ACTION ALERT: Contact Texas Senators to Save Recreational Trails

Texas trails need your help right now!

As soon as TODAY – Tuesday, March 6th – the U.S. Senate may take action on the transportation bill, also known as MAP-21.

We need your help to make sure that Senators Hutchison and Cornyn support the Klobuchar Amendment to MAP-21 (Amendment #1661) to protect the Recreational Trails Program and its dedicated funding as part of the final bill.

We know that grassroots advocacy can work in Washington – just last week Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid filed a new version of MAP-21 that reflects a level of support for walking and biking that BikeTexas and our federal partner organizations have been working hard to achieve.

Senator Reid’s draft bill includes a modified version of the bipartisan amendment cosponsored by Senators Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), which improves local access to Transportation Enhancements and Safe Routes to School funds.

This is a great preliminary victory for biking and walking – the first of two amendments we have been seeking is now largely reflected in the Senate transportation bill advanced by both parties.  

However, we still need broader support among all Senators for the Recreational Trails Program as restored by the Klobuchar Amendment to MAP-21.

This is where you come in — Now is the time to call and write to both of your U.S. Senators John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison:

Ask them to please support the Klobuchar Amendment (#1661) to the transportation bill (MAP-21).   

Let them know how important the Recreational Trails Program is for Texas:

• Unless the bill is amended, MAP-21 will effectively eliminate the Recreational Trails Program and seriously damage, if not destroy, the balanced system of trails for all users that the RTP has allowed Texas to develop and maintain over the last 20 years. The RTP leverages hundreds of millions of dollars of additional support from other sources for trails and facilitates healthy outdoor recreation and associated, badly needed economic activity in countless communities. Without the RTP, organized trail planning and development will simply vanish in many areas of the country.
• Right now, at an annual funding level of $85 million, the RTP receives less than 42% of the federal gas taxes paid every year by America’s nonhighway recreationists. Unless amended, MAP-21 will convert a legitimate user fee into an unfair tax, with recreationists subsidizing commercial and private highway users.  
• The return of gas taxes to trail users through the RTP is in keeping with the user-pay, user-benefit philosophy of the Highway Trust Fund. Ending dedicated funding for RTP takes these gas taxes away from the people who pay them.  Ending dedicated funding for RTP is bad public policy and just plain wrong.

As always, be sure to let your Senators know that you are a constituent and state your relevant affiliations, such as membership in BikeTexas. Be polite and thank them for their service to Texas. For more info, see our Guidelines on Writing Your Representatives. 

Please let us know when you have contacted your Senators, and be sure to send us a copy of any correspondance you receive. 

The combined efforts of advocates for biking, walking, and safe, efficient transportation choices are working. The developments last week in the Senate are encouraging, but we are not through yet. Please contact both Senators Cornyn and Hutchison TODAY.

We look forward to your continued commitment to BikeTexas and our efforts to make Texas a great place to walk and bike. 

Sincerely,

Robin Stallings

Executive Director