We at the Safe Routes Partnership hope 2022 is off to a happy, healthy start for you and your communities. We celebrated the passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) late in 2021, and now we are here to help you take advantage of the positive policy changes and new money included in the law.
Now that the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 (IIJA) has been signed into law, we are seeing a flurry of excitement about what it means for Safe Routes to School, walking, and bicycling. And we are also seeing uncertainty about what the law requires and what it offers related to Safe Routes to School. In particular, the section that restored the Safe Routes to School program is leading to confusion for advocates and agencies alike. We are here to help you make sense of it what it means, why it happened like this, and what to do about it.
On November 5, 2021, the House passed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021. The Senate passed the bill in August, which means it now advances to President Biden to sign into law. Colloquially referred to as “the infrastructure bill”, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 is a monumental investment in the safety and support of people walking and bicycling.
While Democrats continue to iron out negotiations on Build Back Better, the partisan human-infrastructure bill, Congress passed another short-term extension for surface transportation on October 28th. This extension runs through December 3, 2021. As a reminder, these short-term extensions keep funding levels and policy unchanged.