Recreational Trails Program Update

May, 2014 – As a brief background, the Recreational Trails Program (RTP) is a program administered by the US Federal Highway Administration that provides partial funding to help build and maintain recreational trails. Funding is derived from a portion of the federal taxes on the sale of fuels used for non-highway recreation such as the fuel for off-highway vehicles, snowmobiles, and off-highway motorcycles. The program began as a part of the six-year Transportation Act, ISTEA, passed by Congress in 1991. The program continued through subsequent Transportation Acts: TEA-21, SAFETEA-LU, and lastly, MAP-21, which expires on September 30, 2014.

Which brings us to now. The Transportation Act now in effect set to expire soon, Congress must either extend the current Act for a short period of time or pass a new multi-year transportation bill.

On April 29, the White House unveiled a 4-year, $302 billion transportation plan that continues to include the Transportation Alternatives Program (TAP), of which RTP is a part, funding TAP at $836 million in 2015, up from $819 million in FY2014. While this establishes the Administration’s desired approach to transportation, it is not being introduced in either the House or the Senate as a piece of legislation.

For its part, the Senate has a bill that reauthorizes MAP-21 for six years: S. 2322. Introduced by Senator Boxer (D-CA) and cosponsored by Sens. Vitter (R-LA), Carper (D-DE), and Barrasso (R-WY), this bill would continue the Recreational Trails Program at its current funding level.

While the Senate bill may be acceptable, it is far from being funded and it is doubtful that the money will be quickly found to do so. It is fairly likely Congress will provide for a short extension until some agreement can be reached about how to proceed.

Despite this activity on a new Transportation Act, the majority party in the House may understandably feel it’s preferable to pass a short extension rather than a multi-year bill, believing that their party will control both houses of Congress next year. This would enable them to then later pass a bill that better reflects their vision for the nation’s transportation system. Or perhaps Congress believes that the work needed to fix the transportation trust fund (which is chronically underfunded) is best done prior to the commencement of the next Congress? Any legislation should – though not necessarily must – find a way to address the trust fund issue.

Preparing for any of these possibilities, American Hiking Society and some of our colleagues, many of whom are our partners on the Coalition for Recreational Trails, have been working to ensure that RTP is included in any transportation bill that gets passed.

On March 27, several members of the Coalition for Recreational Trails, including American Hiking, met with staffers from the offices of members who are RTP champions from both the House and Senate sides as well as from both parties. As a result of this meeting, an RTP Dear Colleague letter was sent by Sen. Klobuchar (D-MN), Sen. Risch (R-ID), Sen. Shaheen (D-NH), and Sen. Burr (R-NC). The letter was received the signatures of 20 more senators!

Read the Coalition for Recreational Trails RTP Reauthorization Platform.