Alliance > Media center > People Powered Blog

Entries tagged: Transportation And Infrastructure Committee

It’s so much worse than we thought.

Yesterday, the House released its transportation bill, the American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act. We expected the bill to be bad news for biking and walking, but we didn’t think it would go so far as to reverse all progress we’ve made over the past 20 years. (Check out the Top 10 Reasons the House Bill is Bad for Bicycling and Walking from Andy Clarke, president of the League of American Bicyclists, on the right.)

If your member of Congress is on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, please take action TODAY. With a vote coming in the T&I committee TOMORROW, tell your Representative to preserve biking and walking. Click here to contact your Representative through the League’s Action Center.

House leadership is exerting pressure to completely cut bicycling and walking out of transportation. Lawmakers seem to have gone through the bill, line-by-line, to gut programs that make streets safer. The American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act:

• Destroys Transportation Enhancements by making the program optional
• Repeals the Safe Routes to School program, reversing years of progress in creating safe ways for kids to walk and ride bicycles to school
• Removes requirements for states to build bridges with safe access for pedestrians and bicycles
• Eliminates bicycle and pedestrian coordinators in state DOTs

There’s still a chance to save biking and walking. Tomorrow, in the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Representatives Tom Petri (R-WI) and Timothy Johnson (R-IL) plan to stand up to leadership by offering an amendment that restores dedicated funding for Transportation Enhancements and Safe Routes to School. Petri and Johnson can only be successful if everyone with a stake in safe sidewalks, crosswalks, and bikeways contacts his or her Representative today.

This is as urgent as it gets. Even if we win this amendment, there will be a long road ahead. But if we lose here, we risk losing decades of progress.

If members of the Transportation Committee are going to stand up to House leadership by supporting biking and walking, they need to know their constituents are behind them. Please contact Congress TODAY and ask your Representative to preserve dedicated funding for biking and walking.

Take action NOW!

If you have a Representative on the T&I committee, please forward this action alert to your members and supporters. Pass it along to all your local partners — particularly high-level contacts like mayors, school board members, and business leaders — and ask them to weigh in, too. And thank you for all you do to advance biking and walking!

We know that federal policy can feel far removed from your day-to-day efforts to improve biking and walking in your community. But Congress is gearing up for a crucial vote that could dramatically impact funding for bicycling and walking. In this tough budget climate, we’ll need a tidal wave of support to preserve popular and cost effective programs that fund active transportation projects.

To get you geared up for action, we hosted our latest Federal Policy Call with America Bikes yesterday. Here are the highlights and action items from that call. You can download the full recording of the call from our Resources Library

New Study Shows Biking and Walking Projects Create More Jobs

American Bikes contracted with the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts on a new job-creation study focused on Baltimore, Maryland. The research showed that nearly twice as many jobs are created from biking and walking projects than regular road construction. The report (click here to access it in our Online Resource Library) is getting widespread attention, including this piece in Fast Company magazine. America Bikes hopes to work with other cities and towns to get similar data. If you’re interested in helping facilitate such a study in your area, e-mail .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

Important Change to House Rules

At the start of every new Congress, members of the House sit down and look at their rules. This time they made several changes that effect transportation funding. Generally speaking, federal programs go through two committees: one that determines policy and the other that determines funding levels. But, for the past decade, transportation funding has been different than any other federal program. Since 1998, the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has determined both the policy and funding levels. Now, under the new rules, transportation will have to go through the appropriations like all other federal programs. That makes things a little more difficult for advocates.

Another unique aspect of transportation funding was the certainty provided by SAFETEA-LU — the federal transportation bill passed in 2005. It set levels of funding through 2009, specifying how much would be spent on each program. But, the latest extension of SAFETEA-LU expires on March 4. Congress will have to determine new funding levels for transportation and, because of the rule change, it will be appropriations, instead of T&I, leading that decision. The unfortunate reality is the committee will be looking to make dramatic cuts.

