New Amtrak President Alex Kummant engineered a major management restructuring Monday, firing five top officials and naming Eleanor Acheson, assistant attorney general for policy development under President Bill Clinton, as the passenger rail’s general counsel.
The move comes after a call earlier this month by outgoing House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Don Young, R-Alaska, and Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., for the Department of Justice to investigate Amtrak’s legal department and outside counsel after the release of an inspector general’s report, which found that Amtrak mismanaged more than $100 million in legal bills. The congressmen also called for Amtrak’s inspector general to further investigate Manatt, Phelps & Phillips’ expenses and billing of secretarial work.
