Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09), a senior member of the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, plans to vote tomorrow on an ambitious, five-year surface transportation bill containing several of his legislative priorities. The measure, the Investing in a New Vision for the Environment and Surface Transportation (INVEST) in America Act, contains Congressman Cohen’s member-designated projects to improve Elvis Presley Boulevard in the Whitehaven community; purchase six all-electric buses for the Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA); reconstruct the intersection of Poplar Avenue and Cooper Street at Overton Park; improve traffic flow at Lamar Avenue, Kimball Avenue and Pendleton Street; and install pedestrian- and cyclist-friendly improvements to increase safety at a critical intersection near LeMoyne-Owen College.
Congressman Cohen made the following statement:
“The INVEST in America Act is a major investment in America and shows the United States can again ‘think big’ to meet the critical transportation needs of our country. Major elements of this bill will make a huge difference to the people of the 9th Congressional District. These investments in America will improve and speed up the movement of freight, increase traffic safety, and modernize our transportation infrastructure for the 21st Century.”
Just as Memphis experiences the traffic nightmare caused by a cracked beam on the Hernando DeSoto-Interstate 40 Bridge over the Mississippi River, which demonstrates the need to improve aging infrastructure, the INVEST in America Act includes $32 billion for improvements to bridges.
The bill also includes provisions Congressman Cohen introduced, including:
- H.R. 1809, the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Highway Act, which would name U.S. Highway 80, from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Highway;
- H.R. 3090, the Interstate Rail Compacts Advancement Act, which would create multi-state passenger rail commissions to promote regional coordination and sustain a vision of passenger rail service across the country;
- H.R. 921, the Horse Transportation Safety Act, which would protect the lives of both horses and humans as horses are transported on our nation’s highways by prohibiting interstate transportation of horses in a motor vehicle containing two or more levels stacked on top of one another.
Original source can be found here.
