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T4America thanks Senators Cory Booker and Roger Wicker for their proposal to give local communities greater access to transportation funds

Earlier today, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee approved a bill to reauthorize the nation’s surface transportation bill. During debate over that bill, Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) and Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) discussed an amendment to create an in-state competitive grant program to give local leaders greater access to federal transportation funds. That access is greatly restricted under the federal transportation bill, known as Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21^st Century (MAP-21), with local communities controlling less than 15 percent of all funding.

“On behalf of Transportation for America, its members and affiliates and local elected and business leaders, I want to thank Sen. Wicker and Sen. Booker for their leadership today in fighting for the transportation priorities of cities and towns across the country,” said James Corless, director of Transportation for America.

“We know that local leaders are more than willing to compete and be held accountable for results, but they need access to resources to meet their communities’ needs. Sen. Wicker and Sen. Booker’s proposal would take a major step toward restoring funding for local needs to ensure that those closest to the heart-beat of a community will be making decisions on how transportation dollars should be spent, while promoting innovation and efficiency.”

Senate committee passes six-year transportation bill this morning

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee (EPW) passed their portion of the transportation reauthorization bill out of committee this morning after a short one-hour session. The amended six-year $243 billion bill does little to improve on the draft version released earlier this week, but several key amendments could strengthen the bill as it moves to the floor of the Senate.

Updated: 5/28 with full summary below. -Ed. The bill that was approved by the committee today is mostly unchanged from what was released earlier this week, with a few exceptions detailed below. There were a handful of amendments agreed upon in advance that were accepted as a group with no discussion.

As we pointed out in our statement Tuesday, the EPW bill takes positive steps to repair and replace federal-aid bridges not on the National Highway System, extend innovative financing to support local economic development along transit lines and increase the share of the Transportation Alternatives Program under local control, among a few other highlights. But this bill as passed today still has room to grow in providing communities access to resources they need to support our economy and improve opportunities for Americans to prosper.

The most prominent change was offered by Sen. Inhofe (R-OK) which cuts 25 percent ($250 million) from the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) program in order to fund the federal research program that was booted out of the Highway Trust Fund (HTF) in the bill introduced by the EPW Committee and subject it to the annual appropriations process.

After the bill and amendments were approved by a quick voice vote early this morning, members of the committee stayed to offer remarks and discuss possible amendments that deserve debate and will hopefully be included in the bill in the days and weeks to come as it moves through the Senate process.

One proposed bipartisan amendment discussed by Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS) and Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) would give local communities across the country greater access to federal transportation funds for innovative projects via a new in-state competitive grant program. (Note: This would be the Senate companion of the bill announced in an event yesterday by House Reps. Davis and Titus.)

An amendment from Senator Whitehouse (D-RI) would improve local and regional access to the Projects of National and Regional Significance by lowering the minimum total project cost (currently $350 million) so that the program focuses on project outcomes rather than unnecessarily driving up the cost of projects.

An amendment from Senators Gillibrand (D-NY) and Merkley (D-OR) would make local governments eligible for the new American Transportation Awards program, which is an $125 million annual general appropriations discretionary grant program that focuses on advancing innovative solutions to achieving our national transportation goals. (Currently only states, MPOs and tribes are eligible.)

Today was just step one, as jurisdiction over transportation in the Senate is split between four committees. EPW, Commerce, Banking and Finance — which is responsible for the biggest question mark of all: how to fund a bill that needs billions in new revenues merely to stay at current funding levels.

Read our full summary. (PDF)

T4America statement in reaction to the Senate bill to reauthorize the federal transportation program

WASHINGTON, D.C. – James Corless, director of Transportation for America, issued this statement in response to the release of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee bill to reauthorize the federal transportation program:

“First, I want to thank Senator Boxer (D-CA) and Senator Vitter (R-LA) for recognizing that our communities desperately need the stable, dependable funding that a multi-year bill would provide.

The draft bill takes several important steps to address gaps or to build on some policies introduced in MAP-21. Specifically, we are pleased that it would provide aid to repair and replace locally owned bridges under the National Highway Performance Program, which were excluded in MAP-21. It also allows financing to support communities in creating economic development along transit lines. And it would increase the share of the small, but popular, Transportation Alternatives Program that is under local control, while creating a modest program to recognize innovative practices.

However, our alliance of local elected, business and civic leaders believes the proposed legislation stops well short of providing communities the access to resources they need to support economic success. Rather than make improvements on the margins, the federal program needs to recognize the importance of our cities, towns and suburbs and move control and accountability closer to the people who pay into the system. Allowing communities to compete for a larger share of the funding would incentivize innovation and reward smart decision-making and efficiency.

We recognize this legislation is a work in progress and that the Committee has taken steps to recognize some of the issues we have laid out. The draft bill should serve as a solid platform for further advancement as it progresses through the legislative process. Again, we appreciate the efforts of Senator Boxer and Senator Vitter to advance a long-term and stable transportation bill that builds on MAP-21, and we are committed to working with them toward that goal.”

Cuts restored, progress possible in critical budget deal

Maine’s application for a TIGER grant to replace the aging Penobscot River bridge has a benefit-cost ratio of 8.7

Updated 1/17/2014 at bottom. Positive news from Congress today! Yes, you heard right. Just months after budget sequestration and a government shutdown put transportation funding at risk, House leaders have agreed to a budget deal that would provide stable or increased funding for key programs that you’ve helped us defend over the last few years.

House leaders deserve recognition for this positive step for transportation funding. And they need to know that they’re on the right track.

It’s not over yet, but this is an important victory for T4America and all of you who think smart investments in transportation are key to economic prosperity.

The House and Senate reached a tentative agreement back in December and this new “omnibus” comprehensive budget bill to keep government functioning was drafted along that outline by House and Senate appropriators.

Most encouraging is that it wasn’t that long ago when serious proposals were floated in Congress for across-the-board transportation cuts of one-third, significant cuts to funding for Amtrak and new transit construction, as well as zeroing out the innovative TIGER grant program.

This budget deal includes $600 million for another round of grants for the TIGER program — a level not seen since 2010 — as well as an increase in the New Starts program that communities need to meet the demand for transit service. Amtrak also received what they need to continue operating their booming services while investing for the future.

Get Involved

Tell your House representative that you welcome this deal, thank them for their work to make it happen, and urge them to pass the measure when it comes to the floor.

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That means that commuters throughout the nation can breathe a sigh of relief that their transit route is less likely to be cut, rail cars and buses could be upgraded, and essential new service can begin the process of being added. With cuts to highway programs reversed, they also can know that their bridges and roads are more likely to be repaired and replaced. Riders who depend on Amtrak can breathe easy knowing that most service cuts are likely history.

So what’s next? A vote in the House perhaps as early as tomorrow (Wednesday) and then a subsequent vote in the Senate by this weekend.

After this important deal is approved, we hope Congress will turn its attention toward preventing the oncoming insolvency of our key transportation trust fund. For inspiration, they can look to our alliance’s proposal to raise enough revenues not only to avoid calamity, but to provide our communities the resources and latitude they need to reach their economic potential.

Our nation’s economy is only as strong as our local economies, and those depend on a reliable, safe, well-maintained transportation network.

Updated 1/17/2014 With a 359-67 vote in the House and a 72-26 vote in the Senate, the full $1.1 trillion budget for FY 2014 was approved by Congress and sent to the President for his signature. Here’s our statement on the final vote.

Amendments offered to improve the already solid Senate yearly transportation funding bill

Already standing in sharp contrast to the House’s approach to funding transportation for the next fiscal year, leaders in the Senate are working to further improve the smart Senate transportation funding bill through a handful of amendments to the bill as it reaches the floor.

With the approval by the full Senate Appropriations committee, the Senate’s yearly transportation (and housing) funding bill is now being considered on the full Senate floor.

Which means amendments…lots of amendments.

Senator Schumer (along with Sens. Gillibrand, Menendez, and Cardin) proposed an amendment (No. 1763) that would allow rail and transit bridges to also be eligible for the $500 million in the Bridges in Critical Corridors program. Our most critical corridors aren’t always just highways, and this allows states and local communities to apply for flexible funding that can meet their greatest local need, whether that a bridge carries trains or cars.

