Notes from Yesterday’s Federal Policy Call

Posted: 07/29/2011

Yesterday, the Alliance hosted our partners at America Bikes for our latest Federal Policy Call. Mike Samuelson, our Members Services and Open Streets Coordinator, compiled these detailed notes…

Debt Ceiling: What it means for the new transportation bill
Any discussion or debate on the new transportation bill has been put off until after Labor Day, as Congress is focused on resolving the issue of the debt celling. The debt ceiling debate has increased partisanship, which will negatively affect everything else still on the table, including transportation. The increased partisanship will make it more difficult to keep transportation funding at SAFETEA-LU levels. Due to the time constraints between when Congress returns from the summer break and when the current bill expires on September 30, there is an increased likelihood that we won’t see anything new until the end of September. Then we may see some short-term extensions at the end of September. This is all assuming that the debt ceiling is raised in August.

Senate Bill
We did see some movement toward a new bill in the Senate this month. Senators Boxer (D-CA) and Inhofe (R-OK) announced that they have an agreement for a two-year bill at current funding levels (compared to the House bill, which would cut total funding by 35 percent). The main theme of the hearing was to let interest groups know that, if they want to avoid a cut in funding, they need to get behind the Senate’s bill.

In order to keep this level of funding, the Senate needs to find an additional $12 billion. Senator Baucus (MT), the Chair of the Finance Committee, is optimistic that he can secure this funding, but he can’t do it until the debt ceiling is resolved. Senator Inhofe has been very clear that he will not support a bill that is not paid for, so it is crucial that the Senate find the needing funding to preserve SAFETEA-LU levels.

At the hearing Senator Boxer said that, Safe Routes to School, Recreational Trails and “bike paths” will continue to have dedicated funding (meaning these programs won’t have to compete with road projects). We believe “bike paths” are referenced instead of Transportation Enhancements because that program will be under a new name. However, we still believe it will include dedicated funding. We have asked for equivalent levels of funding to what the programs receive now, which we believe to be the case in the Senate’s proposal. We thank Senator Boxer for her continued support of biking and walking and anxiously await the actual bill language. Until we see the language, we cannot be sure the bill adequately protects biking and walking.

In both the Senate and the House bills, there is language on streamlining projects, which could be a benefit for biking and walking projects — but again we still need to see language to be sure. There has been talk of penalizing agencies that don’t issue permits in a certain time frame, which would be good for our projects.

We expect to see language sometime in September, but it depends on several factors.

House Bill
Earlier this month, Rep. Mica (R-FL) released an outline of the House bill and had a press conference, which was followed by a Democratic response denouncing the bill. We are hearing the House version has no Transportation Enhancements, Safe Routes to School or Recreational Trails. Mica says he is trying to give as much flexibility to state DOTs as possible, and that these programs are still eligible for funding. Eliminating dedicated funding for these programs will make it difficult for them to secure any funding. (Please see the League memo on the difference between dedicated funding and eligibility.)

There may be something on performance measures related to congestion, state of good repair and safety. We are not sure how this will affect our projects, since these measures will be used to judge if DOTs are acting in the “national interests,” and Mica has come out and said that non-motorized projects are not considered part of this “national interest.”

We are looking for champions to get dedicated funding back into the bill. We hope to add an amendment at the committee level. The amendment would include all three programs (as opposed to separate amendments for each program). The bill is so unpopular that it will need to be moved through committee quickly and then to the floor, rather than a long sub-committee and committee process.

House THUD
Next up on House schedule for the 2012 budget is Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, which is currently funded at such low levels that leaders don’t want to address its funding yet. Given that the House needs to do a budget, they are more likely to move on to the transportation appropriations bill, which would authorize Federal Highway Administration. The transportation appropriations bill doesn’t set funding for each program, which is good for us because it means to defund our programs Congress would have to specifically call out no funding for biking and walking, which would be much easier for us to fight against than Mica’s bill.

We expect our programs to fair well in the appropriations sub-committee, but we are preparing for a possible fight at the full committee or floor debate. We are hoping to avoid that, but we may come back to Alliance groups in September saying there is an amendment in the appropriation process to cut bike/ped.

What is most likely to happen is we get a short-term extension on SAFETEA-LU and a continuing resolution on the budget for two to four weeks. We are looking at a fight on the extension, with the House saying they won’t do an extension without some cuts to funding, and bike/ped may be vulnerable to these cuts.

