PACE introduced in U.S. House

On Wednesday, June 18th, Congressman James L. Oberstar (D-MN) introduced
the Pedestrian and Cyclist Equity Act of 2003. PACE calls for $250 million
a year in funding for Safe Routes to School infrastructure and education
projects across the country, with every state guaranteed at least $2
million. We at America Bikes are thrilled. Now our challenge is to
convince the full Congresss to support the bill.

Go to www.americabikes.org/saferoutes.aspto find our PACE press release.
Please distribute it widely and feel free to reprint it. Also at the site,
you'll find a list of current co-sponsors for the bill, and pictures of
the press event which you are free to use.

The Associated Press covered the event, and is planning to distribute a
Safe Routes story on Saturday. AP wire stories show up in hundreds of
papers across the country, so watch for it in your local paper. If it does
run, we want you to do two things: Clip it out and send it to your
Representative with a note asking him or her to become a co-sponsor. And
plan to write a letter to the editor supporting Safe Routes and calling on
your Representative to co-sponsor the bill. We'll have sample letters for
both tasks up on the website early next week and will let you know as soon
as they are ready. We just wanted to give you a heads up to watch for the
AP story.

A lot is happening here in Washington. In just the past weeks, the
reauthorization process has suddenly picked up speed and may happen this
year after all, so watch for more news from us soon.