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Stimulus Amendment To Prohibit Bike Funding : Call Your Senator Immediately

Senator DeMint (R-SC) has offered an amendment to SPECIFICALLY prohibit funding for bicycles, walking and offroad vehicles. The amendment ONLY goes after bicycle, walking, and offroad vehicle funding.

Update as of Feb. 7, 2009:

The following was posted to streets Blog by Ben Fried late Saturday 2/7/09: “According to a list posted by Politico, the Senate left transit funding untouched in the stim bill compromise brokered yesterday. For now, it appears safe to take a break from contacting your senators about this particular point of concern.” Click here to see his post.
Be sure to stay tuned to your email for another action alert when the bill is passed by the Senate, and thanks for all of your hard work.

Original Alert is below

The Amendment has been offered but not introduced. We do not have a schedule for when this will be introduced and voted on, but we need to alert all Senators to urge them to vote against such amendments and ensure that funding for bicycle infrastructure remain eligible under the transportation funds provided in the stimulus package.

Talking Points:

Bicycle and pedestrian projects create jobs at the same or better rate than highway projects.
These smaller projects can move quickly to hire local businesses and help local economies.
Providing safe and convenient bicycle and pedestrian access gives families new cheaper transportation options.
Improving sidewalks and bike lanes can make a downtown a destination further helping the local economy.

(Thanks to the League for partnering with The Alliance to make this easy for our member organizations.)

In addition, stay tuned to your email regarding the action alert we referenced via email on Friday. We will be sending that alert to you by Monday for distribution to your members. We need to wait for the Senate bill to pass first.