriations will undermine necessary state-of-good-repair work, inhibit progress on other capital projects, and runs counter to the interests of millions of our constituents who rely on efficient and reliable rail services,” the lawmakers wrote.

The hiccup in advancing the bill comes as House Republicans are working to hammer out a stopgap measure to prevent a partial government shutdown on Nov. 17.

Ideas have been floated on doing a “laddered” stopgap, or a relatively “clean” stopgap, but no decision has been made by House leadership.

“You’ll know when we do, we’re not quite there yet,” Mr. Scalise said.

• Alex Miller can be reached at amiller@washingtontimes.com.