Transportation bill being finalized, window closing quickly! Call your rep and senator

May 23, 2012
By Stephen Lee Davis

Today’s the day. We’re joining with dozens of other groups and thousands of individuals for a day of calls to Congress on the transportation bill as a select group of senators and representatives are reconciling the House and Senate bills in a select committee.

It’s all in their hands — whether or not the bill prioritizes repair of our roads and bridges, preserves local communities’ access to funds that can make walking and biking safer, or helps struggling transit agencies keep buses and trains rolling along — and we need your help to impact the transportation bill’s final outcome as the clock ticks down to a final product.

Can you take a moment to call your Senators and representative and let them know that the conference committee must preserve the strong, bipartisan provisions contained in the Senate’s transportation bill MAP-21?

Simply click here for a one-stop page to look up your legislator, get the script and report your call — or you can simply call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and use this script below. Leave your message with the person who answers the phone

Hi, my name is [NAME] and I live in [PLACE]. I’m calling to ask Representative/Senator [NAME] to support several important provisions from the Senate’s bipartisan transportation bill during conference committee. The conference committee on the transportation bill must do at least three things:

Preserve the Senate provisions that provide dedicated funding for repairing our roads and bridges — and hold states accountable for repairing them.

Protect my community’s access to funds in the Senate bill that make walking and biking safer by preserving the local grant program created by the Cardin-Cochran amendment,

Keep the flexibility for public transportation “operations” in the Senate bill that allows struggling transit agencies of all sizes to maintain service during a fiscal crisis.

Please support the provisions in the strong, bipartisan Senate transportation bill during the conference. Thank you for your time.

Hang up and then if you can, report your call to us. If you live in the 50 states, repeat to call your Representative and two Senators. And ask your friends to join you in making calls by sharing via email, Twitter and Facebook. Time is running out.