What's Happening:
June 16, 2005
This
morning’s meeting of the Senate conferees to discuss the overall
funding level has been postponed. We don’t know when they will
meet and there seems increasing acceptance that another
extension will be required, based on the difficult discussions
between the House and the White House. Some, however, remain
hopeful that all parties can agree on a number next week – of
course we are following events closely and will let you know
when this significant obstacle has been overcome. Only then will
decisions be made on differences between the 2 bills.
PM June 15,
2005
White
House Resolute on $284 Billion.
Senior White
House staff met with senior conference members this afternoon to
discuss funding levels and failed to reach agreement. The
consensus from the conferees was that a compromise between the
Senate and House figures should be reach (around $289.5 billion)
while the White House remains committed to $284 billion.
Senate
Republican conferees will meet again this afternoon in an
attempt to reach agreement on a figure to present to their
Democrat colleagues tomorrow.
AM June 15,
2005
Deadlock Over Funding Levels
The
reauthorization conference committee met yesterday amid much
anticipation that a big breakthrough was immanent on the
headline funding figure for the bill, following recent
statements from House and Senate leaders suggesting $289-$290
billion as a good compromise. We understand that $286.5 billion
was proposed on the House side but flatly rejected by some on
the Senate side and the meeting broke up.
Senate
conferees met
this morning to discuss yesterday’s House offer and it’s
reported that a majority of the conferees want a higher number
than the proposed $286.5 billion. They will meet again this
afternoon to see if they can come up with such a number and make
an offer from the Senate side. Until they do, it isn’t expected
that there will be a joint meeting of the conference, so
agreement on this issue remains vital to our agenda.
Check back
for more details soon!
June
14, 2005
Breaking News – Conference committee leadership will meet at
3:30 today to confirm a big step forward in the reauthorization process
that we believe is an agreement on the headline cost of the
bill. The conference leadership is schedule to meet with the
White House tomorrow morning to confirm a funding level
agreement. This increases the likelihood of a bill being passed
by June 30th.
STPP Report Supports
H.R. 3 Bicycling Provisions
The Surface Transportation Policy Project (STPP) and the Center
for Neighborhood Technology (CNT) released a study this morning,
“Driven
to Spend: Pumping Dollars Out of Our Households and
Communities” highlighting the increasing cost of
transportation. But the report shows that
families pay the least in areas with
the greatest number of transportation choices.
Driven to Spend
argues for an ‘increased funding share for auto alternatives’
during the current TEA-21 reauthorization process and highlights
the importance of core America Bikes programs such as ‘Safe
Routes to School’, ‘Fair Share for Safety’ and ‘Non-Motorized
Pilot Programs’.
To read the report in full go to
www.transact.org.
June 13, 2005
More on the Conference
Opening
statements were read on the first day of conference last
Thursday but little of substance has been agreed.
It does
seem that bicycling components of the bills with be considered
as a package and we hear that Hill staffers are hoping to reach
agreement on various key areas of difference by Friday. But
concern still remains that the overall $284 billion spending
ceiling set by the President will be exceeded and how this may
effect the likelihood of a bill being passed by the June 30th
deadline.
June
7, 2005
The House and Senate are moving quickly to
resolve the differences between the two version of the federal
transportation bill. The conference process is a series of
meetings and conversations between House and Senate staff and
members, and issues may be revisited several times. Throughout
the conference proceedings, America Bikes will do our best to
keep you informed on how our issues are doing. All this week we
will be posting and highlighting new fact sheets on our primary
issues. Please check back often for updates, and be ready if we
need your help – while massive mobilizations generally are not
necessary, we will send out targeted action alerts as needed.
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