There was another predictable attempt by Senator Rand Paul to take away the tiny slices of money that local mayors and communities often use to invest in popular trails and protected bikeways like Indianapolis’ downtown Cultural Trail or Washington, D.C.’s Capital Crescent trail that commuters depend on daily and spend those relative pennies on bridge repair. (Streetsblog covered this troubling amendment yesterday.)

We should do a better job of repairing our aging bridges. As noted before, the Senate bill contains a new $500 million grant program to do exactly that. But which bridges? Senator Rob Portman from Ohio succeeded in having an amendment included that would ensure that the money can only to to repair bridges that are structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. That’s a done deal.

Lastly on bridges, Senator Cardin and Senator Gillibrand also proposed an amendment (No. 1760) requiring FHWA to report on highway and bridge conditions in each state as well as the amount of funding states are spending on highway and bridge repair — something that states once had to do before MAP-21 eliminated the dedicated bridge repair program. This would restore a requirement for states to closely track the conditions of their bridges and most importantly, how much they spend to repair these bridges compared to spending on new construction, helping taxpayers and citizens hold state leaders accountable for making progress.

There are some other amendments detailed below, which we’ll report on in the coming days.

It’s not too late to write or call your Senator and urge them to pass the Senate transportation funding bill when it comes before the full Senate. There were crucial swing votes on the committee that will be imperative to preserve when the full vote happens.

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Other notable amendments we’re tracking:

Flake 1764 (and Flake 1796) – Prohibits use of funds to subsidize cost of food service and first class service on Amtrak
Flake 1765 (and Flake 1772) – Requires Amtrak to submit a report on losses in food service and first class service by route and line
Flake 1766 – Eliminates the $15M in funding provided for the public transit emergency relief program
Flake 1767 (w/ McCain) – Requires Secretary of Transportation to submit a report on programs carried out under chapter 2 of title 23 – which includes the Federal lands program and Transportation Alternatives
Inhofe 1771 – Requires that at lease 20% of the funding in the “Bridges in Critical Corridors” program be used in rural areas
Vitter 1775 – Requires the Secretary of Transportation to establish and publish selection criteria for TIGER including any required documentation. It also requires notification of awards within 3 days
Vitter 1776 – Allows any project awarded funds under the “Bridges in Critical Corridors” program to proceed with a categorical exclusion from NEPA requirements
Murphy 1783 (w/ Rockefeller and Blumenthal) – Requires that in any postings for Buy America waiver USDOT ‘assess the impact on domestic employment’ of the proposed waiver
Coons 1788 – Increases funding for Amtrak from 1.452 billion to $1.565 billion
Cochran 1794 (w/ Wicker) – Creates weight exemption for trucks on portions of Route 78 designated as an interstate after the effective date of the bill (this provision is similar to Wisconsin bill truck weight bill recently approved by the House)

As the House aims to slash, tell the Senate to protect money for rail, transit & TIGER in next week’s budget vote

The two chambers of Congress at the moment are looking at very different paths for funding transportation.

The House path — though stopping short of cutting all funding by a third as proposed in the past — slashes passenger rail funding by $400 million, eliminates money for the innovative TIGER grants, and reduces the funding communities depend on for new transit projects.

Meanwhile, a Senate committee has drafted a budget that increases funding for new transit construction, keeps and expands TIGER, provides support for Amtrak and passenger rail improvements, and funds a new grant program to jumpstart progress on repairing critical bridges.

Can you take a moment to write your two Senators and tell them to support this smart budget in the Senate? It’s likely to come up for a vote next week.

The House transportation budget is unabashedly bad, and the only way to counter it is with a strong Senate alternative.

The Senate proposal embraces the reality that communities everywhere are looking for smart ways to keep people and goods moving, promote prosperity and keep their infrastructure in good shape. The House would thwart them on every front.

The Senate budget acknowledges that Amtrak ridership is breaking records and that Americans deserve a convenient rail option. It acts to do something about the fact that we take 260 million trips each day over deficient bridges that urgently need repairs.

So let’s make sure that the Senate hears this message loud and clear: Face up to reality and pass a transportation budget that funds solutions to our problems, whether it’s fixing bridges or providing more viable ways to get around.

Take action today and tell your Senators to vote for this budget.

Key Senate committee recognizes the importance of passenger rail, TIGER, transit and repairing our nation’s bridges

Less than a week after the release of The Fix We’re In For — our report on the nation’s bridges showing that one in nine US bridges are structurally deficient — a key Senate committee passed a yearly funding bill that provides new money for repairing these deficient bridges across the country.

The Senate’s Transportation, Housing and Urban Development appropriations bill reported out of the Appropriations Committee this week specifically provides more money to invest in repairing bridges on key corridors.

The $500 million in the bill dedicated specifically to bridge repair is a step in the right direction toward prioritizing the repair of our more than 66,000 structurally deficient bridges.

Transportation for America commends Senator Patty Murray, Senator Susan Collins and the rest of the committee for recognizing the importance of investing in all of our bridges — not just a small segment of them. That’s a key difference between this $500 million and the policy created in last summer’s transportation bill (MAP-21.)

As we pointed out in last week’s report, 90 percent of the country’s structurally deficient bridges were left behind by MAP-21, which made tens of thousands of deficient bridges ineligible for receiving repair dollars from the largest highway program.

For the $500 million for bridge repair in this appropriations bill, almost all highway bridges are eligible to receive dollars for repair, not just a small slice of our country’s bridges. The committee recognizes that the connections these other bridges make in our transportation network are often just as important as our biggest, busiest interstate bridges.

In addition, this money for bridge repair will be provided via a competitive grant program to ensure that it goes to the most vital needs on corridors that are crucial to moving goods and people, in urban and rural areas alike.

Yet new money for bridge repair is far from the only highlight in yesterday’s appropriations bill. There’s also $1.75 billion for rail programs, with $1.45 billion of that intended for Amtrak operations and capital investments – coming a year after Amtrak carried over 31 million passengers and grew their ridership more than 60 percent since 1998, according to the committee release, and another $100 million for passenger rail capital grants to improve service.

The competitive TIGER grant program also got another round of full funding to the tune of $550 million — grants for innovative transportation projects that often cross state lines and combine transit, freight, safety or other diverse uses, and are often hard to fund under older, rigid federal and state programs.

There is also almost $2 billion for investing in new or expanded public transportation across the country through the New Starts transit program.

This bill will head to the full Senate next, but there will be contentious negotiations ahead with the House, which has lower overall funding levels and drastically different ideas for some of these specific programs: No extra money for bridge repair, a significant cut for Amtrak, slightly less money for public transportation and zero dollars for the popular TIGER grant program.

Sandy relief bill will provide billions for repairing and improving transportation systems

The Sandy relief bill on the cusp of final passage will provide billions for cleanup and more than $12 billion for transportation — including an unprecedented step toward making transportation networks around the northeast and NYC more resilient in the face of climate change, more frequent and unpredictable storms, and rising sea levels.

The MTA A Train bridge to the Rockaways was heavily damaged during Hurricane Sandy. This photo shows early repair work underway as of November 3, 2012. Photo: MTA New York City Transit / Leonard Wiggins

It’s not completely a done deal yet — the House and Senate passed slightly different bills — but the $50.66 billion Sandy relief bill was passed by the House this week more than two weeks after the promised vote by Speaker Boehner to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (and others) at the end of 2012.

The Senate passed their version of the bill back in 2012. The bills are almost identical in their funding amounts, though there are some small programmatic differences in funding. Also, earlier this month, Congress approved and President Obama signed a measure providing $9.7 billion in additional funding for the federal flood insurance program, bringing the total expected Sandy spending up around $60 billion.

Part of the reason the House did not vote on this comprehensive package was due to pushback from House Republicans against approving such a large emergency spending package, and particularly because the package included funds for “future disaster mitigation,” i.e., acknowledging that climate change exists and is something worth preparing for. As a result, northeastern legislators from both parties were livid at the delay in approving disaster funding for their hard-hit region — actually a longer wait than for Katrina funding in 2005.

So what’s in the two bills for transportation?

The Senate package included over $12 billion for transportation. The bulk of that ($11 billion) is for the damaged transit systems that millions of daily commuters and riders depend on, to be distributed through the new Federal Transit Emergency Relief program (created by MAP-21). Close to $5.4 billion of this funding is directed to mitigation efforts to reduce the risk of damage from future disasters. As noted above, this unprecedented inclusion of mitigation funding represents a major shift in the federal dialogue about the real need to address and prepare for the impacts of climate change.

