congress

Senate transportation bill includes strong support for smart growth strategies

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The Senate voted today on its version of the federal surface transportation bill, passing the measure 74-22. The two-year, $109 billion bill includes several key provisions Smart Growth America supports:

  • The bill invests in repair for aging transportation infrastructure. The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials most recently gave the U.S. an embarassingly low “D” for its infrastructure. Constructed decades ago to help connect a growing economy, our infrastructure is now holding us back. Investing in repair is also a wise financial decision: as Smart Growth America’s report Repair Priorities explained, investing in road preservation and repair makes the most of existing resources and limits future liabilities.
  • The bill will help communities improve their Main Streets through funding opportunities for revitalization projects. Simple things like streetscape improvements can support local businesses and town centers across the country.
  • The bill will give communities the choice to create safe and low cost transportation options, like sidewalks and bike paths. This provision is particularly important as gas prices continue to climb.
  • The bill encourages states to develop complete streets polices, that make streets safer and more convenient for pedestrians, cyclists and drivers alike.
  • The bill takes critical steps toward a performance-based system that will make our transportation system more efficient and effective, and help make sure our national investments are sound.
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As the House transportation bill languishes, there's still time to 'fix it first'

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Crossposted from the Huffington Post.

Let’s look on the bright side of life.

By all accounts, you would be hard-pressed today to find anyone who views congressional inaction positively. But with the House of Representatives’ transportation package languishing amid opposition from both Democrats and Republicans, members of Congress at least have added time to address the bill’s severe shortcomings.

Our country’s roads and bridges are in desperate need of repair, so crafting economically beneficial legislation with bipartisan support should be lawmakers’ top priority. Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica has already shown us what’s possible when business development and other interests meet, including language in the House bill that would spur development around transit stations and jumpstart real estate investment. With that kind of cooperative leadership as a model, the House would be wise to make the following revisions, showing voters that it’s the congressional branch with the capacity to get things done in an election year.

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Speak out for Main Streets in the Senate transportation bill

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Last week, the House of Representatives introduced their surface transportation reauthorization bill. Their proposal, H.R. 7, the American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act, threatens to derail federal funding for public transportation, and we’re still fighting to change their proposed bill. If you were one of the many supporters who spoke out against H.R. 7, thank you.

This week, the Senate has begun working on its version of the bill and we need your help to make it as strong as possible.

A bipartisan amendment to the Senate bill sponsored by Senator Cardin of Maryland and Senator Cochran of Mississippi would give local governments a larger say over a share of state transportation dollars. This change to the current bill would give local leaders a greater voice and more direct access to money for projects like main street revitalization.

Will you speak out for Main Streets in the Senate transportation bill? Click here to send a letter to your Senators.

As it’s currently written, the Senate bill would take the limited funds once dedicated to improving safety and conditions for people on foot and bike, and transfer them to state departments of transportation for expensive highway construction instead.

The Senate vote could happen as soon as this week, and this amendment is one of the most important that we’ll see. By setting money aside, the Cardin-Cochran amendment would ensure local communities can get the money they need for the projects they want.

Take one minute to send a message to your Senators: Ask them to support the Cardin-Cochran amendment today.

If you think our transportation bill should give communities the resources they need to build Main Streets that are attractive to businesses, pedestrian friendly and safer for everyone using them, tell your Senator to sponsor this amendment.

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Call your Representatives to oppose a House transportation bill so "uniquely bad" it "defies belief"

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Today, thousands of people from across the country are calling their representatives in the House to urge them to vote “NO” vote on HR 7, the House transportation bill. The House bill would eliminate dedicated funding for public transportation – a crucial component of smart growth development – and negatively impact business expansion and job creation when America needs them most. The bill would also eliminate the tiny amount of funding that helps make dangerous streets and roads safer for pedestrians, cyclsts and drivers alike. The bill fails to go far enough to fix the country’s bridges and roads, and also fails to create more options for getting around.

America needs an updated federal transportation bill, but this proposal is not it. Join the fight to improve this bill by calling your Representative today.

Today, Smart Growth America and Transportation for America are part of a massive national call-in day rallying opposition to this bill from an unbelievably broad set of groups. Environmental activists, business leaders, labor union members, transit riders and transit workers, elected officials – the list keeps growing, and we all agree that the House bill makes two steps backward for every step forward.

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National Brownfields Coalition successfully advocates for federal brownfields program in FY 2012

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For small towns, cleaning up a contaminated brownfield can seem like an insurmountable challenge. Rehabilitating former industrial sites, abandoned gas stations or other polluted land can be complicated and expensive – but transforming this land can have enormous benefits to both the environment and the economy. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s Brownfields Program helps communities of all sizes achieve these goals.

As Congress debated the federal budget for Fiscal Year (FY) 2012, Smart Growth America’s National Brownfields Coalition ramped up a national campaign to support the EPA Brownfields Program in the FY 2012 appropriations process. Faced with $40 million in proposed cuts from the House of Representatives, the Coalition reached deep into its membership to generate support for this important federal program. The Coalition asked mayors and economic development directors across the country to contact their Members of Congress and successfully reached nearly three-quarters of the members of the Interior and Environment Appropriations subcommittees.

