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Southern California Transit Advocates is a non-profit organization dedicated to the promotion, development and improvement of public transportation in the Los Angeles metropolitan area.
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Legislative Update Activists have praised Jim Shultz's book Democracy Owners' Manual as a useful guide for people who want to learn how to change public policy at the local, state, national or international level. Stephanie Vance aka the AdVocacy Guru provides tips on effective lobbying of Congress. You can find out who your state and federal legislative representatives are (along with contact information) via the database at this link. The Southern California Association of Goverments has prepared a Legislative Reference Guide on effective advocacy: http://www.scag.ca.gov/publications/pdf/2006/scag06LegRefGuide.pdf LEGISLATIVE PROCESS In-depth discussion and presentation of the overall federal legislative process can be found in "How Our Laws are Made" and "Enactment of a Law". An overview of many aspects of the federal legislative process can be found in The Legislative Process and Tying it All Together. Also of value are in-depth Congressional Research Service reports on aspects of the House legislative process. UC Berkeley Library's Congressional Research Tutorials provide instruction on how to find Congressional materials in the Library and on the Internet via a series of Flash videos. An authoritative and detailed description of California's legislative process is found in California's Legislature (in Acrobat format). Overviews of the state legislative process are on the websites of the Chief Clerk of the Assembly and the Legislative Counsel. The following listings of transportation-related legislation are courtesy of Metro's Government Relations Department. and the national advocacy coalition Transportation For America. STATE LEGISLATION SB 1245 (Simitian) -- would provide that a vehicle that meets the applicable occupancy level for a High-Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) for use of an HOV lane, including a High-Occupancy Toll (HOT) lane, shall not be charged a toll. (Passed by the Senate June 2; currently being held without recommendation in the Assembly Transportation Committee.) SB 1268 (Simitian) -- would impose restrictions on the data collected by transportation agencies that operate toll facilities. (Passed by the Senate June 1; passed by the Assembly Transportation Committee June 22, passed by the Assembly Judicial Committee July 6 and re-referred to the Assembly Appropriations Committee.) SB 1299 (Lowenthal) -- would require the Department of Motor Vehicles to develop and implement, by January 1, 2012, a pilot program designed to assess various issues associated with implementing a Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) fee. (Passed by the Senate Transportation & Housing Committee April 14; in suspense file at the Senate Appropriations Committee.) SB 1341 (Price) -- would authorize Metro to expand the existing Small Business Enterprise (SBE) Program to non-federally funded competitively bid contracts. (Passed by the Senate May 28; passed by the Assembly Local Government Committee June 28 and re-referred to the Assembly Transportation Committee.) SB 1348 (Steinberg) -- would codify a procedure for the California Transportation Commission (CTC) to adopt legislatively mandated guidelines. (Passed by the Senate June 3; passed by the Assembly Transportation Committee June 17 and by the Assembly Appropriations Committee June 30; now awaiting action by the full Assembly.) AB 1224 (Eng) -- would revise the implementation dates for Metro’s ExpressLanes project. (Passed by the Assembly January 27; passed by the Senate Transportation & Housing Committee June 16, passed by the Senate Appropriations Committee June 29 and now pending action in the full Senate.) AB 1955 (De La Torre) -- would add three additional circumstances that would qualify as incompatible public offices and exempts supervisors or council members who have declared themselves as the community redevelopment agency. (Re-referred to the Assembly Local Government Committee June 23 and is now in the suspense file there.) AB 2121 (Harkey) -- would require the California High-Speed Rail Authority to annually adopt a six-year program for submission to the Legislature and the Governor. (Passed by the Assembly June 3; awaiting committee assignment in the Senate.) AB 2324 (Pérez) -- would create new misdemeanors and recasts fines and punishments for crimes committed upon public transit vehicle stations. (Passed the Assembly May 13; passed by the Senate Public Safety Committee June 22 and now pending a hearing in the Senate Appropriations Committee.) AB 2620 (Eng) -- would dedicate an unspecified percentage of net toll revenues from future toll facilities on the state highway system for maintenance, reservation, and rehabilitation of the state system. (Passed by the Assembly June 3; passed by the Senate Transportation & Housing Committee June 29 and re-referred to the Senate Appropriations Committee.) AB 2703 (Pérez) -- would authorize loans of future federal economic stimulus funds to advance projects scheduled to be funded from Proposition 1B infrastructure bonds. (Passed by the Assembly Appropriations Committee May 12; passed by the Senate Transportation & Housing Committee June 29 and re-referred to the Senate Appropriations Committee.) FEDERAL LEGISLATION H.R. 1329 (Blumenauer) / S. 575 (Carper), the Clean, Low-Emission, Affordable, New Transportation Efficiency (CLEAN-TEA) Act, would set aside 10% of funds generated from a future cap and trade system and direct those funds to the transportation sector. (Referred to the House Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials March 6, 2009; referred to the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works March 11, 2009.) H.R. 2346 (Obey), the Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2009, includes a provision that would allow transit agencies to use up to 10 percent of their American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds to cover operating costs of "equipment and facilities for use in public transportation." (Signed into law by the President June 24, 2009.) H.R. 2454 (Waxman), the American Clean Energy and Security Act, includes a provision to allow states to use up to 1% of the funding to invest in transportation projects that reduce greenhouse gases. (Passed by the House June 26, 