The Senate bill also included $336 million in mitigation relief to Amtrak and the Northeast Corridor for damages caused by the storm as well as advancing projects critical to improving resiliency in the case of future disasters. (According to our partners at the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, that money also helps NJ Transit, which operates commuter service on the same tracks.) There was also about $920 million to repair Sandy-related damage on our nation’s highways and bridges.

The House-passed package included relief for all of the above, but there are some important differences in the transportation funding distribution. Amtrak’s relief was cut by about 64% down to $118 million. Transit system relief is still close to $11 billion with close to $5.4 available for projects to alleviate future damage (there were some slight language changes and a small boost in funding). Highway disaster relief increased to a little over $2 billion.

Though there was opposition to the package from many House Republicans, the measure was pushed through with the support of the House Republicans from the region as well as House Democrats. Now, the Senate will likely take up and pass the House bill, or potentially attempt to amend it before final passage.

MTA New York City Transit preparations for Hurricane Sandy. Photo: MTA New York City Transit / Leonard Wiggins

Senate budget restores some sanity to transportation programs

Just a few weeks after Rep. Paul Ryan released his House budget that proposed cutting or eliminating many important transportation programs, the key Senate committee’s budget for transportation (and housing) for next year contains some good news. Thanks to all of you who sent emails last week to your Senators on the committee!

TIGER, one of the most important programs that communities depend on to fund innovative local transportation projects, was well funded after the House proposal totally eliminated it in their budget.

Whether repairing a pair of deficient bridges that connect two communities in Michigan, extending transit service into an underserved area in Orlando, improving a busy rail crossroads in Texas to move freight faster cross-country, or bringing different modes of transportation together under a brand new roof in Moline, Illinois, the competitive TIGER grant program has been a huge boon to more than 130 communities, funding many innovative projects that often have a hard time getting funding from the state DOT or federal formulas.

New Starts, the small, oversubscribed program that funds almost all new transit construction across the country, was funded at a little more than $2 billion after being also totally eliminated by the House. It’s a prudent move: transit usage is booming across the country while vehicle miles traveled peaked a few years ago and has been slowly declining ever since — especially among people under age 34.

And the small but very influential Partnership for Sustainable Communities was funded again after receiving no funding last year. This program brings together the federal environmental, housing and transportation agencies to make decisions in concert and make small grants to communities that want to engage in better planning to ensure that their communities become or remain great places to live.

This doesn’t mean that the fight is over for this year — this budget will still have to be reconciled with the House, which is no easy feat. And we’ll have a battle at that point once more. It’s been tougher and tougher in the last few years to pass actual budgets for these individual programs. This year will be no different, especially heading into an election this fall.

The full list of notable programs and their funding levels:

Highways: $39.1 billion.
Transit: The summary doesn’t explicitly give an amount but it’s fairly safe to assume that it’s $8.4 billion, in line with MAP-21 levels, just as the above funding for highways matches MAP-21.
TIGER: $500 million
New Starts: $2.05 billion. This is the core program that funds construction of new and expanded transit systems.
Amtrak: $1.45 billion
Passenger Rail Grants: $100 million
Partnership for Sustainable Communities: $50 million

Are you confused about the difference between the long-term transportation bill and these yearly budget battles? In short, it’s the difference between “authorizations” and “appropriations.” The multi-year transportation bill is an authorization, which means the policy is put on paper and the targeted overall funding amounts are determined. We are still working to see that multi-year bill passed with important policy reforms. But in the meantime as we roll along under extension after extension of the old law, it’s still up to appropriators in the House and Senate each year to decide how much money to actually spend on transportation —especially how to divvy up the discretionary money between different programs, like Amtrak, TIGER grants, or high-speed rail, just to name a few.

The House proposes painful cuts to transportation, but the Senate still has a chance to repair them now

Senate Appropriations Committee members list. Take action if you see your state listed.

Alabama – Richard Shelby
Alaska – Lisa Murkowski
Arkansas – Mark Pryor
California – Dianne Feinstein
Hawaii – Daniel Inouye
Illinois – Dick Durbin
Illinois – Mark Kirk
Indiana – Dan Coats
Iowa – Tom Harkin
Kansas – Jerry Moran
Kentucky – Mitch McConnell
Louisiana – Mary Landrieu
Maine – Susan Collins
Maryland – Barbara Mikulski
Mississippi – Thad Cochran
Missouri – Roy Blunt
Montana – Jon Tester
Nebraska – Ben Nelson
New Jersey – Frank Lautenberg
North Dakota – John Hoeven
Ohio – Sherrod Brown
Rhode Island – Jack Reed
South Carolina – Lindsey Graham
South Dakota – Tim Johnson
Tennessee – Lamar Alexander
Texas – Kay Bailey Hutchison
Vermont – Patrick Leahy
Washington – Patty Murray
Wisconsin – Herb Kohl
Wisconsin – Ron Johnson

Just a few weeks ago, Rep. Paul Ryan and the House released their budget for next year, and it proposed painful cuts to important transportation programs that our local communities depend on.

The TIGER grant program that rewards innovative local transportation projects, funding for new transit systems, passenger rail funding, and the office of sustainable communities that helps our towns and cities plan better for the future all were either slashed or eliminated.

Mr. Ryan and the House made it clear — making much needed transportation investments in our communities is not a priority to them.

But there’s a chance to make things better: Senate appropriators are writing their budget right now and they need to know that we’re counting on them to put together a better budget for transportation.

If you live in one of the states with a Senator on this powerful Appropriations Committee, can you take a minute to send them a short letter?

The small TIGER grant program has helped more than 130 communities build innovative transportation projects that are often ignored by the federal or state government — projects that improve freight rail, help give people more options to get around, fix broken bridges, or make walking or biking safer, just to name a few.

As we wait for the House to take action on the big multi-year transportation bill extended yet one more time until June, they still have to decide how much money to spend on transportation each year.

While it’s important to find ways to reduce spending, many of these important programs are being unfairly targeted by House members who are out of touch with what their constituents want and need from transportation: safe places to walk or bike, travel options that let us avoid pain at the pump, and bridges and roads that get repaired before we spend money on new things we can’t afford.

Yet the House is proposing to cut or eliminate the very programs that help do these things.

Help us defend them by writing your Senator today.

Full T4 America summary of Senate bill

While the House considers whether or not to approve some sort of short-term extension or the House version of the Senate MAP-21 transportation bill, we’ve finalized this detailed summary of what’s contained in the Senate bill. It details most everything we know about the provisions in MAP-21, what the funding levels would be, and what significant policy changes would result from this two-year bill. It’s quite detailed and probably intended for the more policy-inclined among you out there.

Senate MAP-21 Summary (pdf)

Senate MAP-21 transportation bill amendment tracker

UPDATED 3/14/12 2:00 p.m. The Senate has approved MAP-21 by a strong bipartisan vote of 74-22. All of the amendments below have been voted on, incorporated into the bill through a manager’s amendment, or withdrawn by their sponsors. Read our full statement on the Senate bill.

Last week the Senate struck a deal to begin debating the bipartisan MAP-21 transportation bill and vote on 30 amendments that leadership of both parties agreed to consider. We are tracking the votes on the amendments with these tables below, where you can also find summaries of each amendment. Note: If you bookmarked last Thursday’s post with the amendment table, no worries — the same tables are embedded in that post as here, so they’ll update in both places at the same time. We just wanted to push out a new, simpler post today.

The Senate does have a vote scheduled for the full bill after the amendments but due to how the Senate operates with time limits and votes, they may not have time to consider the full bill today. Check back throughout the day for updates, and follow us on Twitter for updates in real time.

