Yesterday (June 9, 2011), the Alliance held a federal policy
call with input and insight from our partners at America
Bikes. Listen to the call recording here and download
timelines for the transportation bill here. Notes below from
Alliance member services fellow, Mike Samuelson.
Transportation Bill
Both the House and the Senate are getting close to releasing
a transportation bill. We expect both bills to be a step
backwards in terms of dedicated funding for biking and
walking, flexible funding for local governments (versus
states) and environmental safeguards.
Up to this point we have been asking Alliance organizations
in target districts to reach out to their members of
Congress. As soon as a bill is released either in the House
or the Senate, we will be doing a national call to action
for all groups. It’s possible we will see both a House and a
Senate bill released in the next few weeks, and we will be
asking for your help at that time.
Please find the attached timelines for a transportation
bill. There is a very limited degree of certainty to these.
Our best bet is we will see bills released in late June, and
then floor action, if at all, in September.
When a bill is released- It’s likely the bill will be
released at the end of the day. If that is the case, the
Alliance will send out an alert at that time and announce a
Federal Strategies call for the next afternoon. By that time
of that meeting, America Bikes will have an analysis of the
bill and a strategy for next steps and we will ask for your
help and input at that time. If a bill is released in the
morning, we will announce it then, and schedule a call for
that same afternoon.
We have less information now than when Representative Jim
Oberstar was the chair of the House Transportation &
Infrastructure Committee, so we have to be ready whenever
the bill is released. We know we keep sending updates,
saying the bill is coming, but that is what we are being
told. We know this is frustrating and we appreciate your
willingness to stick with us.
We are hearing that there will not be funding for
Transportation Enhancements and Safe Routes to School in the
House version of the bill, so it is important that we are
ready to contact committee members once the bill comes out.
We are currently working with Republicans to stick up for
our programs as the bill is being written.
Once the bill is made public, we expect to have 72 hours
before sub-committee or committee action (most likely to be
in committee). There will be a federal policy call within 24
hours of the bill’s release, briefing you on what our
actions will be.
Rep. John Mica, chair of the House T&I committee, has asked
Republicans to not introduce or vote for amendments in
committee, in return he will include their priorities in a
manager’s amendment before introducing the bill on the House
floor. We are now hearing the House bill will be released
the week of July 4. Even if that happens, and we have
committee action in July, there may not be floor action
until September, because Congress will be busy addressing
the issue of the debt ceiling. Once the bill is on the
floor, there will almost certainly be an amendment trying to
strip any funding for biking and walking that we have been
able to add to the bill, so we will have to be ready to
combat that. That means we will have all of August to reach
out to members of Congress when they are home, in the
district, during recess.
On the Senate side, we are in a better position because we
have more friends on the committee writing the bill. We are
hearing that the Senate bill will come out in June, although
this seems increasingly unlikely. Again, it is hard to judge
when the bill will be released because the staff keep
telling us it could be any time now. We are more confident —
but not convinced — that our programs will be in the Senate
version of the bill, and again we will likely see a floor
amendment trying to strip our programs from the final bill.
The current bill is scheduled to expire September 30, and if
the new bill is not on track, there may be an extension of
the current bill. Although an extension is looking more and
more likely, it is still important that we make our voices
heard. It’s likely that an extension will be funded at lower
levels, or with program cuts, and we want to make sure that
bike/ped programs fair well.
Appropriations/Budget Process
Given the low probability of Congress passing a six-year
transportation bill this year, we are also focusing on the
budget/ appropriations process. This is the process that
decides the federal budget for the next fiscal year. This
year Congress is deciding the budget for Fiscal Year 2012
(October 1, 2011-September 30, 2012).
Because of the focus on lowering the deficit, and the fact
that the Highway Trust Fund is headed toward insolvency,
this year will not be business as usual. An extension of the
Transportation bill may not necessarily mean funding at
current levels continue. Funding levels will be decided by
the Appropriations Committees in the House and Senate,
specifically by the Transportation Housing and Urban
Development Appropriations Subcommittees.
