ATSSA Accomplishments Report 2018

Accomplishments Report 2018 3 Government Relations ATSSA Advocacy takes off in 2018 ATSSAhas been busy throughout 2018. Below is an overview of the government relationswork that ATSSAhas beendoing. Federal Government Relations ATSSA hosted its annual Legislative Briefing & Fly-In in April, which featured 90 attendees from 32 states, including 21 first-time attendees, leading 125 meetings with congressional leaders and staff on Capitol Hill. The briefing included remarks from congressional transpor- tation staff members, and several Representatives including Rep. Elizabeth Esty (D-Conn.), who is co-chair of the Roadway Safety Caucus and one of the 2018 recipients of ATSSA’s Roadway Safety Champion Award. Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.) was the other recipient of the award in 2018. ATSSA worked successfully to add an additional $250 million for the Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) into theHouse Transportation Appropriations legislation. As a result of a conversation held at the event, ATSSA penned an indus tr y let ter to United States Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT) Secretary Elaine Chao urging that a schedule be published for updating the Manual onUniformTrafficControl Devices (MUTCD). The Senate did draft comments d i rec t i ng t he Federa l Hi ghway Administration (FHWA) to act on this. The signers of the letter included: the American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials, the American Automobile Association, American Highway Users Alliance (Highway Users), American Council of Engineering Companies, Institute of Transportation Engineers, and theNational SafetyCouncil. ATSSA members had multiple opportu- nities to interact with their members of Congress and congressional candidates during the election cycle. In May, Transpor tation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) traveled to Las Vegas to attend a round- table discussionwith theNevada Chapter of ATSSA and former Rep. (and current congressional candidate) Cresent Hardy (R-Nev.). Congressional candidates toured ATSSA member companies and spoke with members in Jackson, Mississippi, Tuscon, Arizona, Albuquerque, Texas, and Muskogee, Oklahoma. In June, the association partnered with Highway Users and co-sponsored a congressional safety summit focused on roadway safety, ConnectedAutomated Vehicles (CAVs), and transportation funding. Outreach Efforts ATSSA interviewed Graves in May to discuss his views on roadway safety, the Highway Trust Fund (HTF), and CAVs. ATSSA also hosted Facebook Live events in February and October, which focused on theWhiteHouse infrastructurepackage and an outlook for election day, respec- tively. ATSSA built on the Facebook Live event in February with a more in-depth webinar on infrastructure inMarch 2018. ATSSA interviewed California state Sen. Jim Beall (D-Calif.), chair of the California Senate Transportation Committee, for an article in the September-October issue of The Signal. Beall discussed details of SB 1 and the consequences that might occur if the bill was to be repealed via the Proposition 6 ballot measure in November. Beall also shared he felt that the California Chapter of ATSSA’s (CAL-ATSSA chapter) 2017 advocacy day was an effective way to share the impor- tance of roadway safety infrastructure with legislators. In conjunction with Infrastructure Week, ATSSA President and CEORoger A. Wentz spoke at a press conference on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol to urge lawmakers to enact an infrastructure package with a focus on roadway safety infrastructure. Other speakers at the event were Sen. Ben Cardin (D-M.D.), Reps. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), (From left to right) Cindy Williams, secretary of the Arkansas Chapter of ATSSA and president of Time Striping Inc., Cody Garner, recipient of The Roadway Worker Memorial Scholarship Program and Uni- versity of Arkansas student, Sarah Stillman, president of Creative Design Concepts, LLC, and Rep. Steve Womack, (R-Ark.), met during ATSSA’s Legislative Briefing & Fly-In on April 11, 2018.