Recreational Trails Program targeted for elimination

[Grumpy]

FUNDING FOR RTP ON THE CHOPPING BLOCK AGAIN!
Your help needed to save the Recreational Trails Program (RTP)!

Dear BRC Action Alert Subscriber,

Back in July of this year, BRC, along with other user groups, asked for your help in fending off an attempt by the Senate to eliminate the federal Recreational Trails Program (RTP). Well the fight is not over. Unfortunately another effort is under way by members of the House to eliminate this important trail funding.

BRC has been contacted by the Coalition for Recreational Trails (CRT) asking for your help to stop this move to eliminate the RTP. CRT has just learned that two amendments to HR 3763, the Surface Transportation Reauthorization and Reform Act of 2015, have been filed that would specifically eliminate the RTP. The first amendment -- #69 - was filed by Rep. Buddy Carter (R-GA). The second -- #158 - was filed by Rep. Ted Yoho (R-FL).

Consideration of amendments by the U.S. House of Representatives is scheduled to begin on Tuesday, November 3rd, and continue through Wednesday, November 4th. Time is short, the time for action is now. Your help is needed to defeat these amendments by contacting your Congressional Representative.

Please tell the Members of Congress to VOTE NO on the Carter and Yoho amendments. These amendments would destroy the RTP - the essential program that has served as the foundation of state trail programs all across the country for more than 20 years.

RTP is a user-pay/user-benefit program. These amendments would take the federal gas taxes paid by non-highway recreationists away from the trails community and use them for other purposes. This is bad policy and it's wrong.

Contact your legislator NOW to tell him or her to VOTE NO on the Carter and Yoho amendments. To find and contact your Congressperson go to http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/.

Thanks,

Don Amador
Western Representative
BlueRibbon Coalition
brdon@sharetrails.org

[Grumpy]

Another change in the RTP saga

In case you haven’t already heard the wonderful news, neither of the anti-RTP amendments that we alerted you about last Friday will be considered on the House floor. The first one (#69) was withdrawn by Representative Buddy Carter. The second one (#158), filed by Representative Ted Yoho, did not make it through the Rules Committee’s vetting process yesterday. As a result, the RTP will be part of the Transportation Reauthorization bill that is eventually approved by the House of Representatives. And since the RTP was included in the legislation already passed by the Senate, we have every reason to expect that the Recreational Trails Program will be in the final version of the legislation that emerges from the House/Senate conference.

We are very grateful to the RTP supporters all over the country who made their voices heard in the last few days. Your strong support saved a program of great importance to the entire trails community. Congratulations on this most impressive achievement.

Marianne Wesley Fowler and Derrick A. Crandall, Co-Chairs, Coalition for Recreational Trails

Coalition for Recreational Trails

[SPR]

Good deal