2009; tied to S. 1733 in the Senate.) H.R. 2746 (Carnahan) / S. 3189 (Brown), expands the urbanized area formula grants program to include public transit projects in urbanized areas with a population of at least 200,000, and urbanized areas with a population of between 200,000 and 400,000, if the state or regional authority that provides public transportation for the area operates less than 100 buses in fixed-route service in the area during peak service hours. (Referred to the House Subcommittee on Highways and Transit June 9, 2009; referred to the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs March 26, 2010.) H.R. 2521 (DeLauro), the National Infrastructure Development Bank Act of 2009, would facilitate efficient investments and financing of infrastructure projects and new job creation through the establishment of a National Infrastructure Development Bank. (Referred to the House Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment May 20, 2009.) H.R. 2724 (Holt), the National Transportation Objectives Act of 2009, would establish national transportation objectives and performance targets for the purpose of assessing progress toward meeting national transportation objectives. (Referred to the House Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials June 4, 2009.) S. 1341 (Menendez), the Close the SILO/LILO Loophole Act, would attempt to remove the ability of banks to seek windfall profits on sale-in/lease out (SILO) and lease-in/lease out (LILO) agreements engaged in by Metro, Metrolink and other transportation agencies. (Referred to the Senate Finance Committee June 24, 2009.) S. 1619 (Dodd) / H.R. 4690 (Perlmutter), the Livable Communities Act of 2009, would establish a comprehensive planning grant program and establish a sustainability challenge grant program. (Referred to the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs June 9, 2010; referred to the House Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment February 26, 2010.) S. 1733 (Kerry), the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act, would establish of a cap and trade system for greenhouse gas emission allowances and set goals of reducing U.S. emissions. (Introduced February 2, 2010; House version, H.R. 2454, passed June 26, 2009.) S. 3412 (Dodd) / H.R. 5418 (McMahon), the Public Transportation Preservation Act of 2010, would allow for federal operating subsidies to those transit systems which implemented fare increases or service cutbacks due to the loss of other subsidies. (Referred to the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs May 25, 2010; referred to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure May 26, 2010.) So.CA.TA has taken a support position on this legislation. MEDIA COVERAGE A useful tool to keep up on the state and local issues is the website Rough and Tumble which provides links to policy oriented articles published by newspapers throughout California. The blog L.A. Observed covers politics and culture in Los Angeles. Often the weekly Sacramento News and Review has articles on state government of interest. Destination: Freedom; The newsletter of the National Corridors Initiative is a weekly update on North American rail and transit news: http://www.nationalcorridors.org/#NEWSLETTER (a tip of the hat to SO.CA.TA member Ken Ruben for bringing this to our attention). The Dorothy Peyton Grey Transportation Library at Metro compiles "Transportation Headlines" each weekday, a compilation of links to articles (local and national) of interest on transportation issues. Kymberleigh Richards, on her website the Transit Insider, carries current editions in web format. Transportation Headlines is also distributed via e-mail; to be added to the distribution list sign up at this site. The MTC Library posts the links of the past week of its e-mail based transportation headlines, compiled from Bay Area newspapers plus a few national ones (Washington Post, L.A. Times): http://www.mtc.ca.gov/news/headlines.htm Studies in the News is a weekly listing compiled by State Library's Research Bureau and State Information & Reference Center of current policy studies garnering attention in the press that often shape policy debate: http://www.library.ca.gov/CRB/SITN.cfm LEGISLATIVE RESOURCES Transportation Law in California: A Guide to Federal, State, and Regional Requirements by Jeremy G. March (Solano Press, 2000) is the first complete collection of the most important laws and regulations affecting transportation planning in California. The table of contents is downloadable in Acrobat format; Mr. March can be reached at this e-mail address. Retail price of the book is $50; information on how to order via mail, phone or e-mail is here. You can research pending federal legislation on the Thomas website and state legislation on the California Legislative Information website. Resources for federal transportation legislation information include the American Public Transit Association (a trade group) and the California Institute for Federal Policy Research (a public policy analysis non-profit organization). California Infrastructure Coalition on the resources page of its website has a list of legislative bills involving infrastructure investment plus links to various reports, etc.: http://www.calrac.org/resources/index.html The websites of Metro and OCTA include pages for their Government Relations Departments which provide information on current state and federal legislative issues for their respective agencies. The Congressional Research Service is the arm of the Library of Congress that provides impartial research on policy issues to aid Congressional lawmaking. They are held in high esteem for the quality of their analysis. CRS reports have generally not been easily obtainable by the public but now are starting to be posted on the internet. A summary of the CRS report on Transportation Issues in the 108th Congress is posted on the website of the National Council for Science and the Environment with the full report available for download (in Acrobat format). The Brookings Institution has initiated a series of reports on federal transportration reform: http://www.brookings.edu/es/urban/issues/transportation/transportation.htm STPP has launched a new series of research and education briefs, called "Decoding Transportation Policy and Practice." These short papers will educate readers on complex transportation issues, and will often be the first place to learn of STPP's latest research findings. It can be found at http://www.transact.org/library/decoding.asp |