Final transportation-related MAP-21 amendments

Senator and #	Description	Outcome or Notes
Cardin-Cochran 1549	Local Access and Control This provides local communities and metropolitan regions with access to the "Additional Activities" pot of funding through a competitive grant program — funding that they can use for main street revitalizations, boulevard conversions, new bike facilities, or safety improvements to make streets safer for everyone. Large metro areas will receive some funds directly. Read our explainer on the amendment here	Adopted into Senate manager's amendment package on 3/1/12. Amendment text (pdf)
Franken-Blunt 1543	Bridge Repair This would help provide adequate funding and flexibility to states to repair and rehabilitate the 180,000 federal-aid bridges that are not on the National Highway System (NHS). These bridges would become eligible for a 40% share of the main highway program funds (National Highway Performance Program) that aren't currently required for repairing the National Highway System.	Adopted into Senate manager's amendment package on 3/1/12. One-pager on federal-aid bridges (pdf) Amendment text (pdf)
Landrieu 1630	Protecting MPOs from State Penalties This ensures that metropolitan areas (MPOs) aren't left on the hook for financial penalties if states do not meet their state requirements for fixing roads and bridges or develop a state highway safety plan.	Adopted into Senate manager's amendment package on 3/1/12. Amendment text (pdf)
Blunt-Casey 1540	Repairing Non-Federal-aid Bridges This would require states to dedicate a specific percentage of their highway funds to repairing bridges that are not on the National Highway System and also not located on a Federal-aid highway.	The amendment passed by an unrecorded voice vote.
DeMint 1756	Turning federal program over to states This would transfer most responsibility for surface transportation to states and remove many regulatory requirements. The Federal government would continue to fund Interstate maintenance, transportation research, and safety. Finally, this amendment would end all dedicated funding for transit programs.	The amendment failed, by a count of 30-67.
Bingaman 1759	Privatized highways This would reduce the amount of Federal highway money states receive each year to account for roads that have been privatized, The majority of Federal highway dollars are sent to states based on the total number of lane miles, this ensures that states don't get federal money based on including lane-miles that they're not actually responsible for maintaining.	The amendment passed by a count of 50-47.
Coats 1517	State spending caps Under this amendment, states would get back only what they put into the Highway Trust Fund in a given fiscal year, defeating the ability of a federal program to shift revenues based on important regional or national purposes.	The amendment failed, by a count of 28-70.
Brown (OH) 1819	Buy America This would apply "Buy American" requirements to all highway and transit projects. This would ensure that a higher percentage of manufactured goods and commodities (e.g. steel, concrete, etc.) are produced within the United States.	The amendment passed by an unrecorded voice vote.
Merkley 1653	Farm vehicle exemptions This would exempt certain farm vehicles, including the individual operating that vehicle, from certain requirements, including commercial drivers' licenses, drug testing, and certifications	The amendment passed by an unrecorded voice vote.
Portman 1736	Gas tax flexibility States would keep their gas taxes and be able to essentially "opt-out" of the federal surface transportation program entirely. Transportation projects developed by states that "opt-out" would not be subject to any Federal highway, transit, and related environmental regulations.	The amendment failed, by a count of 30-68.
Klobuchar 1617	Ag transportation This amendment would exempt drivers from maximum driving and on-duty regulations for drivers of agricultural farm supplies and agricultural products during planting and harvesting periods.	The amendment passed by an unrecorded voice vote.
Corker 1785	Discretionary spending cap adjustment This amendment would cut discretionary spending by $20 billion on top of the cuts Congress already has agreed to.	The amendment failed, by a count of 40-58.
Shaheen 1678	Small bus systems Public transportation providers that operate between 50 and 75 buses would be allowed the flexibility to use a portion of their federal funds to cover the cost of operations. Systems operating fewer than 50 buses would be permitted to use a larger share of their federal funds to cover the cost of operations.	This amendment was withdrawn by the sponsor.
Portman 1742	Rest areas This amendment would allow states to permit any non-highway use in any rest area along any highway, including any commercial activity that does not impair the highway or interfere with the full use and safety of the highway.	The amendment failed, by a count of 12-86.
Corker 1810	Limitation on expenditures Beginning in 2005, Congress authorized spending more money each year from the Highway Trust Fund than it took in, resulting in declining balances. This amendment would eliminate this practice and ensure that expenditures from the Fund were equal to amounts deposited for a given fiscal year.	This amendment was withdrawn by the sponsor.
Carper 1670	Tolling This amendment would expand the ability of states to apply for authority to toll certain Federal-aid highways, with proceeds available for investments in the corridor, helping to create alternatives in that tolled corridor.	This amendment was withdrawn by the sponsor.
Hutchison 1568	Tolls This would reduce the ability of states to apply to USDOT for authority to toll certain Federal-aid highways	This amendment was withdrawn by the sponsor.
McCain 1669	Grand Canyon – noise abatement This would exempt certain commercial air tour aircraft from noise restrictions, air traffic control restrictions (minimum altitude requirements) and environmental restrictions. In addition, it would set a 15 year deadline for conversion of air tour aircrafts operating in the Grand Canyon National Park to certain quiet technologies.	This amendment was superseded by provisions in the manager's package and withdrawn by the sponsor.
Alexander 1779	Over-flights of national parks	The amendment passed by an unrecorded voice vote.
Boxer 1816	Emergency exemptions This "Sense of the Senate" resolution urges agencies to take advantage of procedures in current law to move expeditiously when rebuilding after a disaster.	The amendment passed by a 76-20 count.
Paul 1556	Emergency exemptions for projects When rebuilding any project closed due to safety reasons, this would exempt those projects from environmental reviews, approvals, licensing and permit requirements for rebuilding a project that was closed due to safety reasons.	The amendment failed, by a count of 42-54.

Final amendments totally unrelated to transportation

Senator and #	Description	Status and notes
Vitter 1535	Outer Continental Shelf Allows the proposed 2010-2015 Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program to bypass the environmental review process required by NEPA – thereby approving it.	Failed to reach the required 60 votes, falling 46-52.
Baucus	Regarding rural schools	Passed with more than the required 60 votes by 82-16.
Collins 1660	Boiler MACT This amendment nullifies existing protections against mercury and toxic air pollution from incinerators and industrial boilers, then delays compliance with any new standards by a minimum of 3.5 years. This reduces EPA's current environmental quality standards for industrial boilers and eliminates national emission standards for hazardous air pollutants for major sources, area sources, and industrial, commercial, and institutional boilers and process heaters.	Failed to reach the required 60 votes, falling 52-46.
Coburn 1738	OMB/Duplicative Programs This would cut the discretionary funding caps by another $10 billion from the recently agreed upon level in the Budget Control Act (BCA).	Failed to reach the required 60 votes, falling 52-46.
Nelson FL-Shelby-Landrieu 1822	RESTORE (the Gulf) This would address a key recommendation of the President’s National Oil Spill Commission to direct 80% of Clean Water Act penalties collected as a result of the BP Gulf oil disaster towards restoration of the Gulf of Mexico ecosystem.	Passed with more than the required 60 votes by 76-22.
Wyden 1817	Keystone pipeline This prohibits oil exported through the Keystone XL pipeline to be sold internationally.	Failed to reach the required 60 votes, falling 34-64.
Hoeven 1537	Keystone pipeline This would have Congress approve the already-rejected Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline without necessary environmental review or a process to determine if the project is in the national interest.	Failed to reach the required 60 votes, falling 56-42.
Levin 1818	Offshore Tax Havens Adds special measures for jurisdictions, financial institutions, or international transactions that are of primary money laundering concern or significantly impede United States tax enforcement.	Passed by an unrecorded voice vote.
Roberts 1826	Energy Tax Extenders This bill is offered as a side-by-side to Stabenow's 1812 but also including approval of the Keystone XL oil pipeline.	Failed to reach the required 60 votes, falling 41-57.
Stabenow 1812	Energy Tax Extenders This includes provisions to extend critical incentives that support renewable energy and energy efficiency. It extends the renewable energy production tax credit, the 48C manufacturing tax credit, the 1603 Treasury Program, the efficient existing and new homes tax credit and the efficient appliances tax credit, allows for the inclusion of algae in biofuel incentives and expands the 48C investment tax credit to offshore wind.	Failed to reach the required 60 votes, falling 49-49.
DeMint 1589	Repeal of energy tax subsidies This would repeal incentives for clean energy, including the renewable energy production and investment tax credits, and the cellulosic biofuel tax credit, as well as subsidies for traditional fossil fuel industries.	Failed to reach the required 60 votes, falling 26-72.
Menendez-Burr 1782	Alternative vehicles (natural gas) This would promote the purchase and use of natural gas vehicles with an emphasis on heavy-duty and fleet vehicles.	Failed to reach the required 60 votes, falling 51-47.

Senate reaches agreement on amendments, will begin debating transportation bill today

Just one day after a procedural vote failed, the Senate late last Wednesday reached an agreement that will allow them to begin debating the MAP-21 transportation bill and start voting on amendments today.

