Today NRDC joins a broad swath of organizations united in opposition to the House transportation bill (HR. 7) to encourage our supporters to participate in a "national call-in day" to Congress. Please take a moment to call 1-877-573-7693 and urge your representative to vote NO on the bill. The bill is expected to come to the House floor for action next week, so please make your voice heard now.
When you dial the number, you'll hear a brief pre-recorded message about the bill. Then you'll punch in your zip code to be patched directly to the office of your member of Congress. It's that easy -- and it's that important!
You see, the House bill is without a doubt the worst transportation bill ever. Unlike the Senate, which has acted in a bi-partisan fashion on its own version of the federal surface transportation bill, the House of Representatives crafted a completely partisan piece of legislation chock-full of anti-environmental "poison pills" that will undermine transportation policy in this country. Most notably, the bill puts forward "smoke and mirrors" accounting gimmicks to fund transportation, which rely on speculative oil and gas royalty revenues tied to expanded drilling in protected areas off America's coastlines and also Alaska's Arctic National Willdlife Refuge. And it throws transit under the bus by breaking a 30-year bi-partisan deal that ensures dedicated funding for public transportation. Instead, the bill would restrict federal funding to highways. Just imagine how much worse traffic will be without transit?
In effect, Republican leadership in the House has hijacked the process to produce a truly terrible transportation bill. You can learn more about it by visiting NRDC's action page on our website. Meantime, please pick up the phone and call 1-877-573-7693. Tell Congress to kill the House transportation bill!