Outreach to Members of Congress
Please contact your member of Congress and ask them to support continued dedicated funding for biking and walking in both appropriations and transportation. At this point, it is too early to ask about extensions. We are asking local advocates to reach out to congressional members in August, when they will be in-district for most of the month.

It’s important to constantly be working on your relationship with your member of Congress. Here are some things you can do:

Go to town hall meetings (Find out when they are by contacting your district office.)
Invite them to events to show off a bike/ped facility or do a “study tour,” piggy back on another event, invite them to address a crowd of constituents at your event
Media events/ op-eds/ articles/ etc
If you have not met with your member of Congress, schedule an in-district meeting

It is also important to remember that you won’t always be able to get the member to attend your meeting or event, but it is still worthwhile to have a staffer attend in the member’s place. Staffers help formulate the member’s policy, so influencing staffers is key to influencing members.

Action Alert from America Bikes
America Bikes issued the first national action alert of the year on July 7th, after Mica’s press conference on the House’s new transportation bill. America Bikes asked that advocates contact their members of Congress to ask for dedicated biking and walking. We are showing a total of 56,000 messages to members. In the House, more than half the offices received 25 messages or more, while in Senate more than half of the members received 277 or more. Both California Senators received more than 3,000 messages each.

Thank you to everyone who responded to the alert and contacted their members of Congress. For more information on the response to the alert, contact Nathan at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). If you have additional data to share that didn’t go through any of the national partners, please contact Nathan, as well.

These action alerts play a huge role in shaping the national policy. An earlier push in California led to dedicated funding in the Senate bill by putting pressure on Senator Boxer. You are making a difference. Keep up the great work!

TIGER 3
Darren Flusche of the League of American Bicyclists attended a question-and-answer event with senior policy staff at USDOT on applying for TIGER grants. The staff said that adding a bike/ped piece to a proposal can make a project more attractive, but it is important to focus on how bike/ped is part of a larger transportation strategy and not just for recreation.

Remember to estimate the number of users for the new project. USDOT needs these numbers to calculate the economic benefits of project. And as simple as it sounds, it is so important to read the application guidelines and make sure your application meets those guides. Show how your project is a high priority. There is also $10 million minimum for application, so don’t bother applying for any projects smaller than $10 million.

TIGER 3 will total $527 million dollars, funding multi-modal, non-traditional projects that are difficult to fund through normal funding process. Multi-modal programs are very popular, and more than half in the past grant awards have included biking/walking. These include complete streets projects, bike and ped networks, as well as projects where biking and walking are included but not the central piece.

Rumble Strips
Since early 2010, the Alliance, League of American Bicyclists and Adventure Cycling Association have been working with FHWA Safety Office on concerns over rumble strip applications. In May 2011, the FHWA quietly distributed a new Technical Advisory (guidance) to district offices and state departments of transportation (DOTs) on the installation of rumble strips. Unfortunately, this guidance doesn’t meet the standards necessary to ensure the safety of cyclists, and we did not get a chance to review it before its release.

The new FHWA guidance on the installation of both shoulder and centerline rumble strips is significantly worse for bicyclists than the 2001 guidance. Not surprisingly, they did not notify us of the new guidance before sending it out to their district offices, even though we’d continually asked them to do so. Upon learning of the new guidance in mid-June, we immediately contacted FHWA and set up a meeting. On July 18, the Alliance, League and Adventure Cycling met with FHWA and USDOT staff to express our concerns with the process and the lack of accommodation for bicycling in the new guidance. As a result, we are submitting written detail of the specific points the bicycling community wants to see addressed in the new guidance.

We made it clear that we are holding back on raising the alarm with bicyclists across the country, but we are asking for a complete revision of the Technical Advisory and will track this process very closely in the coming weeks. If we don’t succeed we will let you all know and mobilize as needed. For now, please wait to take any action.

America Bikes Starting a Bi-Weekly Newsletter for Hill Staff America Bikes is about to launch an e-mail newsletter to cultivate stronger working relationships and to share up-to-date information with our allies on the Hill. A major objective of the newsletter will be to generate more enthusiasm for bicycle issues in the Hill by spotlighting successful efforts to advance biking and walking at the state and local levels – especially those that demonstrate broad public support for biking and walking as a top priority.

Please make a habit of sending us stories on successful state legislative wins. For example: Delaware bike advocates recently secured $5 million for bike-ped through a General Assembly bond bill which was endorsed by the Governor and enjoyed unanimous support on committee. We want to hear what’s happening in your state and community. Send your stories to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).