----- Original Message -----
From: "dan.cleveland@..." <dan@...>
To: <tosc-list@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, May 16, 2005 8:30 AM
Subject: [tosc-list] Amendment threatens bicycle and pedestrian funding
levels


This is from the Vermont Bicycle and Pedestrian Coalition.

"Folks, On Monday evening, a critical vote will occur in the Senate on
an amendment by Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) that effectively
threatens many of the key gains that have been made in the SAFETEA
legislation, setting some funding commitments back to ISTEA funding
levels.

This is real and its needs your full attention and immediate action.

Senator Sessions' amendment will cut funding for public transit by $5
billion, clean air improvements funded by the Congestion Mitigation
and Air Quality program by $4 billion, community building and
transportation options funded under the Transportation Enhancements
program (TOSC note: This has paid for many of our bicycle and trail
improvements in the Pikes Peak region.) by $1.1 billion, and smart
transportation strategies funded under the TCSP program by $100
million. These changes and some others total $10.7 billion.

Here is what the amendment does. First, $5 billion is cut from the
guaranteed spending for transit research and the transit formula grant
program. (The formula program distributes funds annually to every
transit provider in the nation - more than 525 systems throughout the
U.S. - for a range of eligible activities. For systems under 200,000,
they are permitted to use a share of their formula funds for operating
costs.) It reduces the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality
Improvement program funding by $4 billion, returning CMAQ funding to
what was > authorized under ISTEA (FYs'92-97) at a time when new air
quality standard for ozone (8-hour) and particulate matter (PM2.5)
will apply to more local areas. This greatly diminishes the existing
commitment to local areas to fund mandated costs of local air quality
compliance.

On Transportation Enhancements program, $1.1 billion will be cut from
this crucial community-building program which is widely acknowledged
as the most popular of the ISTEA/TEA-21 programs. This reduction will
turn the program's funding level back to early TEA-21 funding levels.

Finally, the funding level for the TCSP program would be cut almost in
half for this very modest and vastly over-scribed program which has
been a test bed for many local innovations and has underpinned new
directions in local and regional transportation investment. Keep in
mind that the overall funding in SAFETEA is growing by more than by 40
percent.

This amendment is really about telling Senators they can get $295
billion highway funding levels (minus CMAQ and Enhancements and
transit cuts) at the $284 billion price tag requested by the
President. This is a test drive on one theory on how to cut a deal in
conference that leaves key priorities short, while helping highway
spending. This is a massive hit on transit. Not only does its hit the
transit formula program directly, it goes after programs in the
highway account - CMAQ and TE - that have been most beneficial to
transit investment and in funding facilities to support transit use.

Here are the steps you need to take immediately to help defeat the
Sessions amendment by a decisive margin - . Call your Senators/Senate
Offices in the District office and in Washington (to reach the DC
offices, call 202-224-3121 and ask for your Senator); . Share this
information with others in your area and encourage them to make
contact with your Senators by Monday afternoon; . If you can write a
letter or email to a staffer, please do so; and . National
organizations should write to EPW and Banking Committee Leaders
expressing opposition to the amendment, copying each Senate > office,
if possible. This will be the last push on the legislation before it
clears the Senate on Tuesday!"





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