Hi Friend, 

"As everyone testifying today will say, we have great need to invest in our transportation system, including our roads, bridges, and transit systems. However, Transportation for America believes that our problems run far deeper than just an overall lack of funding."

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This morning we are testifying before Congress as part of our ongoing advocacy for smarter investments in our transportation infrastructure.

As the Trump administration readies both an annual budget and continues to discuss a possible large infrastructure package, lawmakers in Congress want to make sure they know what to prioritize, and they’ve asked Transportation for America for our input. 

T4A’s Senior Policy Advisor Beth Osborne is going before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (THUD) later this morning, March 8.

Tune in to the live stream video of the hearing scheduled to begin at 10:00 am EST. 

Beth will be making the case for the federal government's critical role in promoting innovation, encouraging collaboration, and maximizing benefits in transportation investments through federal programs such as TIGER and New Starts (transit capital construction). These programs reward local leaders like you who are developing better connectivity options and encouraging less expensive development patterns.

Here's a sample of the written testimony she'll be delivering:

"One of the places where [coordinating funding streams and planning efforts] can have the greatest impact is when transportation and development decisions are coordinated with one another to serve the same goals.

...I think about the two houses in Florida that are 70 feet apart but require a seven-mile drive to get from one to the other. Such a roadway and land use pattern is almost designed with the express purpose of generating traffic snarls. But the problem is not categorized as a development or road connectivity problem — it is put to the state and the federal government as a congestion problem that requires big spending to widen roads.  

I think about my brother’s house in Baton Rouge that is three blocks from the grocery store but he has to drive there because he is not willing to walk in 45 mph traffic with his kids. Then the mass of cars required to carry everyone on every three-block trip is presented not as a development and connectivity problem but as a traffic problem that requires big spending to widen roads."

Join the fight for smarter investments

Critical decisions will be made this spring

The next several months are shaping up to be a do-or-die time for transportation here in Washington.

Between looming budget cuts and the potential of a trillion dollar infrastructure package coming out of the Oval Office, we will need to make the case for these investments more effectively than ever before.

Join the effort: Become a member of T4A, subscribe, or follow us on Twitter and Facebook to add your voice to this effort in the coming months.