Deja Vu: House Aims to Eliminate Local Funds for Safe Routes
Act Now to Save Safe Routes to School, Bicycling and Walking Funds
It’s come down to a fight for local control. Negotiations on the federal transportation bill are at a critical point and twenty years of gains on bicycling, walking and Safe Routes to School are at risk.
After several weeks of reports that Congressional conferees on the transportation bill were making progress, last week saw a flurry of news stories in the Capitol Hill trade press that negotiations are on the rocks. House Republicans from the Transpor
Both the House and Senate have decided to get down to business on a transportation bill.
On April 18, we saw another unusual vote in Congress on the transportation bill. While current transportation spending is already extended until June 30, the House has just passed another extension (H.R. 4348) until September 30 on a vote of 293-127.
March has been quite a month for Congressional action on the transportation bill. Unfortunately, it is looking like the momentum will have a tough time carrying over into April.
Since the release of the Senate transportation bill back in November, we have faced the specter of a transportation bill in which state departments of transportation would make the sole decisions about whether to dedicate any funding to Safe Routes to School, bicycling and walking.
With Congress in recess this week, we have a short breather. So I’m taking this opportunity to bring you up to speed on where things stand on the transportation bill. The past three weeks have been action-packed—and there’s more to come next week and beyond.
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