Press Release - The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
Civil and Human Rights Coalition Responds to Transportation Bill Passage, Calls for Long-Term Reauthorization
For Immediate Release
Contact: Shin Inouye, 202.869.0398, inouye@archives.civilrights.org
August 1, 2014
Washington, D.C. – Nancy Zirkin, executive vice president of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, issued the following statement after last night’s passage of the Highway and Transportation Funding Act:
“This bill may have diverted a disastrous default of the Highway Trust Fund, but it does not provide the long-term investment needed to repair and rebuild our nation’s 66,000-plus structurally deficient bridges or help transit systems cope with layoffs and service cuts while demand is increasing.
Access to transportation is vital to connecting communities to jobs, schools, housing, health care services, and to grocery stores and nutritious food. But millions of low-income and working families, people of color, and people with disabilities live in communities where quality transportation options are unaffordable, unreliable, or nonexistent.
Delay of a long-term reauthorization keeps workers off the job, undercuts long-term planning, and hinders the nation’s ability to advance to a transportation system that provides for the needs of all its users.
We are calling on Congress to pass a comprehensive surface transportation bill before the expiration of this short-term fix to ensure that the civil and human rights of all individuals can be protected through robust investments in transit, increased safety protections, and job creation.”
Nancy Zirkin is the executive vice president of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a coalition charged by its diverse membership of more than 200 national organizations to promote and protect the rights of all persons in the United States. The Leadership Conference works toward an America as good as its ideals. For more information on The Leadership Conference and its 200-plus member organizations, visit archives.civilrights.org.
