As the House prepares to take up its transportation bill next week, criticism is pouring in from a diverse range of individuals, groups, and elected officials; also drawing a rare veto threat from the Obama administration. As an editorial in New York’s “Newsday” last week summed it up: “Bad on transit, bad on safety, bad on the environment.” Here are 10 of the top issues with the House transportation bill drawing complaints from this diverse and growing chorus of opposition.

The Senate’s transportation bill, MAP-21, goes farther than any recent transportation measure to devolve responsibility and funds down to the state level. An amendment to be debated this week would push that devolution even further – down to the local level — for a small pot of money that could make a big difference.

A House committee majority went ahead with their plan to punish everyone who rides public transportation, as well as jeopardizing thousands of jobs in the public transit, construction and manufacturing industries — ignoring broad, bipartisan opposition ffrom governors, state transportation officials, health professionals, business organizations, and others. We desperately need a new federal transportation bill, but this proposal being advanced by the House is not it. Leaders in the House need to come up with a better bill. Help us defeat this bill by telling your representative to vote “NO” on HR 7.

“It is with deep disappointment that we find ourselves compelled to oppose the transportation bill advanced by House leadership. While we commend Chairman Mica (R-FL) for doing what he can to move a long-term transportation bill forward, the full legislation now heading to the floor of the House has significant fatal flaws. For more than three years, our coalition has worked hard for an updated federal transportation program that meets our needs in the 21st century…We still remain urgently committed to that goal.”

Hours after receiving over 5,000 letters and phone calls and a letter signed by more than 600 groups from an unbelievably broad spectrum, the House Ways and Means Committee ignored that broad, bipartisan opposition and went full speed ahead with their unprecedented plan to kill dedicated transit funding — ending the historic guarantee for dedicated funding for public transportation, leaving millions of riders already faced with service cuts and fare increases out in the cold.

This morning we sent this strong letter (below) to Capitol Hill in strong opposition to the House leadership plan to end a 30-year precedent of providing dedicated funding for public transportation from the federal fuel tax, kicking transit funding out of a trust fund and subjecting it to complete uncertainty year after year. In less than 12 hours, we gathered signatures from more than 600 groups, notable individuals and elected officials, including state DOTs, the US Chamber of Commerce, several Governors and hundreds of others.

A key House Committee is threatening to kill three decades of successful investments in mass transit by ending the guarantee for dedicated funding for public transportation, leaving millions of riders already faced with service cuts and fare increases out in the cold. They proposed putting every public transportation system in immediate peril by eliminating guaranteed funding for the Mass Transit Account and forcing transit to go begging before Congress for general funds each year — all while highway spending continues to be guaranteed with protected funds for half a decade at a time.

Reversing policy begun under President Ronald Reagan, House Ways and Means Committee – at the direction of House leadership — could move Friday to end guaranteed funding for public transportation, and leave even today’s inadequate funding levels in doubt. “We are deeply concerned that if this measure passes, Americans who use public transportation, or who would like that option in the future, will be thrown under the bus,” said James Corless, director of Transportation for America. “This couldn’t come at a worse time for people who need an affordable, reliable way to get to work, or for employers who need workers.”

A new academic study looking at the numbers of pedestrians killed while wearing headphones has been highly successful at winning credulous news coverage and shifting blame to the victims, but by focusing on a tiny sliver of fatalities it does more to obscure the true causes than explain what is happening. It examines a share of pedestrian fatalities so small as to be almost statistically insignificant when compared to the problem of pedestrian deaths writ large.

The Senate Commerce Committee passed a package of bills to create and implement goals and objectives for the overall transportation bill, update our federal freight transportation policy, and an amendment to help ensure that federal dollars help build streets that are safe for all users. These bills (including others not mentioned) represent the majority of this committee’s contribution to the overall Senate transportation bill.