The hangup on moving the bill forward was disagreement on which amendments would be voted on — there were over 200 amendments filed, many of which didn’t have anything to do with transportation, and there was no way that all of them would be considered. A handful of them were included in a manager’s package that essentially folds them into the overall bill, including the Cardin-Cochran amendment and several others that T4 America is supporting.

A total of 30 amendments will be considered by the Senate, with no possible way for others to be offered or debated, per the agreement.

The real point of contention and the reason the cloture vote failed on Tuesday was the fact that many Senators wanted to debate and vote on potentially contentious amendments that have little or nothing to do with transportation, like opening up the Outer Continental Shelf to oil drilling, or approving the contentious Keystone XL oil pipeline — both of which are included in the 30 amendments that will be considered starting today.

Along those lines, there are 18 amendments having to do with transportation policy in some way, and 12 that have nothing to do with transportation, known as “non-germane” amendments. Tables of both of those are below, and we’ll be filling in the summaries throughout the day as we read and decipher them.

The Senate made it through 7 amendments last Thursday, leaving about 23 for today, and a possible final vote on the Senate floor as early as tonight. But when or if they do pass MAP-21, per the agreement, they are not going to move it immediately to the House, giving the larger chamber another chance to pass a bill of their own. (The House is on recess this week.)

You can track the amendments with the tables below.

Last updated: 3/13/12 12:30 p.m ET — Summaries added for each amendment and vote totals will be added as they happen.

Final transportation-related MAP-21 amendments

Senator and #	Description	Outcome or Notes
Cardin-Cochran 1549	Local Access and Control This provides local communities and metropolitan regions with access to the "Additional Activities" pot of funding through a competitive grant program — funding that they can use for main street revitalizations, boulevard conversions, new bike facilities, or safety improvements to make streets safer for everyone. Large metro areas will receive some funds directly. Read our explainer on the amendment here	Adopted into Senate manager's amendment package on 3/1/12. Amendment text (pdf)
Franken-Blunt 1543	Bridge Repair This would help provide adequate funding and flexibility to states to repair and rehabilitate the 180,000 federal-aid bridges that are not on the National Highway System (NHS). These bridges would become eligible for a 40% share of the main highway program funds (National Highway Performance Program) that aren't currently required for repairing the National Highway System.	Adopted into Senate manager's amendment package on 3/1/12. One-pager on federal-aid bridges (pdf) Amendment text (pdf)
Landrieu 1630	Protecting MPOs from State Penalties This ensures that metropolitan areas (MPOs) aren't left on the hook for financial penalties if states do not meet their state requirements for fixing roads and bridges or develop a state highway safety plan.	Adopted into Senate manager's amendment package on 3/1/12. Amendment text (pdf)
Blunt-Casey 1540	Repairing Non-Federal-aid Bridges This would require states to dedicate a specific percentage of their highway funds to repairing bridges that are not on the National Highway System and also not located on a Federal-aid highway.	The amendment passed by an unrecorded voice vote.
DeMint 1756	Turning federal program over to states This would transfer most responsibility for surface transportation to states and remove many regulatory requirements. The Federal government would continue to fund Interstate maintenance, transportation research, and safety. Finally, this amendment would end all dedicated funding for transit programs.	The amendment failed, by a count of 30-67.
Bingaman 1759	Privatized highways This would reduce the amount of Federal highway money states receive each year to account for roads that have been privatized, The majority of Federal highway dollars are sent to states based on the total number of lane miles, this ensures that states don't get federal money based on including lane-miles that they're not actually responsible for maintaining.	The amendment passed by a count of 50-47.
Coats 1517	State spending caps Under this amendment, states would get back only what they put into the Highway Trust Fund in a given fiscal year, defeating the ability of a federal program to shift revenues based on important regional or national purposes.	The amendment failed, by a count of 28-70.
Brown (OH) 1819	Buy America This would apply "Buy American" requirements to all highway and transit projects. This would ensure that a higher percentage of manufactured goods and commodities (e.g. steel, concrete, etc.) are produced within the United States.	The amendment passed by an unrecorded voice vote.
Merkley 1653	Farm vehicle exemptions This would exempt certain farm vehicles, including the individual operating that vehicle, from certain requirements, including commercial drivers' licenses, drug testing, and certifications	The amendment passed by an unrecorded voice vote.
Portman 1736	Gas tax flexibility States would keep their gas taxes and be able to essentially "opt-out" of the federal surface transportation program entirely. Transportation projects developed by states that "opt-out" would not be subject to any Federal highway, transit, and related environmental regulations.	The amendment failed, by a count of 30-68.
Klobuchar 1617	Ag transportation This amendment would exempt drivers from maximum driving and on-duty regulations for drivers of agricultural farm supplies and agricultural products during planting and harvesting periods.	The amendment passed by an unrecorded voice vote.
Corker 1785	Discretionary spending cap adjustment This amendment would cut discretionary spending by $20 billion on top of the cuts Congress already has agreed to.	The amendment failed, by a count of 40-58.
Shaheen 1678	Small bus systems Public transportation providers that operate between 50 and 75 buses would be allowed the flexibility to use a portion of their federal funds to cover the cost of operations. Systems operating fewer than 50 buses would be permitted to use a larger share of their federal funds to cover the cost of operations.	This amendment was withdrawn by the sponsor.
Portman 1742	Rest areas This amendment would allow states to permit any non-highway use in any rest area along any highway, including any commercial activity that does not impair the highway or interfere with the full use and safety of the highway.	The amendment failed, by a count of 12-86.
Corker 1810	Limitation on expenditures Beginning in 2005, Congress authorized spending more money each year from the Highway Trust Fund than it took in, resulting in declining balances. This amendment would eliminate this practice and ensure that expenditures from the Fund were equal to amounts deposited for a given fiscal year.	This amendment was withdrawn by the sponsor.
Carper 1670	Tolling This amendment would expand the ability of states to apply for authority to toll certain Federal-aid highways, with proceeds available for investments in the corridor, helping to create alternatives in that tolled corridor.	This amendment was withdrawn by the sponsor.
Hutchison 1568	Tolls This would reduce the ability of states to apply to USDOT for authority to toll certain Federal-aid highways	This amendment was withdrawn by the sponsor.
McCain 1669	Grand Canyon – noise abatement This would exempt certain commercial air tour aircraft from noise restrictions, air traffic control restrictions (minimum altitude requirements) and environmental restrictions. In addition, it would set a 15 year deadline for conversion of air tour aircrafts operating in the Grand Canyon National Park to certain quiet technologies.	This amendment was superseded by provisions in the manager's package and withdrawn by the sponsor.
Alexander 1779	Over-flights of national parks	The amendment passed by an unrecorded voice vote.
Boxer 1816	Emergency exemptions This "Sense of the Senate" resolution urges agencies to take advantage of procedures in current law to move expeditiously when rebuilding after a disaster.	The amendment passed by a 76-20 count.
Paul 1556	Emergency exemptions for projects When rebuilding any project closed due to safety reasons, this would exempt those projects from environmental reviews, approvals, licensing and permit requirements for rebuilding a project that was closed due to safety reasons.	The amendment failed, by a count of 42-54.

