National Bike Summit 2008: Congressional visits

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We had a blast today visiting the congressional offices of each of Missouri's eleven members of Congress.

We met with a record number of actual congressmembers and senators today--Senator Kit Bond, Senator Claire McCaskill, Representative Russ Carnahan, Representative Clay, Representative Hulshof, and Representative Emerson.

Highlights:

* Senator Bond is really "catching the religion" of bicycle and pedestrian safety.

* Senator McCaskill has "Coffee with Claire" each Thursday at 9AM in Washington. Our delegates who attended heard her speak at some length and then met with her personally--a very positive experience, they reported.

* We gave "Distinguished Service to Missouri Bicycling Awards" to Senator Bond, Representative Carnahan, and Representative Hulshof.

* Representatives Carnahan and Hulshof are both quite avid bicyclists. Representative Clay really wants to get a bicycle to ride around DC in (bikes are thick on the street here--and we've beat the metro by a solid margin every time we've done the bicycle vs. metro "race")

* Representative Carnahan took about 8 of us onto the House gallery while he cast two procedural votes. Fascinating--and on the way out we met Representative Clay (St. Louis) and Representative Blumenauer (Portland, OR). Blumenauer is one of the key bicycling supporters in Congress.

* Representative Blumenauer let us know that our own Representative Roy Blunt, the Republican "Whip", has been quoted saying that nobody rides a bicycle in his distrct. Maybe we should let him know what's really happening in his district?

* We also hear reports that Rep. Blunt Patrick McHenry, a representative from North Carolina, said: "Bicycles are a 19th Century solution to 21st Century problems." And you know--he might just be RIGHT about that. We've been saying for years that bicycles are a cheap, healthy, simple, low-tech solution to complicated expensive problems. So we're glad to know the Representative sees things our way! Update: Even though it turns out this famous statement is not by a Missouri congressman, we still like it and think we will adopt it. Simple, cheap, reliable, green, fun, and human-scaled. That's our "19th Century" bicycle. For the poster child of the 21st Century, we can choose, the Hummer . . .

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* Having a constituent from a member's district there in person is absolutely invaluable. We have asked Congresswoman Jo Ann Emerson of SE Missouri to join the Congressional Bicycle Caucus for at least the past 3 years. When Virginia Blaine of Farmington came here to make the same request in person, guess what--the answer was YES!

* Now we need to work on getting more of Missouri's 9 congressional districts represented at the 2009 National Bike Summit. This year we have no on from the Districts of Congress members Akin, Blunt, and Graves. It makes it very hard to get them on our side!

* We also need to get more representation from Missouri's very strong bicycle industry. Every time we bring up the economic benefits of bicycling (which is a BILLION DOLLAR a year industry in Missouri), the question we get is, "then were are the business owners who are benefiting from bicycling? How come they are not here speaking for themselves?"

* The mood in Washington is definitely changing--there is FAR more support for transportation alternatives than there was even 12 months ago, and it comes from both sides of the aisle.

More photos.

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