Washington,
D.C. - The Recreational Trails
Program (RTP), the funding program that has sustained state trail programs for
two decades, has been reauthorized as part of the transportation bill approved
by the U.S. Congress on June 29, 2012 and signed by President Barack Obama on
July 6, 2012. Under the new legislation, which will fund transportation
programs through Sept. 30, 2014, the RTP will receive $85 million in annual
funding for the next two fiscal years.
RTP applies the "user-payer/user-benefit" philosophy of the
Highway Trust Fund, which provides funding for transportation programs and
projects, returning federal tax on fuel used for non highway recreation to the
states for trail projects. Since the RTP was first authorized in 1991, the
program has become the foundation for state trail programs nationwide,
providing essential funding for tens of thousands of trail projects and
fostering effective partnerships among diverse trail enthusiasts, government
officials at the federal, state and local levels, and national organizations in
the conservation, recreation and transportation fields.
Leaders of the Coalition for Recreational Trails (CRT), the
federation of national and regional trail-related organizations whose members
have supported the effective implementation, enhancement and extension of the
RTP since 1992, spoke enthusiastically about the RTP success and its
Congressional champions, including Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Representative
Tom Petri (R-WI) and Representative Mike Michaud (D-ME).
"We are very grateful to Senator Klobuchar, whose strong
commitment to the RTP and ability to build a bipartisan alliance to support the
program ensured that dedicated funding for RTP was included in MAP-21, the
Senate's reauthorization bill, and then made part of the final bill approved by
the conference committee," said CRT Co-Chair Derrick Crandall, President of the
American Recreation Coalition. Marianne Fowler, CRT Co-Chair and Senior Vice President,
Federal Relations for the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, noted that the RTP's
success was also rooted in the strong, bipartisan support that is enjoyed in
the U.S. House of Representatives. "Congressman Petri has been with us since
the RTP's beginning," said Ms. Fowler, "making sure the program survived-and
then thrived-through reauthorization after reauthorization. And the leadership
that he and Congressman Michaud brought to this latest, very difficult
reauthorization effort was absolutely essential to the program's success in the
House and eventual inclusion in he final bill."
The CRT Co-Chairs also thanked the coalition's members and
thousands of grass-roots advocates, who contacted their Congressional
delegations repeatedly during the years-long reauthorization process to express
their support for the RTP and explain the importance of RTP-funded trail
projects to their communities. "They called; they wrote letters and emails;
they held meetings-whatever it took," said Mr.Crandall. "The CRT and its
members are really a wonderful team," concluded Ms. Fowler, "and they made sure
that the U.S. Congress continued to embrace a wonderful program."