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2009 Alerts
ACTION ALERT: |
Thank you for joining WaysSouth in responding to the Transportation for America request and writing your Representative about the transportation bill. Below is an opportunity to take your involvement with affecting transportation decisions at the national level a step further. This is the big push for this once-in-every-5-years opportunity to affect national transportation policy. Please follow up with a phone call in support of HR 2724. Details below. We need you to make one call to Congress to make sure transportation spending delivers. Call the Congressional Switchboard at 202-224-3121 and tell your representative to co-sponsor the National Transportation Objectives Act of 2009. Then let us know you made the call. Dear Supporter, As you read this, Congress is working on the new transportation bill, released just two days ago. It's a good start, but as the bill stands today, it leaves out something crucial: Clear national priorities. With Congress moving quickly on transportation, we need you need to go the extra mile today to make sure that Congress gets the message. That's why we're inviting you to join our national call-in day by calling your representative's office right now. It will make a real difference, and it only takes about one minute: 1. Call the Congressional Switchboard at 202-224-3121, and ask to speak to your representative's office.
3. After you hang up, please be sure to let us know that you made the call. Don't skip this step! It helps us track how many members of Congress we've reached. Without over-arching goals and targets - such as lower energy consumption, greater affordability, and expanded access - there's no way to be sure billions of dollars in transportation spending will truly deliver clean, safe and smart transportation. That's why your call today, as members of Congress are marking up the bill, is so important. The bill has a lot of what Transportation for America supporters like you have been pushing for, but today, it still falls short. We can do better. We can't keep pouring our precious tax dollars into the same old flawed transportation system that leaves us stuck without options. Let's tell Congress to make transportation funding smart, clean, and accountable starting TODAY. We need you to pick up the phone - make one simple call - and speak up for transportation reform. Thank you for your support at this important moment.
Sincerely, Ilana Preuss |
ACTION ALERT: |
WaysSouth is partnering with Transportation For America, a national transportation advocacy group, to affect change at the national transportation policy and planning level. Please take a moment to read over their action alert below regarding the next transportation bill. These bills only come every 5 years or so, and can have a profound impact on our region. Case in point: Interstate 3 was an earmark in the 2005 transportation bill. Please take action today! Big decisions about transportation funding must be made soon - before funding runs out. Make sure the money spent goes to projects that are clean, safe and smart. Tell your representative to make a stand: no more money without real reform! Dear Supporter, Capitol Hill is buzzing with the news: a new transportation bill is being introduced this week. And the Obama administration is pushing Congress to pass a funding plan quickly. Why the rush? Transportation funding is running out. But we can't afford to keep throwing money at transportation agencies unable to show progress on the issues that matter to us all: Affordable ways to get around; alternatives to congestion; reducing our oil dependency; protecting the climate; safe and vibrant communities and access to jobs. Tell Congress: No new money without a real, sustainable plan. The National Highway Trust Fund - which pays for road work, bike and pedestrian facilities and transit projects - will run out of money in August. With funds drying up, the pressure to throw more money at our problems is growing. Some in Congress are poised to take money from other needs to prop up the trust fund, which comes from gas taxes. They would prefer to go on spending our tax dollars without a real plan. But more money with no strings attached is not the answer. The U.S. hasn't had a vision for transportation policy in decades. We've been trying to build our way out of a congested and inefficient system with no accountability and no actual plan to link our roads, trains, buses, bikeways and pedestrian-friendly streets. The result? Longer, more frustrating, less safe and increasingly expensive commutes for all of us. But now we have an opportunity for change. We must ensure that our country's transportation investments strengthen our economy, our environment and our health. Tell your representative we need real reform before we throw more money at our problems. Don't let Congress make the same mistakes it's made in the past. We must fund transportation, and we must do it right this time. Thank you for your support at this crucial moment. Sincerely, Ilana Preuss |
ACTION ALERT: |
Yesterday, someone said to me, " Oh, I-3, isn't that dead?" No, my friends, it is NOT dead. The legislation for the study remains as law. The Federal Highway Administration has said it intends to begin the study "shortly." They do not define "shortly," and so far over three years have passed. It will be at least three more months until a contract to begin the study would be approved and begun. We still have time to make one more effort to rescind the study. Ask that the study be rescinded. Below is a letter WaysSouth has sent to the Office of Management and Budget. Use these ideas and write your own letter. Let us know if you submit a letter. E-mail to www.whitehouse.gov/contact/, subject line “Attn: Dr. Orszag” Now is not the time for the government to waste any more of our money.
Lucy E. Bartlett Chair, WaysSouth Board of Directors |