Norton to Offer Four Amendments to Transportation Bill on Floor this Week

WASHINGTON, DC – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) will offer four amendments on the House floor this week to the surface transportation bill, H.R. 7 (the American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act of 2012). Norton opposes the very partisan underlying bill, which guts mass transit and highway investments, and undercuts Amtrak workers. However, she will offer amendments that focus on some of her transportation-related priorities, including mass transit tax benefits, construction training, and the closure of E Street near the White House.

Norton plans to offer an amendment to encourage commuters to use mass transit by equalizing tax benefits for mass transit and parking, which had been the case until the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act authorization expired this year. Currently, commuters receive up to $240 a month for parking but only up to $125 a month for taking mass transit, which is particularly harmful in this region, where congestion and air quality are at crisis levels. Norton's amendment would be retroactive to the beginning of the year.

Norton will also offer an amendment modeled after her Pre-Apprentice and Apprentice Training Act to ensure that federal highway funds are used to provide on-the-job training to combat the serious skills deficit because the current cohort of baby-boomer journeymen and other skilled workers are retiring. She said the nation must quickly train a new generation of skilled construction workers, including women and minorities, who were historically excluded. Norton's amendment would require that states use one-half of one percent of their highway funds for construction training. Under current law, states have the option to use this amount for training, but have failed to exercise it.

Norton will also offer two amendments to bring attention to the federal government's closing of E Street near the White House, which continues to cause traffic congestion downtown and is a major contributor to transportation delays for regional and local residents and visitors alike and to poor air quality. One of Norton's E Street amendments expresses the "sense of Congress" that the closure of E Street has caused substantial adverse traffic and environmental impacts on the Washington metropolitan region and that the Secretary of Transportation shall work with the Washington metropolitan region to mitigate such impacts. Norton's second amendment instructs that the Secretary of Transportation may not plan, design, or construct closures to E Street until the secretary has submitted to Congress a traffic mitigation plan.

Norton is taking several approaches to the closing of E Street because of security issues related to the White House. A National Park Service plan to permanently close E Street as part of a new design for President's Park does not address the serious traffic and environmental issues that have led to the Congresswoman's deep concern.

Published February 14, 2012