Put That in the “Win” Column!

November 4, 2015 – Thanks to the good work of so many people – especially so many of you in the hiking community who responded to American Hiking Society’s action alert – two amendments that would have ended the Recreational Trails Program (RTP) failed to advance to a vote in the House today.

While the Transportation Bill passed the Committee with broad bipartisan support for the RTP program, two amendments were introduced last Friday, Oct. 30, that would have ended this program that does so much to help fund hiking trails and other trail activities. When American Hiking discovered this, we asked our members and member clubs to join us in asking members of the House to vote against these bad amendments and you did so with gusto! With things moving rapidly and absolutely no time to spare, our members and AHS staff made sure that the hiker’s voice was heard in Congress.

American Hiking Society extends our profound gratitude to each of you who took action. This was a big deal! The transportation bill is a multi-year bill and could have dried up that source of trails funding for years. But as Margaret Meade has stated, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

But…it’s not entirely over yet. Soon the Transportation Bill will advance to Conference where differences between the House bill and the Senate bill will be negotiated and ironed out. We don’t expect any threats to RTP which enjoys bipartisan support but AHS will be watching and working with our contacts on the Hill to just in case.