Final amendments totally unrelated to transportation

Senator and #	Description	Status and notes
Vitter 1535	Outer Continental Shelf Allows the proposed 2010-2015 Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program to bypass the environmental review process required by NEPA – thereby approving it.	Failed to reach the required 60 votes, falling 46-52.
Baucus	Regarding rural schools	Passed with more than the required 60 votes by 82-16.
Collins 1660	Boiler MACT This amendment nullifies existing protections against mercury and toxic air pollution from incinerators and industrial boilers, then delays compliance with any new standards by a minimum of 3.5 years. This reduces EPA's current environmental quality standards for industrial boilers and eliminates national emission standards for hazardous air pollutants for major sources, area sources, and industrial, commercial, and institutional boilers and process heaters.	Failed to reach the required 60 votes, falling 52-46.
Coburn 1738	OMB/Duplicative Programs This would cut the discretionary funding caps by another $10 billion from the recently agreed upon level in the Budget Control Act (BCA).	Failed to reach the required 60 votes, falling 52-46.
Nelson FL-Shelby-Landrieu 1822	RESTORE (the Gulf) This would address a key recommendation of the President’s National Oil Spill Commission to direct 80% of Clean Water Act penalties collected as a result of the BP Gulf oil disaster towards restoration of the Gulf of Mexico ecosystem.	Passed with more than the required 60 votes by 76-22.
Wyden 1817	Keystone pipeline This prohibits oil exported through the Keystone XL pipeline to be sold internationally.	Failed to reach the required 60 votes, falling 34-64.
Hoeven 1537	Keystone pipeline This would have Congress approve the already-rejected Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline without necessary environmental review or a process to determine if the project is in the national interest.	Failed to reach the required 60 votes, falling 56-42.
Levin 1818	Offshore Tax Havens Adds special measures for jurisdictions, financial institutions, or international transactions that are of primary money laundering concern or significantly impede United States tax enforcement.	Passed by an unrecorded voice vote.
Roberts 1826	Energy Tax Extenders This bill is offered as a side-by-side to Stabenow's 1812 but also including approval of the Keystone XL oil pipeline.	Failed to reach the required 60 votes, falling 41-57.
Stabenow 1812	Energy Tax Extenders This includes provisions to extend critical incentives that support renewable energy and energy efficiency. It extends the renewable energy production tax credit, the 48C manufacturing tax credit, the 1603 Treasury Program, the efficient existing and new homes tax credit and the efficient appliances tax credit, allows for the inclusion of algae in biofuel incentives and expands the 48C investment tax credit to offshore wind.	Failed to reach the required 60 votes, falling 49-49.
DeMint 1589	Repeal of energy tax subsidies This would repeal incentives for clean energy, including the renewable energy production and investment tax credits, and the cellulosic biofuel tax credit, as well as subsidies for traditional fossil fuel industries.	Failed to reach the required 60 votes, falling 26-72.
Menendez-Burr 1782	Alternative vehicles (natural gas) This would promote the purchase and use of natural gas vehicles with an emphasis on heavy-duty and fleet vehicles.	Failed to reach the required 60 votes, falling 51-47.

Updated: Senate improves their bill with three key amendments, but crucial vote looms

UPDATED: 3/6 4:00 p.m. The Senate rejected the motion for cloture, 52-44 by a mostly party-line vote. Brown (MA) and Collins (ME) crossed party lines to support the motion to move the bill forward. Streetsblog Capitol Hill has a good summary of what transpired today. But by all means, you should still write or call your Senators to let them know you think the bill needs to move forward without delay. We’ve modified the message to reflect today’s events. Leave any questions in the comments.

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Senator Boxer, one of the four main architects of the Senate’s bipartisan transportation bill, meets with Los Angeles County Supervisor Don Knabe and Los Angeles MTA Executive Director Art Leahy to discuss transportation issues.

In case you missed the news Friday, 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 that they must move this bill without delay.

Help keep the pressure on and take a moment to urge your Senator to support moving the bill and get it one step closer to passage.

We celebrated a big victory late last week as the Senate agreed to include three amendments we have all been working for, including the Cardin-Cochran amendment to give local governments a say over small projects in their communities — projects that make bicycling and walking safer and more attractive, revitalize our Main Streets, or make better connections to transit, among many other uses.

A “cloture” vote to end this phase of debate and move the bill to the Senate floor is scheduled for noon on Tuesday, 3/6. While this vote won’t be the last word, it is key toward solidifying the Senate’s progress and a failed cloture vote could stall the bill significantly.

Last week we learned just how effective our 500-plus coalition members and the thousands of you have been with your advocacy, specifically on the Cardin-Cochran local control amendment that was incorporated into the bill last week.

“Oh, we’ve been hearing about that Cardin-Cochran amendment,” we heard repeatedly, as we visited numerous Senate offices last week with 30-plus T4 America coalition members who flew to D.C. from all over the country to lobby their members of Congress on the transportation bill. Staffers in numerous Senate offices said they’d been getting phone calls and emails about that amendment specifically for the last few weeks.

While we are certainly still working for several more improvements to the bill, it’s time to move it one step closer to winning passage. We need to make sure that the Senate moves this bill forward without delay. The cloture vote expected Tuesday would help to make this much-improved bill the starting point for further debate as it moves toward a final vote.

Our Senators need to hear from their constituents that we can’t wait to pass a bill that will improve mobility and travel options for all Americans while preserving our existing infrastructure. We need to keep this Senate bill moving forward.

Send a message to your Senator anytime before noon on Tuesday with this page.

And after you send that email, come right back and make a quick phone call and tell them to support the Senate transportation bill on the floor Tuesday. Keep the pressure on!

Senate responds to massive support, adopts several important amendments into overall bill

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. We want to thank Senators Boxer, Inhofe, Baucus and Vitter for accepting these amendments to improve the Senate bill.

Yesterday, we hosted T4 America partners who flew to Washington, D.C. from across the country as they spent the day meeting with their House and Senate offices to ask those elected leaders to a) improve and fix the House bill and b) support a handful of key amendments that would strengthen the Senate bill.

One of the primary goals was to get Senators to support the bipartisan Cardin-Cochran amendment that would restore local control and help make our streets safer.

Thanks to the hard work of Senators Cardin and Cochran and the outpouring of support from across the country from individuals and groups of all stripes, that message had been received by many offices we visited with T4 coalition members. All day in meetings with Senate offices, staff repeatedly noted they’d been getting an overwhelming number of phone calls, letters and emails for the last two weeks about the Cardin-Cochran amendment.

Mayors especially were letting their Senators know just how important it is for local communities to have direct access to a small amount of dollars to revitalize their main streets, make it safer for children to get to school, improve connections to their transit systems, and other small improvements that often fall between the cracks of the larger projects states tends to focus on. The amendment was supported by groups as diverse as the American Public Health Association, the National League of Cities, AARP, the American Heart Association, the National Rural Assembly and hundreds of others.

Thursday late afternoon, we got news that the Cardin-Cochran amendment (as well as two others — more on those in a moment) had been adopted into what’s known as the manager’s amendment package. Without going into too much legislative jargon, it’s basically a package of amendments that have been agreed upon by Committee leaders that are incorporated into the bill without requiring a vote on the floor.

Another bipartisan amendment sponsored by Senators Franken (D-MN) and Blunt (R-MO) included in this package would help repair more of our bridges by making the 180,000 federal-aid bridges not on the National Highway System eligible for a share of funds in the main highway program, keeping all of the road and bridge repair programs organized together. This gives states the power to decide which bridges are the most important to be fixed and fix them, rather than being required by the federal government to fix certain bridges while others go begging for the flexible funds that can be spent on transit, walking and biking or other uses.

The last notable amendment we’ve been supporting that was included would help protect metropolitan areas from losing the small bit of funding that they receive directly, sponsored by Senators Landrieu (D-LA) and Murray (D-WA). Under MAP-21 if states don’t spent their money wisely and fail to meet the performance goals and objectives, metropolitan areas won’t be punished or lose any portion of their transportation dollars. While we strongly support the performance provisions we believe it is important that metropolitan areas not be punished for the actions of the state department of transportation. This amendment addresses that issue.

Transportation for America thanks Senators Cardin, Cochran, Franken, Blunt, Landrieu and Murray for their work to help strengthen and improve the Senate transportation bill. Their work and that of each Senator’s staff has been invaluable and we really appreciate their efforts.

Information on the Senate amendments continues to be updated on our amendment tracker page.

Senate debate beginning; amendment tracker

The Senate is scheduled to begin debating their transportation bill (MAP-21) today. We’re going to be keeping a close eye on a handful of amendments that could improve or make damaging changes to the bill as they’re offered, debated and voted on. Save or bookmark this page to keep tabs on these amendments that we’re tracking.

(This is in no way an exhaustive list of all Senate amendments or even all of the relevant ones. But it’s a short list of significant ones we’re keeping our eyes on.)

Last updated: 3/1/12 10:40 a.m.

