STOP ASSAULT ON TRANSIT BY HOUSE WAYS AND MEANS

There's still time to call your representative on the House Ways & Means Committee — which is marking up its transportation funding bill this morning, and could end 30 years of providing dedicated funding for public transportation from the federal gas tax. Instead transit would have to fight for funding through the annual appropriations process. The national Transportation for America coalition yesterday gathered signatures from more than 600 organizations, elected officials and notable individuals decrying the move — including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, AARP, the American Public Transportation Association, the National Rural Assembly, American Society of Civil Engineers, LOCUS (real estate developers), National Association of Counties, the governors of Oregon and Washington, several state DOTs, state and local Chambers of Commerce, and hundreds of state and local organizations nationwide.

There is a link to the sign-on letter and more info at the bottom of this page. This is the biggest and most dangerous move that the House has made against transit. There are phone numbers for some districts below, and the T4America website allows you to find your representative by zipcode and send a message.

Republicans
Wally Herger, CA - Northern Central CA 202-225-3076, District 530-893-8363
Devin Nunes, CA - Fresno/Central Valley 202-225-2523, District 559-323-5235

Democrats
Mike Thompson, CA - Northern CA: he doesn't need to be swayed...he just needs to get a lot of traffic on this so that he will push as hard as possible on this. 202-225-3311, District 707-226-9898

Also call:
House Ways and Means Committee
Dave Camp, Chair, 202-225-3625
Fortney Pete Stark CA 202-225-5065, District 510-494-1388
Xavier Becerra CA 202-225-6235, District 213-483-1425

In other news, both the Senate Banking Committee and the House T&I Committee passed their bills yesterday. The Senate bill was passed after a 30-minute markup, on a unanimous voice vote. The House bill, on the other hand, was passed by a party-line vote after an 18-hour markup in which 100 amendments were offered.

Next stop for both bills: the floor of their respective chambers.

The sign-on letter and more info is here.