Following Pappas’s advocacy, the Active Transportation Infrastructure Investment Program was successfully included in bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act
On February 8, Congressman Chris Pappas (NH-01), Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), and Congressman Jared Huffman (CA-02) sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), urging the Biden administration to request full funding for the new Active Transportation Infrastructure Investment Program—recently authorized in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act—in the President's proposed Fiscal Year 2023 annual budget.
The Active Transportation Infrastructure Investment Program (ATIIP) is a modified version of the Connecting America's Active Transportation System Act, which the lawmakers introduced and successfully secured in the recent bipartisan infrastructure law. This program authorizes $200 million annually—for a total of $1 billion over five years—to connect walking and biking infrastructure into accessible, affordable, and safe active transportation networks that allow people to reach destinations within a community, as well as travel between communities, without ever needing a car. Appropriations are now needed to implement this new program.
"Full funding for the ATIIP would help meet the overwhelming nationwide demand for active transportation networks that provide opportunities for safe walking and bicycling to daily destinations," wrote the lawmakers. "The ATIIP would also help our nation meet key goals the Biden administration has laid out for transportation investments, including reducing greenhouse gas emissions, reversing rising fatalities and serious injuries among pedestrians and bicyclists, providing equitable mobility options, and rebuilding our local economies from the COVID-19 pandemic."
A copy of the lawmakers' letter can be found here.
The Connecting America's Active Transportation System Act was endorsed by: Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, Adventure Cycling, America Walks, American College of Sports Medicine, American Public Health Association, American Society of Landscape Architects, American Trails, Association of Programs for Rural Independent Living, Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund, East Coast Greenway, League of American Bicyclists, LOCUS, National Disability Rights Network, National League of Cities, National Recreation and Parks Association, Natural Resources Defense Council, Outdoor Industry Association, People for Bikes, Policy Link, Project for Public Spaces, Safe Routes to Schools National Partnership, Transportation for America, Southern Environmental Law Center, and Trust for America's Health.
Original source can be found here.