The result of these efforts was that $35 million of those proposed cuts were restored. Among the many efforts involved in achieving this goal, dozens of towns, elected officials, non-profits, companies and other organizations sent letters to their members of Congress supporting the EPA Brownfields Program in FY 2012 appropriations.

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Bi-partisan support evident at Senate Environment and Public Works hearing

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Evans Paull, Executive Director of the National Brownfields Coalition, was among those who testified before Congress in October at a joint hearing of the Senate Full and Subcommittee on Superfund, Toxics and Environmental Health entitled, “Oversight Hearing on the Brownfields Program – Cleaning Up and Rebuilding Communities.” Paull began his testimony:

I wanted to start today by calling your attention to brownfields community turn-around projects that have been carried out in some of the states that are represented on this Committee. There is a recurring theme that I want to stress. EPA brownfields funds, although modest in the larger picture of multimillion dollar redevelopment projects, are often the first funds in to help communities lay the groundwork for turning blighted contaminated properties into new community assets. It would be hard to overstate the importance of these critical resources – EPA funds essentially function to allay fears of the unknown, and then, once known, the funds work in concert with state and local resources to counter the extra costs of redeveloping brownfields. The payoffs from these modest investments in leveling the playing field are enormous, because it’s not just about cleaning up and redeveloping X, Y, and Z site. It’s also about enabling communities to re-position their economies, taking the failed industries of the past and retooling those sites to enable future growth and improved quality of life.

Paull was joined in by David Lloyd, Director of the EPA Office of Brownfields and Land Revitalization; Mayor Mick Cornett of Oklahoma City; Elizabeth Spinelli, Executive Director of the Hudson County Economic Development Corporation; Aaron Scheff, Brownfields Program Manager at the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality; and Marjorie Weidenfeld Buckholtz, President of Environmental Consulting Solutions.

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Contact your Representative TODAY to protect federal transit funding

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Dedicated funding for public transit is in a fight for its life.

Late last night, the House of Representative’s Ways and Means Committee released their proposal for a federal surface transportation bill. The bill would eliminate dedicated funding for public transit and jeopardize these funds for years to come.

Speak out for transit: Send a messge to your Representative today.

Removing the guarantee on funding would mean that transit would have to compete each year for general fund revenues. As Congress looks for ways to slash federal funding, this change puts transit funding in danger of deep cuts in coming years.

Help fight this proposed bill: send a message to your Representative today.

Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle have supported dedicated transit funding as a way to relieve congestion and help workers reach jobs quickly, efficiently and affordably. As the American economy slowly recovers, demand for transit has been rising across the country – and now is not the time to jeopardize federal support for these programs.

Contacting your members of Congress is simple and only takes a few minutes. Help defend dedicated funding for transit: Click here to send a letter to your Representative.

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Anderson: Address the Housing Crisis's Underlying Issues

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The following op-ed was crossposted from Roll Call.

President Barack Obama and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke seem enamored with renting foreclosed properties to blunt price decreases and to stir economic recovery, but that’s a bandage for symptoms as opposed to a real cure.

Instead, we need to learn from the problems that landed us in this mess in the first place, working to bring government policies in line with good business sense and to incentivize market-driven development.

Or, in the words of investor Warren Buffett, “Should you find yourself in a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is likely to be more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks.”

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Speak out for EPA's Office of Sustainable Communities

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If new development threatened to pollute your drinking water, who would you look to for help? If your children had to walk past a contaminated empty lot on their way to school, how would you go about fixing it?

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Sustainable Communities helps towns and cities address these kinds of problems. These issues pose a threat not only to our health but to our economy, and the Office of Sustainable Communities helps local leaders protect both.

But now the Office itself is in danger. Congress is debating funding for fiscal year 2012, and now is a crucial time to tell your Members of Congress that you support these important programs.

Please take a moment to voice your support: email your Members of Congress today.

The EPA’s Office of Sustainable Communities does more than just protect air and water quality. The Office helps communities develop in ways that are fiscally sound and support their economy for decades to come. And as part of the federal Partnership for Sustainable Communities, the Office also helps make the most of taxpayer investments.

Tell Congress that you support the work of the EPA: send an email today.

Emailing your Members of Congress is easy and only takes a few minutes, but your letter could make all the difference. Please take a moment to email Congress today.

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Congress does not include funding for HUD’s Sustainable Communities Initiative in FY 2012

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Washington, DC – The conference report for the FY 2012 minibus, which includes funding for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) eliminates funds for the Sustainable Communities Initiative. The program served as HUD’s contribution to the interagency Partnership for Sustainable Communities, a collaborative effort between HUD, the Department of Transportation and the Environmental Protection Agency.

Geoffrey Anderson, President and CEO of Smart Growth America, released the following statement:

“The Partnership for Sustainable Communities is one of the federal government’s most effective tools, and HUD’s crucial role in that program will be almost certainly eliminated by these cuts. If you think building homes that people can afford near jobs and schools is a sound strategy for rebuilding our economy, if you think local governments can partner to deliver service more efficiently, if you want to help communities copy other localities that have saved hundreds of millions in federal infrastructure funding, this was the program for you.

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