Despite James Oberstar being ousted from the U.S. House earlier this month, Safe Routes to School advocates were remaining confident that the program would remain intact as Congress must once again take up the long overdue federal transportation bill reauthorization.

As the chair of Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, the ranking Democratic representative from Minnesota was a chief architect of the original five-year, $612 million provision in the 2005 SAFETEA-LU transportation legislation. But Oberstar lost the congressional seat he's held since 1974, the longest tenure of any Minnesotan in Congress, to Republican Chip Cravaack, and insiders are pointing to Rep. John Mica (R - FL) as the new transportation committee chair.

Not long ago, on June 4, 2009 in fact, Republican leaders led by then House Minority Leader John Boehner and Minority Whip Eric Cantor identified Safe Routes to School as an example of discretionary programs that are contributing to the nation's skyrocketing deficit. They proposed to return Safe Routes to School and other similar programs to the states in an effort to shave $183 million a year from the federal books.The ascension of Boeher to House Majority Leader and Cantor to Majority Whip when the new Congress convenes later this year could prove worrisome to some Safe Routes supporters.

But a representative for the Safe Routes to School National Partnership said last week that the coalition of national, state and local organizations including AARP, the American Heart Association, PTA, the National Association of School Nurses, Smart Growth America, and associations from nearly all 50 states had been hitting Capitol Hill hard in recent months in an effort to secure more support for their cause.

"Historically, SRTS has had a lot of bipartisan support," commented Margo Pedroso, deputy director for the Safe Routes to School National Partnership. "I don’t want to understate the loss we have had with Rep. Oberstar no longer in Congress. We’ve lost a real safety net. But at the same time we’ve done a lot of work with Republicans in the House and Senate."

While unable to predict how the issue could unfold over the coming months, as the current SAFETEA-LU extension is set to expire at the end of the year and could see yet another extension, Pedroso added that 22 of the 26 original senators who pledged support for Safe Routes to School remain. She added that headway had been made with several incoming legislators with the main goal being to keep strong advocates in the Senate, which the Democrats retain control of. Still, bipartisanship is key, especially as Safe Routes leaders have asked for a $3 billion over the next five years.

“The reality is, yes, things are going to be more difficult, but I do think we have a lot of good things going for us," said Pedroso. "If [the recommended funding] is realistic, we'll see. I think the funding level question is really going to be more of a matter of the overall size of the transportation bill."

Rep. Mica has said he prefers to see a similar sized bill as SAFETEA-LU, which came with a $286.4 billion price tag but that has grown by at least another $20 billion taken from general tax revenue to keep existing programs afloat. Several provisions have been discussed to increase highway revenue, including raising the federal fuel tax that has remained the same since the early 1990s, which was championed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce earlier this year. At this writing, sources in Washington said it remained unlikely that this would effect the current fuel tax exemption enjoyed by school buses.

Meanwhile, Pedroso said Safe Routes to School hopes to continue dialogue with the school transportation industry to identify ways in which the federal funds can be used to support safe walking and biking routes for students who live within a mile or so from their schools while pumping infrastructure funds into creating better routes to and from community school bus stops for all others. Just such a plan was scuttled last year by Oberstar after NASDPTS worked with Safe Routes representatives toward a 10 percent infrastructure provision for school bus stops.