There are all of 15 miles of actual high speed track (150+) in this country, that is between NYC and Boston on a small portion of the NEC. So I can assure you there is no high speed track, or even +80 in this state. When the line gets past St. Louis, and before Chicago I believe the track is rated for up to 110.
That would be the Texas eagle which I have ridden on from Little Rock to Chicago then transfered to another Amtrak route to NYC.
That is a state supported train called the heartland flyer, which it will soon, or rather one day, connect to Kansas City thanks to a venture by the state of Kansas to fund the extension through their state and into Missouri.
Edit:
I had further broken up your text into further quotes but the board is giving me errors. Use your imagination to realization what points this where in response to.
Congress recently passed by a veto proof margin the Amtrak reathorization bill (Boozemen voted against it), the first time Amtrak has been officially authorized by congress since 1995, Giving Amtrak something around $13 billion for several years and some route expansion, they are considering reinstating another route through Montana which is an extremely well utilized route, it almost breaks even and is rarely not sold out as well as reinstating the pioneer route from Portland to Salt Lake City.
The money you are talking about is from the FTA and is federal matching grant money, such as highway construction for local run transit agencies. I hope this money is only spent in the corriders that desperately need it first, the populated areas of the country such as the North East Corrider, the Texas Triangle, California, Cascadia, the mid west and Florida. With all the money these areas give to the fed you will be very suprised to understand how little they get back and how deceped their infrastructure is, with the exception of the Mid west and Florida, because politicians like to buy electorial votes.
You will probably never see a new interstate rail line laid in this country ever again. It costs far to much money and far to many people will suddenly see fit to sue. With the exception of most of the North East Corrider (look up conrail) Amtrak owns absolutly none of the rail it operates on, so they are beholdent to mile long freight trains that go 50 mph. So if Amtrak were to run in the river valley towards anywhere it would be on a combination of Burlington Northern, Union Pacific and Arkansas and Missouri ROW.