Dear Friend,

The U.S. House of Representatives has finally released their multi-year transportation reauthorization proposal and will mark up and vote on the bill in committee this Thursday.

This gives us a small window of time to improve the bill as it stands, and we need your help.

Your representative is on the House transportation committee, and we need your help to support a positive change that would direct more money to America’s towns and cities of all sizes and improve transparency in how local projects are funded.

Send a message to your rep on the committee urging them to support the Davis-Titus amendment.

An amendment from Representatives Davis (R-IL) and Titus (D-NV) would significantly increase transportation funding at the local level by giving local communities control over or access to approximately $1.9 billion more per year than under current law.

Medium- and larger-sized metropolitan areas would have more flexible money that they can invest in almost any type of local project, whether a project to improve a road, increase the reach of transit, or make a street safer for biking and walking.

States would no longer be able to steamroll a small community’s wishes, and a new process would make it clear which projects applied for funding and how the state prioritized and selected them. 

This House bill is far from the kind of transformational, reform-minded bill that we were hoping for. It punts on the question of new, sustainable revenue sources, essentially leaving the section blank specifying where the money comes from to pay for the six years of policy contained in this bill. 

But this very tangible improvement is one worth fighting for to include in this bill before it moves to the House floor. It’s a win for local communities, and we need to ensure that it’s in the final bill. Can you help? The time is running out before Thursday’s markup.

Send a message to your representative and ask them to support the amendment from Reps. Davis and Titus during markup on Thursday.

Thanks for all you do,

Stephen Lee Davis
Director of Communications
Transportation for America