Thanks to your efforts and those of advocates across the county, the transportation authorization funding bill on the floor of the U.S. Senate, S. 1813, now contains several key amendments.

This includes the Cardin-Cochran amendment that increases local control over bicycle and pedestrian funding, the Franken-Blunt amendment that supports bridge repair, and the Landrieu-Murray amendment that protects funding for metropolitan areas. Also, small MPOs in regions with fewer than 200,000 people are no longer subject to approval by the governor to continue their work, as MAP-21 had originally proposed.

While the bill still has problems, such as rolling up programs and turning them over to state departments of transportatin, please call and thank Senators Levin and Stabenow  and ask them to support these amendments. While the bill is not perfect, it is important that these amendments remain intact and without any of the amendments being proposed that have nothing to do with transportation!

A vote can occur anytime this week, please call!.

Arnold Weinfeld is Director of Strategic Initiatives and Federal Affairs for the Michigan Municipal League. He can be reached at 517-908-0304 or by e-mail.