A PDF of the original letter is available here

To: AHC Organizations

From: American Horse Council

Re: Senate Highway Bill - Recreational Trails Funds - Equestrian Language

Date: May 19, 2005

The Senate has passed a $295 billion highway funding bill, which provides approximately $270 million for the Recreation Trails Program (RTP) over the next five years. The Senate bill provides more overall funding for highway and transit programs, but allocates less money for RTP than the House version of the bill, which was passed on March 3.

Differences between the two bills will now have to be worked out by a Conference Committee of both House and Senate representatives. This Committee is expected to convene shortly. While the hope is to reconcile the differences between the two bills before the May 31 expiration of the current highway funding aid expires, that seems unlikely given the differences in the two bills and the difficult negotiations that will be needed. It is likely another short-term extension, the seventh, will be necessary by June 1.

RTP is important to recreational riders because the program provides funding to build, maintain and improve trails for riders and allows the states to decide where the monies should be spent and what trails need maintenance work.

The Senate version of the bill is particularly important to riders because in addition to the RTP funding, the bill contains a provision specific to the equestrian community. Under current federal transportation law, equestrians are not specifically included in the definition of allowable activities on shared-use transportation paths. Some land managers have used the absence of this recognition to deny access to equestrians, though that was not the intent of the federal law. Section 1607 of the Senate-passed bill specifically adds "equestrians" to the classes of users that may share such paths for transportation purposes.

The AHC supports the RTP funding levels in the House legislation and the equine-specific language in the Senate bill.

If you have any questions about this bill, please contact the AHC.

1616 H Street NW 7th Floor . Washington DC 20006 . 202-296-4031 . Fax 202-296-1970

Email: AHC@horsecouncil.org

Web Address: www.horsecouncil.org