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It’s happening again. Just one month ago, Sen.
Coburn (R-OK) failed in his efforts to strip
funding for Transportation Enhancements from the
six-month transportation extension.
Senator Rand Paul’s 80-year Bridge
Repair Plan
Now, Sen. Rand Paul
(R-KY) is taking the lead in trying to destroy
Transportation Enhancements. On November 1, the
Senate will finalize the transportation
appropriations bill, which sets funding levels
for
FY2012. Sen. Paul has offered an amendment to
redirect all funding for Transportation
Enhancements to bridge repair.
We agree on the need to keep our bridges safe,
but the lives of pedestrians and cyclists are
important too. Thirteen people died when the
Minneapolis bridge collapsed in 2007: since
then, close to 20,000 pedestrians and 2,800
cyclists have died on our nation’s highways,
largely as a result of poor highway design and a
lack of safe non-motorized infrastructure –
exactly what the enhancement program was created
to fix.
If Sen. Paul’s amendment is successful, it
would eliminate approximately $700 million in
federal funding for FY2012 that is used to
construct sidewalks, bike lanes, bike paths,
trails and other infrastructure that makes
it safe for bicyclists and pedestrians to get
around. Even if every penny of these funds is
diverted to bridge repairs, Senator
Paul’s plan will still take 80 years to fix the
backlog of bridge repairs we have today.
Remember that the TE program represents less
than two percent of the Federal transportation
program and these projects help alleviate
traffic congestion, improve safety, get people
active, and create more jobs per dollar than
highway-only projects.
Remember also that last year, states sent back
to Washington $530 million of unspent bridge
funds in rescissions – the states are leaving
bridge repair funds on the table, unspent, year
after year; they should at least spend these
funds first.
If the Paul amendment succeeds, it will make it
much more challenging to sustain funding for
Transportation Enhancements,
Safe Routes to School, and Recreational Trails
in the long-term transportation bill that the
Environment and Public Works Committee starts
debating just 8 days later on November
9.
We must turn back any amendment to
strip Transportation Enhancements.
Last month, more than 75,000 messages were sent
to Senators to ask them to stand strong for
Transportation Enhancements. That was an amazing
turnout, but we must do better this time. Every
time someone in Congress attacks bicycling and
walking, we must push back even stronger than we
did the time before. And, we will keep doing it
until bicycle and pedestrian funding is
protected.
This is the third time in a month that a small
group of Senators have targeted Transportation
Enhancements, using a different angle each
time. It is a waste of the Senate's time and
taxpayers dollars to focus on this small and
valuable program when we are in dire need of
real
and viable solutions to fix our failing
transportation system.
Please contact your Senators today to
ask them to vote against the Paul amendment
(SA-821) to eliminate
Transportation Enhancements. And
then please forward this message to at least
five others who care about the safety of
people walking and bicycling on our streets.
Thank you for your help today, and for passing
the call to action along.
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