The members of those committees can be found at:
House:
Tom Latham, Chair (R, IA-4) John Olver (D, MA-1), Ranking
Member
Mario Diaz-Balart (R,FL-21) Ed Pastor (D,AZ-4)
Charlie Dent (R,PA-15) John Olver (D, MA-1)
Steve LaTourette (R, OH-14) David Price (D, NC-4)
Steve Womack (R, AR-3) Marcy Kaptur (D, OH-9)
John Carter (R, TX-31)
Frank Wolf (R, VA-10)
Senate:
Senator Patty Murray (Chairman) (D-WA)
Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD)
Senator Herb Kohl (D-WI)
Senator Richard Durbin (IL)
Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT)
Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA)
Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)
Senator Tim Johnson (D-SD)
Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Senator Mark Pryor (D-AR)
Senator Susan Collins (Ranking)(R-ME)
Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL)
Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX)
Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN)
Senator Mark Kirk (R-IL)
Senator Dan Coats (R-IN)
Senator Jerry Moran (R-KS)
Senator Roy Blunt (R-MO)
Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI)
A recent change in House rules and the lack of money in the
Highway Trust Fund means that funding levels, even in an
extension, may not be extended at current levels. This year
the Appropriations committee will have a larger role in
determining which programs get funded. This may actually be
good news, because the members of the Appropriation
Committee (and especially the transportation sub-committee)
are friendly toward us. The Transportation and HUD
sub-committee plans to have a bill out by July 11 and marked
up by July 14. If your member of Congress is an
appropriator, please reach out to them and ask them to
support dedicated funding for bicycling and walking
programs, like Transportation Enhancements, Safe Routes to
School and the Recreational Trails Program.
On the Senate side, the process will be more delayed. They
won’t start their process until the debt ceiling issue is
decided. We probably wont see anything out of the Senate
until September, meaning we will want to weigh in with the
members in August.
What can be done at the local level
Continue reaching out to your Representatives and Senators
to schedule in-district and in-state meetings and invite
them to event and ribbon cuttings. Even if you have already
had a district meeting, you can schedule another, once the
bill is released. Let them know that people in their
district/state use these programs and there is strong
support for their continued funding.
Job Creation Study
America Bikes has been working with the University of
Massachusetts Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) on
a study examining the number of jobs created from
infrastructure investments. Specifically, the study compares
the number of jobs created for bike projects compared to
road projects. The current study is based on 11 cities and
58 projects, and is a continuation of a smaller project in
Baltimore, which showed bike projects created roughly twice
as many jobs as road projects. Results appear to be similar
to those in the initial Baltimore study, which showed that
bicycle and pedestrian projects create more jobs per million
dollars thank road-only projects. The final report will
likely come out in the next couple of weeks.
Complete Streets Update
The National Complete Streets Coalitions has introduced Safe
and Complete Streets bills in both the House and the
Senate. S. 1056 was just introduced at the end of May by
Senator Harkin (D-IA) with a dozen cosponsors. HR 1780 was
introduced earlier as a bipartisan bill with Representatives
Matsui (D-CA) and LaTourette (R-OH). This federal
legislation complements the almost-250 policies at the state
and local levels. Thanks to everyone who has supported
complete streets policies! Please visit the National
Complete Streets website (www.completestreets.org) to
contact your Congress member to ask for their support of at
the federal level.
Safe Routes to School Update
The Senate Safe Routes to School bill, S. 800, is now up to
16 Senators supporting. Recent additions include Senators
Casey (PA), Murray (WA), Whitehouse (RI), and Stabenow (MI).
We have an ongoing action alert to ask people to contact
their Senators in support of the legislation. It can be
accessed at http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/7093/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=6372.
We are currently targeting in particular Sens. Lautenberg
(NJ) and Gillibrand (NY). If they sign on, all Democrats on
the Environment and Public Works Committee (except the
leadership) will be officially supporting Safe Routes to
School. We hope this will help Sen. Boxer negotiate to
sustain Safe Routes to School. In collaboration with a
number of other national groups, we also recently completed
a sign-on letter for California-based groups to Senator
Boxer asking her to protect dedicated funding for TE, SRTS
and Rec Trails. The letter ended up with nearly 90 groups
signed on, and it was delivered on June 6. In the House, we
are preparing for the likelihood that Rep. Mica’s bill will
eliminate Safe Routes to School, and are working on
strategies to save the program in the House. Should this
occur, it is even more important that the Senate draft
protect Safe Routes to School.
Dangerous by Design
The report, “Dangerous by Design 2011: Solving the
Epidemic of Preventable Pedestrian Deaths,” is a joint
effort of the Surface Transportation Policy Partnership and
Transportation for America. Among the findings is that more
than 47,700 pedestrians were killed in the U.S. between 2000
and 2009. A full two-thirds of all pedestrian fatalities in
the last 10 years occurred on federal-aid
roadways-reinforcing the federal role in bicycle and
pedestrian infrastructure.
