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WINTER 2017 RAILS TO TRAILS 23
C O MM U N I T Y C O N N E C T I O N S
PHOTO: COURTESY TOM PETRI
During his time in office, he
served as a senior member of the
Transportation and Infrastructure
Committee and the Committee on
Education and the Workforce, and
chairman of the Aviation Subcom-
mittee and the Highways and
Transit Subcommittee.
A lifelong cyclist and early sup-
porter of the recreational trails
movement, Rep. Petri helped lead a
bi-partisan effort in the early 1990s
to create the Recreational Trails
Program (RTP), which was included
in the federal surface transportation
bill of 1991 (the Intermodal Surface
Transportation Efficiency Act of
1991, or ISTEA).
Working with both Democrat
colleagues and RTC, he assisted
in drafting environmental lan-
guage for the bill that would allow
Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (RTC) is
pleased to name former U.S. Con-
gressman Tom Petri as the 2016
Doppelt Family Rail-Trail Champion
in recognition of his decades of
support for rail-trails and active
transportation infrastructure.
Elected to the U.S. Senate in
1979, Rep. Petri, a member of the
Republican Party, represented
Wisconsin’s Sixth Congressional
District for 18 terms until his retire-
ment in January 2015 (at the end of
the 113th Congress). Known for his
innovative and creative solutions to
government problems, Rep. Petri
would go on to make an impact in
transportation, student loan reform,
the federal highway program, cost
sharing for federal water projects,
tax and welfare reform, and health-
care reform.
Since 2011,
the Doppelt
Family Rail-
Trail Champions
Award honors
individuals
around the
nation who have
made significant
contributions
to the rail-trail
movement
through
their work,
volunteerism
or support—in
short, people
who have
gone above
and beyond in
the name of
trails. Learn
more about
the program
Wisconsin
Former Congressman Tom Petri
Named RTC’s 2016 Rail-Trail Champion
flexibility in eligible uses for avail-
able funds.
He would also go on to develop
a close relationship with RTC in the
mid-1990s and become a strong
supporter of the active transporta-
tion movement.
“He was an emerging leader at
that time in the trails movement
and one of the most respected
members of Congress,” said Mari-
anne Wesley Fowler, RTC’s senior
strategist for policy advocacy and a
longtime friend and colleague of the
former congressman.
In 2003, after RTP and Transpor-
tation Enhancements (TE) (now
known as Transportation Alterna-
tives and the largest source of fed-
eral trail funding in the U.S.) came
under attack in the House, Rep.
Petri helped protect TE from elimi-
nation by offering an amendment to
strike the provisions defunding both
programs. He also worked closely
with RTC, Rep. James Oberstar (D-
Minn.) and other trail supporters to
secure the votes necessary to win
the battle on the House floor. In a
dramatic 327 to 90 victory, RTP and
TE were saved.
“That was a watershed moment,”
quoted RTC President Keith Laughlin
in the article From Preserving Rail-
Trails to Creating Healthier Commu-
nities in the Spring/Summer 2016
issue of Rails to Trails. “It demon-
strated the bipartisan support [the
rail-trail movement] had in Congress
and set the stage for our victories in
the transportation bill in 2005.”
Rep. Petri continues to support
trails as a member of RTC’s Board
of Directors. His decades of service
to the trail movement have been
recognized by the American Hiking
Society and the Coalition for Rec-
reational Trails—the latter of which
renamed its award program to the
Tom Petri Annual Achievement
Awards in 2014.•
PHOTO: A nostalgic
image of former
Congressman
Tom Petri biking
with his daughter
Alexandra (now
a columnist with
the Washington
Post) and wife Ann
(DeDe) Petri