Congressional update: SAFETEA-LU Extension, ACT act, TIGER grants

Update on current federal transportation-related legislation from the Alliance for Biking and Walking:

SAFETEA LU extension

The federal highway and public transportation bill, SAFETEA-LU, expires on February 28^th so we will see action on the extension this week.  One option is for the extension to pass as part of the jobs bill since both the House and Senate jobs bills have a SAFETEA extension included in them- although slightly different versions. The House passed their bill in December, and the Senate is likely to pass theirs on Wednesday. (The Senate overcame a filibuster last night.) In order for a long-term extension to go into effect, the House and Senate will have to come up with a compromise bill and pass it by Sunday night. 

Both the Senate and House bills contain provisions that are good and bad from a bike/ped perspective. The Senate bill retracts rescissions to TE, CMAQ, Rec Trails, SRTS, and restores funding directly to those programs.  This would reinstate $474 million to TE.  The House bill does not retract rescissions.

Both bills also deal differently with funding from High Priority Project (HPP) programs.  In the House bill and in all previous extensions, the money that had gone to HPP during the life of the bill during the extension is redistributed to the states through formula programs- including SRTS, Rec Trails and several other programs. In the Senate version this money is redistributed only to the 6 largest programs cutting out SRTS, Rec Trails, Metropolitan planning and others.   This would be a loss of 13 million for SRTS and 8 million for Rec Trails.

While retracting the rescissions will provide more funding to programs that fund bike/ped in the short term, maintaining the HPP funding is an important precedent for all future extensions. 

According to America Bikes, a conference bill combining both of these elements would be an ideal outcome.  . . .

If the House and Senate do not reach agreement on a jobs bill, we will likely see a short term extension, of one week to one month, to allow for more debate on the jobs bill solution. 

 
ACT Act
This legislation will be introduced this Thursday and will be a priority at the Bike Summit. Those coming to the Leagues Bike Summit should plan to discuss this with your congressional representatives during Advocacy Day.

Be on the lookout for an important action alert related to this legislation.
 
TIGER GRANTS
Some more facts on TIGER Grants, in case you have interest:
         53% went to recipients that were not DOTs
         60% went to economically distressed areas.
         PolicyLink, an equity group, highlighted complete streets and biking and walking in their press release

          View all the TIGER recipients here (PDF file).

Missouri's main TIGER grant was $50 for Kansas City's Green Impact Zone and to improve the transit lines leading to it.  More details here.