Senate releases transportation bill outline

In advance of a hearing on Thursday called “Legislative Issues for Transportation Reauthorization,” the U.S. Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works has released a three page outline of their transportation reauthorization bill. The outline is light on details — and that’s where the devil is. We hope to learn more on Thursday.

So far, the outline is consistent with what we had heard. Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century, as the Sentate version of the bill is known, authorized federal transportation spending for two-years “while maintaining current spending levels.” It will consolidate the core funding programs into seven:

• The National Highway Performance Program
• The Transportation Mobility Program
• National Freight Program
• Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program
• Highway Safety Improvement Program

The words “bicycle and pedestrian” don’t appear anywhere in the outline – we are hoping that they will make it into the fine print and that dedicated funding will appear in the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality program at the very least.

Be prepared to take action in the days ahead.