Visiting 30 individual congressional offices

The first half of the day organizers from across the country met with at least 30 meetings with the staff of congressional leaders including

• Barbara Lee, chair of the Congressional Black Caucus
• Congressman John Lewis, Chair of the Ways and Means Committee
• House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee members including Congressman Russ Carnahan from St. Louis, Congresswoman Laura Richardson of California, Daniel Lipinski of Illinois, and Michael McMahon of New York amongst many others

Congressional briefing co-hosted with Congresswoman Grace Napolitano

TRPT joined by transit industry and transit workers reps

The Advocacy Day culminated with a Congressional Briefing hosted by TRPT and Transportation and Infrastructure Committee member, Congresswoman Grace Napolitano [2] on the importance of greatly expanding permanent transit operating assistance funding in the next federal surface transportation act.

Our room in the Rayburn House Building was filled to capacity with congressional staffers from at least thirty different offices as well as attendees from the progressive community including Transportation for America.

TRPT speakers were joined by:

• Dr. Robert Bullard [3] of the Environmental Justice Resource Center [4] in Clark Atlanta University;
• Robert Healy [5], Vice President of Government Affairs for the American Public Transportation Association, representing the bus, rapid transit and commuter rail systems industry;
• Jeff Rosenberg [6], Legislative Director of the Amalgamated Transit Union, representing transit workers in 270 locals across the country.

The briefing presented the intersection of access to mass transit, civil rights, global warming and public health and green jobs.

Speakers from TRPT were:

• Barbara Lott-Holland [7], member of the Bus Riders Union in Los Angeles,
• Kim Wasserman [8] of Little Village for Environmental Justice Organization in Chicago,
• Soledad Gaztambide [9] of UPROSE in Brooklyn
• Cecil Corbin Mark [10] of WEACT for Environmental Justice in Harlem.

List of Attending Staffers

Governmental Agencies/Offices,

Elected Officials

• Senator John Kerry (MA)
• Senator Richard J. Durbin (Il)
• Representative Chris Van Hollen (MD-8)
• Congressman Scott Murphy (NY-20)
• Congressman Ron Klein (FL-22)
• Congressman James L Oberstar (MN-8)
• Congresswoman Yvette Clarke (NY-11)
• Congressman Pete Stark (CA-13)
• Congresswoman Linda Sanchez (CA-39)
• Congressman Dan Maffei (NY-25)
• Congressman Jim McDermott (WA-7)
• Congressman Howard Berman (CA-28)
• Congressman Eliot Engel (NY-17)
• Congresswoman Barbara Lee (CA-9)
• Congressman Edolphus Towns (NY-10)
• Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard (CA-34)
• Congressman Anthony Weiner (NY-9)
• Congressman John Dingell (MI-15)
• Congresswoman Betty McCollum (MN-4)
• Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy (NY-4)
• Congressman Daniel Lipinski (Il-3)
• Congresswoman Nydia M. Velázquez (NY-12)
• Congressman Charles Gonzalez (TX-20)
• Congressman Eric Massa (NY-29)
• Environmental Protection Agency

Transit Organizations, Unions

• 21st Century Labor Union
• Transportation Trades Department
• Environment America
• Regional Plan Association
• Coalition for Smarter Growth
• 21st Century Labor Union
• Transportation for America
• Regional Plan Association
• CQ Media
• Streetsblog Media

Related Media

Photo Coverage

[19]We have a large album of photos from the entire journey.  Check out our photo album slideshow hosted by Flickr!

See our FlickR Slideshow [20]

 Video Footage [Array]

[21]We have more video footage including speeches from Dr Robert Bullard of the Environmental Justice Resource Center, Ron Healy of American Public Affairs Transportation Association, Jeff Rosenberg of Amalgamated Transit Union, Kim Wasserman of Little Village for Environmental Justice Organization, Soledad Gaztambide of UPROSE, Cecil Corbin Mark of WEACT for Environmental Justice.

See TRPT Advocacy Day Video Coverage [22]