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Legislative alert: Important House amendment seeks to maintain transit funding

BART RIDERS URGED TO WEIGH IN NOW

To Preserve the Mass Transit Account Contact your Congressional Representative to support the  “Nadler-LaTourette-Blumenauer” Amendment to the House Bill. This week Congress is debating long delayed transportation legislation that will impact public transit for years to come.  The US House version (H.R. 7) would eliminate dedicated and guaranteed funding for transit.

Contact your Congressional Representative: http://www.house.gov/representatives/
Contact  your US Senators:  http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm 

ATTENTION: At a time when more riders want to take public transit -- H.R. 7 would make future funding unreliable for BART and other public transit systems in the nation.

• HR 7 would eliminate a reliable, long-term financing mechanism for public transportation first established under President Reagan in 1983, and substitute increasingly fewer General Fund dollars instead of the gas tax to support public transit.  H.R. 7 also seeks future financing for public transit through new domestic oil and gas drilling and leasing.

• HR 7 would create a new “Alternative Transportation Account” to fund federal transit program from 2013 to 2016, but leave transit without any funding source when those funds run out in 2016.  This would put BART progress and reliability at stake.

• An important amendment will be offered by Congressmen Nadler (D-NY), La Tourette (R-OH) and Blumenauer (D-OR) that seeks to strike this onerous, anti-transit provision from the legislation and better preserve ongoing funding for public transit.

• Public transit remains an important part of the nation’s entire transportation system. Federal support assists state and federal goals to reduce congestion, provide access to jobs, and supports private sector jobs in communities across the country. 
 
• BART supports the preservation of the Mass Transit Account.

  Find out more information about the Nadler, La Tourette and Blumenauer amendment (.pdf).