The US Congress, in the next few weeks, will be considering legislation called The Safe, Accountable, Flexible, and Efficient Transportation Equity Act of 2003, SAFETEA. There is a provision in this legislation of particular interest and that is the Recreational Trails Program (RTP).

The RTP was established in 1991 as a part of ISTEA and improved through TEA-21. This program utilizes a portion of the federal tax receipts attributable to off-highway recreational activities including ATV riding, motorcycling, snowmobiling and 4x4s for purposes of maintaining and improving recreational trails throughout the country. Since its inception, literally millions of Americans have benefited from the recreational trails that have been developed and maintained in every state of the union with monies from this program. And, it is important to note that these trails are both motorized and non-motorized trails.

The Federal Highway Administration's most recent estimate of the amount of tax revenue generated by off-highway recreational activities is $286 million annually. The SAFETEA legislation has proposed that just 21% of this revenue contributed by off-highway recreationists be devoted to the RTP program.

Because of the importance of this program and the fact that every year more and more Americans seek to use recreational trails for a variety of activities, the AMA believes that a more appropriate figure should be 50% of the $286 million annual revenue figure. Investing more revenue from off-highway generated taxes to improve the safety of such activities by constructing and maintaining recreational trails is an appropriate use of these monies.

The bill and a sample letter of support can be found on the “Rights” page of http://www.AMADirectLink.com/.