On Friday, the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee introduced the INVEST in America Act, their version of the surface transportation bill. It looks great for bicycling and walking. Similar to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee (EPW) bill released last week, it includes programs and policies that promote bicycling and walking through significantly increased funding for active transportation infrastructure.
Update May 27, 2021: The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee passed their Surface Transportation Reauthorization Act of 2021 on a unanimous 20-0 vote. Congratulations to the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy for winning an amendment that adds $200 million per year over 5 years for their new Connecting America's Active Transportation (CAAT) grant program. The program would provide larger grants to local communities to help them built interconnected biking, walking and rolling networks.
For national news followers, it’s hard to open the paper (err - scroll Twitter) and not be bombarded with headlines about President Biden’s plans for infrastructure stimulus and the re-emergence of earmarks after a decade-long moratorium. We are paying close attention to these developments, however, our organization’s federal advocacy efforts remain focused on the reauthorization of a surface transportation bill.
Designated Projects, AKA Earmarks
The first quarter of fiscal year 2021 has come to a close, which means we have updated our quarterly State of the States TAP implementation tracking spreadsheet.
The start of the 117th Congress has been eventful to say the least. Between the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6th, the Democrats re-gaining control of the Senate with the election of Senators Ossoff and Warnock in the Georgia runoff, former President Trump’s second impeachment, and the inauguration of President Biden, it can be hard to keep track of the flurry of new bills being introduced by members of Congress.
It’s a new year, and it ushers in a host of new beginnings: the 117th Congress, the Biden Administration, and hopefully an end in sight to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. As people all around the world make New Year’s resolutions to improve themselves, we would like to share what we have resolved to work toward on the federal policy front this year.
Now that Election week is over, and Joe Biden has been declared the next President, we wanted to take a few minutes to look forward to 2021.
Last week, Congress passed a short-term extension to funding for all federal agencies, giving them until December 11, 2020 to reach a deal on funding for the rest of 2021. As part of that bill, Congress also included a one-year extension of current transportation law and funding (the FAST Act), through September 2021.
Unfortunately, the gains for active transportation and safety for people biking and walking that we won in the Senate America’s Transportation Infrastructure Act of 2019 and the House INVEST Act are at risk. The Senate has not moved its bill the rest of the way through the Senate, and it still lacks the transit, safety and funding titles.
Since our last federal policy blog two weeks ago covering Committee action, the House transportation bill, the INVEST Act, has expanded and moved forward. As a reminder, the INVEST Act includes an estimated $7 billion over four years for active transportation projects and improving safety for people biking, walking, and rolling, plus many strong policy changes. Given this, 32 national organizations joined with the League of American Bicyclists, American Heart Associat