In March, the U.S. Senate passed S.1813, Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century(MAP-21), a two-year $109 billion bill that would maintain funding for highways, transit and safety programs at current levels, with most funding adjusted for inflation. In addition, MAP-21 would consolidate highway programs including the Indian Reservation Roads Program to Tribal Transportation Program. Two weeks ago, the House passed H.R. 4348, a highway extension that would extend SAFETEA-LU to September 30, 2012, and includes language that mandates construction of the Keystone XL pipeline.

It has been announced the Senate-House conferees are scheduled to meet:

Date: Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Time: 3 p.m.
Location: 216 Hart Bldg.

To prepare for the upcoming conference meeting, NCAI has developed a sample tribal letter and encourages tribes to send to Senate and House conferees, and to your Congressional members to support the tribal consensus provisions to include the final version of the surface transportation reauthorization. These provisions are non-funding formula related issues but are beneficial to tribal transportation, and it is very important for tribes to continue to build upon the successes of their transportation infrastructure as it is vital to the development of tribal communities and economies.

• Download talking points for the Tribal Consensus recommendations documents
• Sample Tribal Letter to Transportation Conferees
• Tribal Consensus Recommendation to be attached to the tribal sample letter

View the full action alert and the list of Members who are conferees to the transportation bill as announced by Senate and House Leadership.

Please CC Gwen Salt, NCAI Legislative Associate - gsalt[at]ncai.org - on any letters.