Senator and #	Description	Outcome or Notes
Cardin-Cochran 1549	Local Access and Control This provides local communities and metropolitan regions with access to the "Additional Activities" pot of funding through a competitive grant program — funding that they can use for main street revitalizations, boulevard conversions, new bike facilities, or safety improvements to make streets safer for everyone. Large metro areas will receive some funds directly. Read our explainer on the amendment here	Formally adopted into Senate manager's amendment package on 3/1/12. Amendment text (pdf)
Franken-Blunt 1543	Bridge Repair This would help provide adequate funding and flexibility to states to repair and rehabilitate the 180,000 federal-aid bridges that are not on the National Highway System (NHS). These bridges would become eligible for a 40% share of the main highway program funds (National Highway Performance Program) that aren't currently required for repairing the National Highway System.	Formally adopted into Senate manager's amendment package on 3/1/12. One-pager on federal-aid bridges (pdf) Amendment text (pdf)
Landrieu 1630	Protecting MPOs from State Penalties This ensures that metropolitan areas (MPOs) aren't left on the hook for financial penalties if states do not meet their state requirements for fixing roads and bridges or develop a state highway safety plan.	Formally adopted into Senate manager's amendment package on 3/1/12. Amendment text (pdf)
Blunt-Casey 1540	Repairing Non-Federal Bridges Restores the former small portion of money dedicated to repairing other federal-aid bridges that aren't on the federal highway system. MAP-21 currently only requires states to spend Transportation Mobility Program (TMP) money on these bridges if conditions worsen. This would restore the small amount of money dedicated to repairing these bridges. (Off-system bridges are those not located on a federal-aid highway.)	Reached floor as part of agreement on amendments. Check this page for updates on current amendments.
Bennet-Warner 1705	Encouraging Development Near Transit This would provide local governments and others federal credit instruments – similar to TIFIA loans that would be paid back – for public infrastructure near transit stations. to help encourage private sector development. It will prioritize applicants that do scenario planning.	NOT accepted in agreement to debate as part of bill. Click for details and a new list of amendments that were accepted for debate here. Amendment text (pdf) One-page summary of amendment (pdf)
Shaheen-Murkowski (and others) 1679	Protecting Small Metro Areas This removes the provision to disband metro area planning organizations in areas under 200,000 people. It also allows MPOs serving areas smaller than 100,000 to voluntarily disband.	NOT accepted in agreement to debate as part of bill. Click for details and a new list of amendments that were accepted for debate here.
Cardin 1542	Equal Opportunity (Jobs) This requires the Secretary to undertake an assessment of equal opportunity and nondiscrimination on federal-aid transportation projects, report on that every four years and make data publicly available	NOT accepted in agreement to debate as part of bill. Click for details and a new list of amendments that were accepted for debate here.
Cardin 1552	Stormwater Pilot Program Directs DOT to establish a pilot program to reduce stormwater runoff from federal-aid highways and authorizes funding to appropriated. The pilot program must be created for 3 states or regions.	NOT accepted in agreement to debate as part of bill. Click for details and a new list of amendments that were accepted for debate here.
Akaka 1720	Rural Transit Improvement Currently, all human services transit providers are required to coordinate with each other. This amendment would require all of the rural transit providers — including those above already required — to communicate and coordinate when planning their transit service. This is more important in spread out rural areas with many small providers covering a wide, spread-out area — resulting in more effective service and better use of taxpayer funds.	NOT accepted in agreement to debate as part of bill. Click for details and a new list of amendments that were accepted for debate here. One-pager on rural transit (pdf) Amendment text (pdf)
Carper-Lieberman 1665	Protecting Air Quality This reinserts the requirement that states need to include congestion mitigation and air quality performance targets in state transportation planning.	NOT accepted in agreement to debate as part of bill. Click for details and a new list of amendments that were accepted for debate here. Amendment text (pdf)
Begich 1724	Increasing MPO suballocation Restores the suballocation percentage for metro areas to levels in current law, resulting in more money allocated directly to metro areas under MAP-21.	NOT accepted in agreement to debate as part of bill. Click for details and a new list of amendments that were accepted for debate here.
Gillibrand 1648	Workforce Development Authorizes new construction careers demonstration program.	NOT accepted in agreement to debate as part of bill. Click for details and a new list of amendments that were accepted for debate here.

Crucial amendment could improve Senate bill, restore local control and help make streets safer

If you think your community should have a voice and the ability to make improvements like these in Seattle, tell your Senator to support the Cardin-Cochran amendment

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.

The Cardin-Cochran amendment (S.Amd 1549) would allow communities to build safer streets, provide more transportation options, attract new residents and businesses and spark economic revitalization in areas that desperately need it.

The amendment would give local elected leaders — who know the transportation and safety needs of their constituents best — more direct control over how to spend those funds and allow them to revitalize their communities while building out the full transportation network they need.

Action: Tell your Senators to support the Cardin-Cochran amendment today!

States usually focus on building larger projects, but those projects often need further refinements within those communities in order to function well — like new bike lanes, wider sidewalks, narrower lanes on the town’s main street, safer routes to school for children, or bus and rail stop improvements. These larger projects can also sometimes create health, safety or other mpacts that local communities are eager to address. This amendment would give them the control and the voice in these decisions that they desperately want in order to meet their own priorities.

What would this amendment do?

The Senate MAP-21 bill creates a new program called “Additional Activities” that includes a broad range of eligible projects that include Main Street revitalizations, local street safety improvements, street and boulevard redesigns, bus stop and rail station access improvements, Safe Routes to Schools, Recreational Trails, among many others — including the former programs that invested in safe walking and biking. This amendment turns that Additional Activities program into a competitive grant program for local governments and other entitites.

Communities would then be able to apply for a funds from a protected pot of dollars to build these kinds of projects that are extremely popular with local governments – and their citizens – because they promote safer, healthier communities, economic redevelopment and tourism, while creating connections to job centers, transit stops, recreational areas and other destinations.

This would restore control and choice back to local governments to invest in small projects in their communities. The state could not take the money away unless local communities didn’t apply for the funds or had no eligible ideas for how to use it. At that point the state could spend that money on other priorities. Win-win, right?

The Cardin-Cochran Amendment gives increased decision-making authority and control to local governments in cities, small towns and rural areas alike to fund transportation projects that get the most bang for the taxpayer buck.

I have served on the State level of government; I have been mayor of a major city. I believe the closer you get to the people, the more responsible government is. I believe that to be true.”

– Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK), 2/9/2012

Local control in practice

So what does this mean practically? Here are three short stories of how local communities were able to take some state dollars and make key investments in their communities — investments and projects that could easily be passed over if the state has total control over all transportation dollars.

Saving lives in Nashville, Tennessee
The planned construction of new sidewalks on the south side of Harding Place from I-65 to I-24 in Nashville would connect multi-family housing to grocery stores, restaurants and other retail destinations, as well as provide a connection to the closest transit stop. This safety project is designed to reduce the high number of pedestrians who are injured and killed while walking along roads that are currently dangerous for residents.

Reviving downtown in Meridian, Mississippi
Beginning in the early 1990s, community leaders worked to create a multi-modal transportation center in the heart of town with the help of over $5 million in federal and state grants. As a result, Meridian’s Union Station (right) was reborn as a thriving rail and bus depot. The $6.8 million project has leveraged more than $8 million in private investment in the Depot District, raising property values and city tax receipts, and lowering crime in the station’s neighborhood.

Creating access for all in Springfield, Missouri
A planned project to provide continuous ADA-compliant sidewalks on both sides of Kearney St. from the Kansas Expressway (Route 13) to Glenstone Avenue (Loop 44) is a high priority for local and state officials and would provide connectivity to area shopping centers and transit stops. This project is projected to cost less than $1 million, but without funding, local officials cannot move forward with building safer streets for pedestrians and residents with disabilities.

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If you want to share this with your Senator or others, you can download a version of this information as a two-page fact sheet. (pdf)

Transit and TIGER funding preserved in compromise spending bill

Leading negotiators in the House and Senate released a compromise spending bill to fund the U.S. Department of Transportation, alongside several other departments, through the end of the current fiscal year in September 2012. The measure is known as a “minibus” because it collapses several appropriations bills into one package,

The conference agreement between the two chambers preserves funding for transit and the innovative TIGER grants program, while zeroing out high-speed rail. The Federal Transit Administration is provided a total of $10.608 billion. Amtrak, with $466 million for operating and $952 million for capital, would be funded at a level lower than what the Senate requested but higher than the House-proposed amount. But Amtrak did receive more capital funding than either the House or Senate originally proposed.

$500 million for TIGER constitutes a 5.1 percent cut from current levels, but is a significant improvement over the House proposal to eliminate the program entirely. Every round of grant applications for TIGER has yielded far more interest from communities that USDOT has been able to accommodate, and the program rewards projects that meet local needs. Streetsblog is reporting that the third round of TIGER applications outstrips the available grant amount by 27 to 1.

The New Starts program receives $1.95 billion. New Starts is a key funding source for transit projects across the country, particularly in large metropolitan areas. The WMATA transit system in Washington, DC gets $150 million.