Maintaining funding at the 2009 level is a tough sell, because that would put the Highway Trust Fund into deficit spending. Members of Congress clearly aren’t keen on that idea. To only spend what’s in the Trust Fund, though, would mean as much as a 30 percent cut across the board — a drastic, and thus unlikely, scenario. But, it’s possible programs that fund biking and walking — Transportation Enhancements and Safe Routes To School — could come under attack, and even be zeroed out.

So the grassroots ground game in the coming weeks will be critical. We need to show members of Congress that biking and walking programs are popular and cost-effective. Just as important, we need to show elected officials that it’s not worth disappointing thousands of voters to save such a small amount of money in the grand scheme of a large deficit. The stronger our showing now, the less likely our programs will come under attack again. So get ready: The very strong likelihood is that a House vote will happen the week of February 28th.

New Members of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee

It’s been determined that T&I will have 61 members: 33 Republicans and 28 Democrats. A full 19 of the 33 Republicans are freshmen, which means they’re coming in with very little knowledge of how transportation has been done in a past and therefore facing a huge learning curve. The committee is also smaller than it has been in the past and, because of the push to eliminate earmarks, many experienced members jumped ship for more prestigious committee assignments.

Mica Listening Sessions

Congressman John Mica (R-Florida), the chair of T&I, will be holding listening sessions in the districts of new committee members before he writes the transportation bill. This is a vital opportunity to get out to these meetings and make sure our issues are heard. We’re confident these meetings will start around February 18th and run two to three weeks, but we don’t have the exact dates and times yet. It’s likely we’ll only get a week’s notice of these meetings, so, if you have a new member on the T&I committee (click here for a list), keep your eye out. We’ll let you know as soon as we do.

In-district Meetings with Members of Congress

After the mid-term election, America Bikes compiled a list of 191 members of the House who could be important in a vote on transportation. Over the past month, we’ve been working with advocates in those key districts to set up meetings with their members of Congress. Because we’re expecting a vote the week of February 28th, getting those meetings scheduled over the next several weeks is absolutely crucial. If you haven’t been contacted about setting up a meeting but would like to get involved, please .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) at the Alliance.

If you have been contacted, you will receive (or may have already received) materials from America Bikes and the Alliance, outlining recommended talking points. For additional resources and inspiration, click here and here for two great examples of handouts highlighting the benefits of bicycling from the Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin. And check out this helpful resource from the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (Sections 2-4 especially), which lists Safe Routes to School and Transportation Enhancements funding in your state.

For members who have been supportive of biking and walking is the past, we want to express our gratitude and ask if they will be willing to speak on the House floor about the importance of these funding programs. For members who are new to Congress, we want to educate them on all the benefits of biking and walking and ask that they support continued funding of programs that fund these popular, cost-effective projects. In all cases, please report back to us what your member of Congress says and the results of your meeting. Again, federal policy may feel remote, but this upcoming vote is incredibly important. Being vocal and engaged in the next few weeks could make a lasting impression and reduce the number of battles we have to fight to preserve or reinstate federal funding in the future.

Messaging and Messengers

When planning and executing your meetings with members of Congress think strategically about who attends. If you have a personal connection or have an ally who has a personal connection to that member, bring him or her along. Invite bicycle supporters from the business community, the tourism industry or sympathetic local elected officials. Don’t overcrowd the room — three to six people is ideal — but think about and recruit messengers that will have the greatest ability to influence that member of Congress.

Get Ready for Action!

As we’ve said, we don’t know the exact date, but we’re confident that a House vote on federal transportation funding will happen the week of February 28th. Please understand the importance of this vote and forgive any duplicate messages from national bicycle and pedestrian organizations. We will likely need a large push from the grassroots to preserve funding in the House — and we may need that tidal wave of public reaction in as little as 24 hours. Please stay tuned for these critical alerts and be prepared to mobilize your members!

Don’t hesitate to contact .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) at the Alliance for additional resources or assistance.