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Take Action - Advocacy Tools
Current Items
United States Senate
Immediate Action Required
Urgent action needed to support effort to fix the Highway Trust Fund without adverse impact to Public Transportation!
The U.S. Senate is now debating a bill to reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration (H.R. 2881). The bill includes an amendment to the tax title of the legislation offered by Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) that affects transit and highway investment. The amendment includes a provision to add funding to avert an anticipated funding shortfall in the Highway Account of the Highway Trust Fund. This proposal would prevent the anticipated insolvency of the Highway Account in Fiscal Year 2009 by authorizing a transfer of funds from the General Fund to the Highway Trust Fund to repay $3.3 billion in emergency expenditures from the Highway Account to pay for damage from hurricanes and terrorist attacks and provides other funds without adversely effecting public transportation revenue sources. Passage of the bill with the provisions added by Senator Rockefeller and supported by the leadership of the Senate Finance Committee would avert the need to consider other ways to address the shortfall in the Highway Trust Fund, such as the proposal to borrow funds from the Mass Transit Account, which was included in the President’s budget proposal earlier this year. In addition, the Rockefeller amendment authorizes the issuance of tax credit bonds to promote new investment in high speed rail.
On Friday, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) filed an alternative version of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reauthorization bill that would replace the current pending legislation. The replacement bill does not include provisions unrelated to aviation, including the proposals to fix the Highway Trust Fund and provide new investment for high speed rail. APTA urges you to contact your Senators within the next twenty-four hours, by email, fax, or telephone, and urge them to support the original version of the bill as amended by Senator Rockefeller which provides funding for the Highway Trust Fund and promotes high-speed rail investment. Ask your Senators to oppose the substitute version that was offered by Senator Hutchison.
Take Action!
- Contact your Senators immediately and urge them to support the Rockefeller amendment to the tax title of the FAA reauthorization bill that strengthens the Highway Trust Fund and promotes investment in high-speed rail, and reject the substitute proposal by Senator Hutchison that does not include these provisions.
- Explain to your Senators that the provisions contained in the Rockefeller amendment to the tax title of the FAA reauthorization bill would extend the solvency of the Highway Account of the Highway Trust Fund and permit full funding of highway programs in Fiscal Year 2009 without adversely impacting the Mass Transit Account and future investment in public transportation.
Contact Information for your Senator can be found here:
United States House of Representatives
Immediate Action Required
House Resolution H.R. 6003, the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008, was unveiled May 8 by members of the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee, with a press conference demonstrating bipartisan support of Amtrak intercity passenger rail service.
The $14 billion, five-year reauthorization includes about $1.34 billion per year for Amtrak’s capital needs, along with $606 million per year for operations. Amtrak’s fiscal year 2008 capital budget was $565 million.
The resolution also includes several provisions for advancing high speed rail development (or what some observers categorized as “higher speed” incremental rail approaches). Two such provisions include: the soliciting of proposals by the U.S. Department of Transportation to significantly upgrade and overhaul Amtrak’s existing Northeast Corridor (NEC); and proposals for two-hour express service between New York and Washington through less-dramatic improvements to existing NEC infrastructure, such as catenary, signaling, and/or additional high speed turnouts.
In addition, about $345 million per year would be provided to states and/or Amtrak to finance facilities and infrastructure improvements, as well as passenger equipment, for projects improving speeds to 110 mph. States would have to provide at least 20% of a project’s cost.
The bill also would establish a pilot program permitting freight railroads to partner with potential new passenger rail providers, and provide more than $400 million per year in matching funds that states could apply for to advance passenger rail improvements.
Notably absent is any mention of penalizing freight railroads for Amtrak’s on-time performance problems. U.S. Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg, D-N.J., recently said the cost borne by Amtrak for such problems was as high as $111.4 million, citing a study conducted by USDOT’s inspector general per Lautenberg’s request. The senator last October sponsored a bill empowering the Surface Transportation Board to investigate Amtrak delays and fine freight railroads held responsible.
Take Action!
- Contact your Representative immediately and urge them to support H.R. 6003 to invest in passenger rail.
- Explain to your Representative that the resolution contains language to support states looking into passenger rail development. (This funding can be used to implement Ohio Hub start-up service)
A sample letter can be found by clicking here.
Contact Information for your Representative can be found here:
Ohio Senate
A positive Public Transit bill is seeking support of Ohio’s Senators. Senate Bill 300 will create a Public Transit Funding Task Force to find stable sources of funding for maintaining and expanding Ohio’s public transit services. This bill is currently assigned to the Highways and Transportation Committee. Urge your State Senator to support bill 300.
Sponsor: Senator Cafaro
Cosponsors: Senators Mason, Morano, Miller, R., Miller, D., Kearney, Boccieri, Roberts, Smith, Sawyer, Stivers
More information on the bill can be found here:
http://www.legislature.state.oh.us/bills.cfm?ID=127_SB_300
Ohio House of Represenatatives
House Bill 480
House Bill 480 threatens the funding solvency and structure of Ohio’s Pulbic Transit Authorities. While the bill changes the procedue to which a political subdivision may join a transit authority, it also provides a procedure for a subdivision to withdrawl from the transit authority and undermine the comprehensive regional funding structure that a transit authority depends on.
Sponsor: Representative Gardner
Cosponsors: Representatives Brinkman, Wachtmann, Fessler, Combs, Sears
More information on the bill can be found here:
http://www.legislature.state.oh.us/bills.cfm?ID=127_HB_480
House Bill 540
House Bill 540 is complementary to Senate Bill 300 and will create a Public Transit Funding Task Force to study Ohio’s public transportation funding and issue a report.
Sponsors: Representatives Fende, Schindel
Co-sponsors: Representatives Brady, Brown, Chandler, Evans, Harwood, Letson, Newcomb, Sears, Setzer, Ujvagi
Make your voice heard!
A guide to communicating with your elected officials
Please contact your elected official(s) at the state or federal level, and tell them you would like daylight passenger train service connecting Ohio’s major cities and other cities within the region. The links below will help you identify your elected officials.
Please note that emails are rapidly losing their effectiveness due to the increasing use of massive mailing lists. On the federal level, letters and postcards take an extremely long time to be delivered due to special postal handling requirements. We recommend phone calls first and emails second regarding passage of legislation. Otherwise if you are looking to express your opinion on a issue that is not time sensititve we recommend that you arrange a meeting at your legislator’s district office and/or send a letter to that office.
- The Ohio House of Representatives
- The Ohio Senate
- Governor Ted Strickland
- United States House of Representatives
- United States Senate
- The White House
All Aboard Ohio 309 South 4th Street, Suite 304,
Columbus, OH 43215
Office: (614) 228-6005