Traditional highway funding under the Federal Highway Administration is funded slightly below current levels, with $39.143 billion.

In a disappointing move, negotiators did not include funding for Partnership for Sustainable Communities grants. The partnership is a joint venture between USDOT, the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. While no new grants will be awarded under this agreement, the office will remain open and negotiators notably refused to include House-proposed language that would have disallowed the three departments from working collaboratively.

Both chambers will need to pass the “minibus” agreement by Friday to avoid a government shutdown. With bipartisan sign-off on these funding levels, passage is almost assured.

Check out the chart below, which compares the 2010 budget, 2011 budget and the House/Senate proposals that got us to the proposed 2012 budget.

Federal Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Budget: Highlighted transportation and sustainable communities programs.

Program	2010 Budget	2011 Budget	House 2012 Proposal	Senate 2012 Proposal	Final 2012 Budget	Difference: 2012 vs 2011
Federal-Aid Highways	~$42B	$41.1B	$27.7B	$41.1 B (FY 2011 enacted)	$39.14 B (equal to MAP-21)	—$2.B
Transit Formula Grants	~$8.3B	$8.34B	$5.2	$8.36B	$8.36 B	+$20M
High Speed Rail	$2.5B	$0	$0	$100M	$0	—
TIGER	$600M	$527M	$0	$550M	$500M	—$27M
Partnership for Sustainable Communities Grants	$150M	$100M	$0	$90M	$0	—$100M
Amtrak Capital	$1.002B	$922M	$898M	$937M	$952M	+30M
Amtrak Operating	$563M	$562M	$227M	$544M	466M	—$97M
Transit ‘New Starts’	$2.0B	$1.6B	$1.55B	$1.955B	$1.955B	+$355M
TIGGER (energy efficiency grants for transit agencies)	$75M	$50M	$0M	$25M	$0	—$50M

EPW Committee approves transportation bill by voice vote, moves it out of committee

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee approved its two-year highway reauthorization bill this morning and moved it out of committee by a bipartisan, unanimous 18-0 vote. (Read our statement here.)

The committee markup was short, as compared to a typical markup of such a large bill, but that was a testament to the work done behind the scenes by Senators Boxer, Inhofe, Baucus and Vitter to get consensus among the four of them on the major policy points.

At the markup, a single package of amendments, known as a manager’s amendment, agreed to ahead of time by the four key Senators, was approved by a unanimous voice vote. No other amendments were voted on, though many others were filed.

After that amendment package was approved, Senators took turns talking about other amendments that they had drafted but weren’t formally proposing, in order to preserve the bipartisan vote and also because the four committee leaders made it clear they would oppose any other amendments, effectively ensuring no amendments would pass — a process known as “offer and withdraw.”

Senators talk about their amendment, offer it, and then note that they’re not calling for a vote and withdraw the amendment. The idea behind this is to indicate the Senator’s desire to continue to push an issue and work with the Committee to find ways to incorporate concepts into the final bill as it moves to the floor.

There were a few smart, notable amendments offered in that way, and a handful of others that were not offered. Sen. Gillibrand talked at length about a program that would help train low-income workers, but we’ll be talking more about those amendments in the days and weeks to come as the bill moves forward.

Here’s a summary list of the amendments that were approved in the manager’s package. Some other small changes to the bill were made in an amendment written and approved by the four committee leaders, but that text is not yet available. Additional explanatory notes from T4 America are in italics.

(Amendment data derived in part from Transportation Weekly and Jeff Davis.)

Senator, Amendment #	Description
Barasso #2 as modified	National Freight Program flexibility for rural roads
Barrasso #4 as modified	Limits the number of performance measures, directing the Secretary to study and establish only the “most effective” performance measures.
Boozman #1 as modified	CMAQ accountability study. Co-written with Sen. Carper.
Cardin #4 as modified	FHWA to FTA flex used to enhance level of service. This amendment will make it easier to use funds from the new National Highway Performance Program (generally dollars for interstate and national highway system funds) on transit projects. This amendment lowered some of the hurdles that made it hard to flex that money, as MAP-21 was written.
Carper #3 as modified	Clarify off-road diesel PM2.5 rules and funding
Crapo #2 as modified	Directs states to “consult” rather than “cooperate/coordinate” on transportation planning with rural areas and small urban areas under 200,000.
Crapo #3 as modified	State DOTs that have a current statewide long-range transportation plan will be exempt from having to do performance planning for four years. States that developed policy plans can keep using those plans for 4 years, without having to write a new long-range plan. Does not cover MPO planning, only states.
Gillibrand #1 as modified	Freight rail improvement within 5 miles of Mexico, Canada borders
Johanns #2	State comment process on DOT standards for National Highway Performance Program
Johanns #3	Require DOT to give tech support to states for data modeling
Johanns #5	Narrow scope of fines in sec. 2210 of bill
Merkley #3 as modified	Require MPO alternate scenarios to be fiscally constrained
Sanders #1 as modified	Increase ER fed share to 100 percent in certain circumstances
Sanders #3	DOT report on potential electric car charging network
Udall #1 as modified	Define border roads as within 10 miles of border
Udall #2	Use of crash rate as a safety analysis/planning factor. This provision ensures that rural roads with high crash rates receive equal attention under the Highway Safety Improvement Program. Rural roads may have few crashes relative to busier roads, but far less traffic, resulting in a higher rate. Using crash rate as a planning factor should help dangerous rural roads see increased safety funding.
Udall #3	Eligibility for alternate roads along a corridor when its more cost effective than improving primary route.

AP says attacks on transportation enhancements are “exaggerated and misrepresented”

On Friday, we highlighted the disingenuous attempt from some in Congress to tie the need to repair our bridges to the elimination of a tiny program to make it safer to walk or bike on our streets and roads.

Senators Rand Paul of Kentucky, Tom Coburn of Oklahoma and John McCain of Arizona have been targeting the transportation enhancements program, a mere 2 percent of the federal transportation budget. They say eliminating the set-aside would make it easier for states to repair bridges, even though many states have failed to prioritize maintenance when they can spend the bulk of their transportation funds however they want.

The Senators and their supporters seem to have gotten a good chuckle out of some particular projects. They point to, among others, roadside snack stand in Pennsylvania shaped like a giant coffee pot and a lighthouse renovation in Toledo, Ohio.

“We picked some of the more interesting and exciting ones to get our colleagues’ attention,” McCain reportedly admitted.

But exciting as they might be, the claims about the projects are “exaggerated and misrepresented,” according to a fact check feature in the Associated Press this past weekend.

That roadside coffee pot? AP’s Joan Lowy reports:

No transportation aid was spent on the coffee pot’s $100,000 restoration, said Olga Herbert, executive director of the Lincoln Highway Heritage Corridor. The money was raised entirely from preservation and civic organizations and local supporters”

“We did not use any of this $300,000 award for anything to do with the coffee pot,” she said. “It’s interesting that nobody from Senator Coburn’s office called me about this.”

As for the lighthouse in Toledo:

Actually, no transportation dollars have been authorized or awarded. The lighthouse renovation is among projects community officials tentatively hope to get around to in 2019.

Senator Paul has also repeatedly cited a supposed “turtle tunnel” project. But the project he referenced on U.S. 27 in Florida was a significant safety issue for motorists, many of whom were forced to swerve when alligators, turtles and other creatures crossed the highway from adjacent Lake Jackson. While Coburn claimed the project would require $6 million or more to finish on an undefined timeline, in fact, USDOT told Lowy the project was completed in September 2010 at $3 million, under budget and $3 million less than Senator Coburn claimed.

Streetsblog Capitol Hill has more.

The takeaway? At the least, members of Conrgess should do a better job fact-checking. While they’re checking the numbers, they might look to see how long it would take to repair bridges relying solely on this relatively tiny share of funds. It would take Paul’s home state of Kentucky 66 years of bike and pedestrian funding to achieve a state of good repair for their bridges. Pennsylvania wouldn’t catch up until sometime during the 24th century.

Safe to say, this isn’t the serious proposal for bridge repair that we urgently need. If Paul, Coburn and McCain are serious about fixing bridges and not just scoring political points, they’ll come back with something better.

Photo courtesy of the Associated Press.

Late update: Senator Rand Paul’s amendment to cut money for walking and biking and direct it to bridge repair failed in the Senate today, by a 60-38 count.