Advocacy Alerts

Executive Summary:

Call, email, or fax Sen. Bond by noon, Tues, April 26 and ask him to

Include the Harkin bill (S. 794), the Safe and Complete Streets Act of 2005, in the manager's amendment to SAFETEA.

The Honorable Christopher S. Bond
United States Senate
Telephone 202 224 5721
Fax 202 224 8149
Email via the Senator's website www.bond.senate.gov

Details from AmericaBikes:

We have just heard that the U.S. Senate is likely NEXT WEEK to start debate on SAFETEA, its bill to reauthorize the Federal transportation program. An unexpected opportunity to advance the League's and America Bikes (www.americabikes.org) national agenda has arisen - if we act by noon on Tuesday, April 26.

On April 14, Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) introduced S. 794, the Safe and Complete Streets Act of 2005, with the goal of getting the provisions of his bill included in SAFETEA. One way this can happen is for the leadership of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee to include these changes in what is called a "manager's amendment" to the bill.

Senators James Inhofe (R-OK), Kit Bond (R-MO) and John Warner (R-VA) will determine the content of the manager's amendment. Senators Jeffords (I-VT) and Max Baucus (D-MT) will need to concur.

E-mail, fax, or call them - BEFORE NOON, TUESDAY APRIL 26 - and ask them to include the Harkin bill (S. 794) in the manager's amendment. S. 794, the Safe and Complete Streets Act contains three key provisions: 1. Nonmotorized Transportation Safety, including a requirement for state transportation departments to adopt a "complete streets" policy. 2. Safe Routes to School, which adopts the [higher] funding levels and policy language from the House reauthorization bill, and 3. Nonmotorized Transportation Pilot Program, also taken directly from the House bill. Please provide us with feedback on you Senator's reaction to this request.

Please copy responses to mele@bikeleague.org.

The Honorable Christopher S. Bond
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510
Telephone 202 224 5721
Fax 202 224 8149
Email via the Senator's website www.bond.senate.gov

permanent link to article: "[23 APR 2005] Ask Sen. Bond to add bicycle-friendly provisions to FEDERAL transportation law"
posted by Brent Hugh at 4/23/2005 10:25:00 AM |comment on this article

There is good news--and something you can do to help--on both the House and the Senate sides of the Missouri legislature. Please read on!

Missouri House
Note that MoBikeFed lobbyist James Farrell (in a recent report from Jefferson City) says we ought to start contacting our own representatives with the message

Please support House Committee Substitute for SB372, the Bicycle Safety Bill.

The reason is that the next step in the Missouri House, is that SB 372 will come to a vote on the floor of the House.

The House is working its way through the Consent Calendar right now. It is hard to say exactly when they will reach SB372 (as of April 20th, 2005, it is 56th on the calendar). But most likely it will come to a vote i nthe House within a few days.

You can look up your own representative here

House members by name
House members by zip code

Missouri Senate
On the Senate front: your emails/calls to the Senators have not been in vain, because Sen. Engler is planning to offer HB 632 (sponsored by Mike Sutherland) as an amendment to HB 512.

HB 512 is one of the big transportation omnibus bills.

Senator Dolan (chair of the Transportation Committee) has indicated he will accept the amendment. That should happen very soon. So you can also write your own Missouri Senator with this message:

Please vote to support the Bicycle Safety Bill (HB 632, sponsored by Rep. Mike Sutherland) which Senator Engler will offer as a floor amendment to HB 512.

You can look up your own senator:

Senators by name
Senators by zip code

All this is complicated--but in a good way.

We basically have our bill going on two separate and independent tracks. That means twice the hearings, twice the votes, and so on, but . . . it also gives it twice the chance of passing. If EITHER version passes, we're OK.

And that's a GOOD thing! permanent link to article: "20 April 2005: Bicycle Safety Bill: Contact your own Missouri legislators"
posted by Brent Hugh at 4/20/2005 04:07:00 PM |comment on this article

Bicyclists:

The Bicycle Safety Bill (known as HB632 on the House side) is up for a hearing this Wednesday, April 6th, at 8AM in the House Transportation Committee.

I'm expecting the House Transportation Committee to be a little bit tougher venue than the last hearing (the Senate Economic Development).

I will be there to represent the Missouri Bicycle Federation and to testify in favor of the bill. Our lobbyist, Jim Farrell will also be there and testify.

If you have a few minutes to call or email one of the representatives on the committee, it would really help.

If you live in (or near) one of the reps districts, that is definitely the person to contact (see the list of committee members below). Otherwise, the committee chair Neil St. Onge is probably the key person.

The message is simple:

Please support HB 632, the Bicycle Safety Bill. It is very important to Missouri bicyclists and will help to fix the bad reputation Missouri has among bicyclists across the U.S.

Brent Hugh
President, Missouri Bicycle Federation

House Transportation Committee Members:
St. Louis area
St. Onge, Neal C., Chair - Ballwin; St. Louis county
573-751-5568
Neal.St.Onge@house.mo.gov

Bowman, John L. - Normandy; St. Louis county
573-751-4726
john.bowman@house.mo.gov

Smith, Joe - St. Charles; St. Charles county
573-751-2250
Joe.Smith@house.mo.gov

Daus, Michael - St. Louis City
573-751-6736
Mike.Daus@house.mo.gov

Threlkeld, Kevin - Washington; Franklin, St. Charles counties
573-751-0538
Kevin.Threlkeld@house.mo.gov

Kansas City area
Rector, Rex - Harrisonville; Cass County
573-751-9780
Rex.Rector@house.mo.gov

Young, Terry - Independence; Jackson County & Kansas City
573-751-9851
Terry.Young@house.mo.gov

Springfield area
Denison, Charles - Springfield; Greene County
573-751-2210
charlie.denison@house.mo.gov

Parson, Michael - Bolivar; Cedar, Polk Counties
573-751-1347
mike.parson@house.mo.gov

Other areas
Schlottach, Charles, Vice Chair - Owensville; Crawford, Franklin, Gasconade counties
573-751-6668
Charlie.Schlottach@house.mo.gov

Black, Lanie - Charleston; Mississippi, New Madrid, Scott, Stoddard counties
573-751-4560
Lanie.Black@house.mo.gov

Cooper, Nathan - Cape Girardeau county
573-751-1443
nathan.cooper@house.mo.gov

Henke, Wayne J. - Troy; Lincoln County
573-751-9459
Wayne.Henke@house.mo.gov

Kuessner, J. C. - Eminence; Iron, Reynolds, Shannon, Washington counties
573-751-2112
JC.Kuessner@house.mo.gov

Meadows, Tim - Imperial; Jefferson County
573-751-1311
Tim.Meadows@house.mo.gov

Munzlinger, Brian - Williamstown; Adair, Clark, Knox, Lewis, Marion, Schuyler, Scotland counties
573-751-7985
Brian.Munzlinger@house.mo.gov

Details about the bill:

http://www.house.state.mo.us/bills051/bills/hb632.htm

(note that the text available online is now out of date, and several important and less-important details will be changed when it comes before the committee.) permanent link to article: "4 APR 2005: Support Bicycle Safety Bill in House Transportation Committee"
posted by Brent Hugh at 4/04/2005 11:33:00 PM |comment on this article