[Blindtlk] H.R. 7 heads to the House floor

Fri Feb 10 02:22:22 UTC 2012

More info on HR3864

As we mentioned last week, Congress is moving forward with their next transportation reauthorization bills. THANK YOU to everyone who contacted their Representative, urging them to vote against the elimination of dedicated funding for public transit. Here's what is going on in the House and Senate:

U.S. House

Unfortunately House leadership and the Ways and Means Committee failed to listen to thousands of constituents who contacted them and over 600 groups who stood together to oppose eliminating dedicated transit funding. It passed through the committee and will now be combined with the House's Transportation and Infrastructure bill (The American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act [H.R. 7]) and head to the House floor for a vote.

H.R. 7 represents one of the most dramatic and retrograde transportation policy shifts in decades, designed to benefit highways and auto transportation, and nothing more. Here are just a few things the bill does:

*	Eliminates dedicated funding for public transportation. 
*	Slashes Amtrak funding by 25%. 
*	Prevents any federal funding from going toward the California High Speed Rail project, specifically. 
*	Bars any funds from bus and bus facilities grants from going to any transit system that also operated any kind of rail line. This includes the Chicago Transit Authority, and transit agencies in New York, San Francisco and other cities. 
*	Eliminates funding for programs such as Safe Routes to School, sidewalks, or cycling infrastructure, making streets more dangerous and roads less safe for children and others on foot or bike. 
*	Expands domestic energy production to fund any gaps in highway spending. It will do little for decreasing the American reliance on foreign oil.

Read this article for a more detailed summary:  <http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=WIq1AOdGMmVccGAhipBpag0cnniFu46A> http://www.thetransportpolitic.com/2012/02/06/time-to-fight/

U.S. Senate

What did not receive much attention last week was the Senate's transportation bill, which will also soon head to the Senate floor for a vote. 

Thankfully, the Senate has a very different idea of what future transportation policy in the United States should look like. The Senate is moving forward with a bill called Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century, or MAP 21 <http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=RlUOquBKdckgpBaxGKmtTg0cnniFu46A> . It's a bipartisan effort at a two year transportation reauthorization that preserves dedicated funding for transit, presents a consolidation of restructured programs and formulas, and reforms and simplifies grants offered by the Department of Transportation so that criteria are based more strongly on merit.

Next Steps

We need your help NOW more than ever! Please continue to stand with us and make your voice heard. MHSRA, our members, and many other advocates have been working for the past three years for a forward-thinking, 21st century transportation bill. The bill currently going through the House is not that. Here are two things you can do to help us THIS WEEK:

[1.] Participate in a Call-In day on Thursday, February 9th. In an effort coordinated by Transportation for America, constituents across the United States will be calling their representatives to protest H.R. 7 and urge them to vote against it as a radical departure from decades of precedent that would destroy the bipartisan public transportation program this country has spent 30 years building. On Thursday, give your Representative's office a call! We'll send another reminder on Thursday. 

[2.] Email your Representative and ask them to oppose H.R. 7. 

 <http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=%2FDKjYiqzQGqSGJMWLvFQ4w0cnniFu46A> Description: Image removed by sender.

Thanks for your support!

Madeline Grennan
Manager of Education and Outreach
Midwest High Speed Rail Association

4765 N. Lincoln Ave.

Chicago, IL 60625

773-334-6758

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