Dangerous by Design also ranks America’s major
metropolitan areas using a Pedestrian Danger Index that uses
10 years of data to assess how safe pedestrians are while
walking. The report presents data on pedestrian fatalities
and injuries in every U.S. county. And for the first time,
this year’s report includes an online, interactive map
showing the locations where pedestrian fatalities have
occurred. The report, and state specific fact sheets can be
downloaded at
http://t4america.org/resources/dangerousbydesign2011/
Other Resources:
“Transportation Governance and Finance -- a 50-state Review
of State Legislatures and Departments of Transportation”
http://www.transportation-finance.org/pdf/50_State_Review_State_Legislatures_Departments_Transportation.pdf
This project of AASHTO and National Council of State
Legislatures focuses on transportation finance and on the
roles of, and relationships between, those state government
entities that are most active in transportation issues:
state legislatures and, under the authority of governors,
state departments of transportation (DOTs). Includes a state
by state chart of how they make transportation policy, how
they fund it, and how DOTs and legislatures interact.
February 2, 2011;
Senate Bill 154, which would
prohibit the use of held-held cell phones by all drivers
while passing through school zones or highway
construction zones, received a "Do Pass" from the Senate
transportation committee, and was approved by the full
Senate this afternoon (2/2) on an 18-12 vote. It's on
the way to the House of Representatives for their review
and approval. The going over there may be a little
rockier... Representative Fred Allen's companion bill
was initially defeated on Monday when committee members
became concerned that it might affect parents and
guardians who were waiting outside the schools during
drop-off and pick-up times, but the committee brought
the bill back up the following day and narrowly approved
it. It looks like the House will have the opportunity
to review SB 154 first. 154 is a stronger bill in that
it includes highway work zones as well as school zones,
making it a stronger sell to your typical legislator.
Senate Bill 136, which would allow drivers whose
license has been suspended for a previous DWI/DUI
conviction to continue to drive their kids to school,
was scheduled for consideration today by the Senate
committee on Judiciary. No word yet on how it fared, or
if it even came up for discussion.
House Bill 1229, which would negate the 25 mph
speed limit in school zones if children aren't
immediately present in or adjacent to the roadway, is
scheduled for review by the House Education Committee
tomorrow morning.
==============================================
BACA Legislative Update
#4 -- January 31, 2011
Senate Bill 154 failed in the
House of Representatives this
afternoon; the bill would have
barred drivers from using
hand-held cell phones in school
zones during school hours. The
House voted 46-47 to defeat the
bill after several
representatives raised concerns
about whether the bill would
affect parents waiting to pick
up children. Rep.
Fred Allen, who proposed the
bill, says he hopes to gain
enough votes to bring the bill
back.
The original bill, filed
in the Senate by Sen. Jerry
Taylor, D-Pine
Bluff, was given a "do pass"
by its committee shortly after
the House defeated Allen’s
proposal. The Senate is
the more deliberative of the two
legislative bodies and probably
considered that waiting parents
would be parked, rather than
driving.
SB 154 would prohibit the use
of hand-held cell phones in
school zones and highway work
zones. Senator Taylor said he’s
surprised Allen’s measure was
defeated by the House. Taylor’s
measure now heads to the full
Senate for a vote.
BACA Legislative Update # 3 -- January 26, 2011
================================================
In the Arkansas General Assembly:
Up before us today are a couple of bills filed yesterday to
"clarify" existing provisions of traffic law, neither of
which I'm certain would be a good idea:
1. Senate Bill 136 (SB 136,
http://www.arkleg.state.ar.us/assembly/2011/2011R/Bills/SB136.pdf),
filed by Senator Sue Madison (Dem., representing
Fayetteville & Senate District 7) would amend the law that
covers those drivers whose driving privileges have been
restricted as a result of a DUI/DWI conviction in order to
allow them to drive to and from their child's school for the
purpose of dropping them off or picking them up from school
or a school-sponsored function.
Maybe I'm a bit prejudiced against drunk drivers (sobered up
or not) having had a too-close encounter with one of them
about this time last year, but I wouldn't be comfortable
letting these folks drive around even someone else's kids.
Maybe we should approach the good Senator about the Safe
Routes to School program, and how we'd like to keep them
that way ;-) You can educate her about it by e-mailing
sue.madison@senate.ar.gov,
or by calling (479) 442-2997.
