The Hill News

Earlier today, Representative John Mica (R-Fla.), chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, announced his intended approach for the transportation reauthorization bill that puts him firmly at odds with his own constituents. 

County commissions, city councils and transportation planning organizations throughout Mica's 7th Congressional District have passed blunt resolutions opposing Mica's plan to give block grants to state DOT -- instead of a proven system of dedicating federal funds to Transportation Enhancements, Safe Routes to School and the Recreational Trails Program. The resolutions emphatically support these core programs that fund trails and other bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure. Yet these popular and hugely effective programs - which cost less than two percent of the surface transportation budget but provide for more than 12 percent of trips in America -- would be severely undermined by Mica's radical new approach.

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