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. Call your Senators and representative and tell them that the conference committee must preserve the strong, bipartisan provisions contained in the Senate’s transportation bill.

Last month, the citizens of Baton Rouge, LA, voted to raise their taxes to preserve and expand their struggling bus system. To pass it, churches, faith-based groups and local organizers teamed up with businesses and institutions. As we’ve seen in similar local measures, they won by explaining exactly what taxpayer money would buy, building a diverse coalition and getting out the vote.

As Congress is finally close to passing a transportation bill more than 953 days after it first expired, many places have charged ahead with transportation funding and construction and are taking steps to make those needed investments today. But will they be enough without the strong federal partner we’ve had for the last 50 years leading the way? That remains to be seen, according to this compelling new report from the Urban Land Institute

As this map and graphic below amply demonstrates, the Senate’s transportation bill not only was developed with bipartisan input and adopted with votes from both parties, but it garnered support from every region of the country and from the reddest of “red” states, the bluest of blue, as well many others that trend purple. This is a noteworthy accomplishment in this Congress, and one that House leaders should take note of before dismissing HR 14 out of hand.

The initial House bill proposed eliminating all dedicated funding for public transportation, ending a bipartisan agreement that’s been in place since 1982. Though the current rumor is that the House will restore that funding after massive opposition from across the country, there are other provisions still in place that will cut funds from larger transit agencies, create unneeded bureaucracy, and also result in a fragmented system of moving freight.

One of many issues that need to be fixed in the House’s transportation bill is a plan to allow transportation money in a pollution-control fund to be used on new roadways for solo drivers. In 1991, Congress created a small program dedicated solely to helping communities deal with the negative side effects of over-reliance on major roads for rush-hour travel. A provision in the House’s transportation bill opens that fund to construction of regular highway lanes.

Just one day after a procedural vote failed, the Senate reached an agreement that will allow them to begin debating the MAP-21 transportation bill and start voting on amendments today (Thursday). A total of 30 amendments were agreed upon for debate and will be considered by the Senate. Learn more about the amendments and follow along with our handy amendment tracker.

Thanks in part to the drumbeat of tweets and messages and letters and phone calls from many of you, the Senate made some important changes last week to strengthen their two-year transportation bill. But with a March 31 deadline still looming for shutdown of all transportation programs without a new bill and a crucial vote scheduled for tomorrow (3/6) at noon, your Senators need to hear now that they must move this bill without delay.

After getting thousands of phone calls, letters and messages from constituents, mayors, city councilmembers, health and business groups and others spanning the spectrum, the Senate moved three key amendments into the overall Senate bill yesterday, including one that will give local communities more control over their transportation dollars. While there are other amendments that our coalition will continue to work on in the Senate, this is a huge victory and a terrific step forward for strengthening the MAP-21 bill.

Last week, we published our list of the ten biggest reasons that opposition to the House transportation bill, HR7, was continuing to grow. At almost the same time, House Speaker John Boehner announced through a spokesman that his team would “revamp” the bill, to make it shorter in duration, possibly smaller in funding size and to scrap the plan to end dedicated funding for public transportation. That latter move should take care of one of the bigger concerns with HR 7 as initially proposed and House leaders could address most of the other issues by incorporating some of these bipartisan solutions to fix or improve critical aspects of the bill.