2. House Bill 1229 (HB 1229, (http://www.arkleg.state.ar.us/assembly/2011/2011R/Bills/HB1229.pdf
) was filed yesterday afternoon by Representative
Clark Hall, (Dem., from Marvell, Phillips County, and
District 13) would weaken the law which affects speed limits
in school zones. The current law restricts vehicle speed
on roads, streets, and highways adjacent to schools to 25
mph "when children are present and outside the building,"
e.g., this could apply during normal school hours and/or
when children are out on the playgrounds. Mr. Hall's
amendment would change that to apply only when children are
actually in or at a crosswalk at the school, in or on the
street or roadway itself, on on the shoulder or sidewalk
adjacent to a school, or when a crossing guard is posted at
a school crosswalk. And as before, all restrictions are off
if there's a (steel - not wooden, wrought
iron, or any lesser material) fence between the roadway and
the school grounds. This proposed amendment would result in
a considerably weaker law than what we currently have.
This is a bill that our folks who are serious about Safe
Routes to School ought to be concerned about. You can
contact Mr. Hall and give him your opinion by e-mailing him
at clark.hall@arkansashouse.org, or by calling (870)
829-3382.
And on a little brighter outlook:
3. Senate Bill 154 (SB 154,
http://www.arkleg.state.ar.us/assembly/2011/2011R/Bills/SB154.pdf
) was filed today by Senator Jerry Taylor (Dem., of Pine
Bluff & District 23); with Representative Fred Allen as
co-sponsor in the House. SB 154 would prohibit the use of a
hand-held cellular phone for any kind of wireless
communications by any driver of a motor vehicle (of any age)
when said driver is passing a school building or driving
through a school zone where children are present and outside
the school building. The same restriction would apply when
driving through a highway construction or work zone where
highway workers are present. Exemptions are made for law
enforcement officers, and for drivers in general when they
are calling 911 or law enforcement or emergency services.
Penalties would be as provided under existing sections of
A.C.A. Section 27-51-1600 and following paragraphs. You can
share your opinion with Senator Taylor by e-mailing
jerry.taylor@senate.ar.gov,
or by calling (870) 879-3233.
On the National level:
Many of us may have
watched the State of the Union address last night, where
transportation issues didn’t play a big part. Under the U.S.
Constitution, all appropriations bills must originate in the
House of Representatives (unlike the Arkansas legislature,
where an appropriation bill may be filed in either the House
or the Senate). At the
start of every new Congress, members of the House sit down
and look at their internal rules. This time they made
several changes that will affect 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 subcommittee of the House Transportation
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’s going to make things a little more difficult for
advocates. And, we will not have Congressman Jim Overstar
in our corner this time as the Committee chairman.
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, 2011. Congress will have to
determine new funding levels for transportation and, because
of the rule change, it will be the appropriations
subcommittee, 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 going to be a tough sell, because that would
put the federal Highway Trust Fund into deficit spending. As
you may have seen last night, both the President and 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. So, it’s very possible that programs which fund
biking and walking — Transportation Enhancements and Safe
Routes To School — could come under attack, and even be
zeroed out.
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.
(One of these new T&I members
is Representative Rick Crawford of the 1st
District of Arkansas. I happen to be a constituent out in
the 1st District, so I am working with the
Alliance for Biking & Walking staff to try and arrange a
meeting with Mr. Crawford to butter him up on our issues,
specifically support for Transportation Enhancements and the
Safe Routes to School program. This will likely be sometime
in the first week of February when Congress is having one of
their periodic “district work periods,” and I’ll keep you
updated as to when that might be. If you’re interested,
you’re welcome to come along with me; it’s even much better
should you also be a 1st District constituent.)
Congressman John Mica
(R-Florida), the new chair of T&I, will be holding listening
sessions in the districts of new committee members before he
writes the new transportation reauthorization bill. This is
a vital opportunity for us 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. Keep your eye out; we’ll let you know as soon as
we do.
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 on a continuation of SAFETEA-LU
will happen the week of February 28th.
The above
meetings are in addition to the advocacy meetings which will
be held in conjunction with the National Bike Summit in DC
on March 8-10. BACA will be sending two or three
representatives to the Bike Summit, both to get educated on
the current issues in bike and transportation advocacy, as
well as personally meeting with the Arkansas congressional
delegation to directly ask for their support for making
Arkansas & the rest of America a wonderful and comfortable
place to ride bikes. Registration for the Summit is still
open (see
http://www.bikeleague.org/conferences/summit11/index.php)
but the early registration period is closing fast (February
3, 2011) and the cost goes up a good bit after that time.
If you're interested in attending, check the League web site
quoted above, or give me an e-mail at
info@bacar.org.
