U.S. Capitol.
(File photo)
Former Portland City Commissioner and now U.S. Congressman Earl Blumenauer has been tapped by Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, to make the grounds around the U.S. Capitol more bike-friendly.
Pelosi has put her Chief Adminstrative Officer Dan Beard in charge of making this happen. One of the first steps he took was to contact Blumenauer’s office for advice.
Here’s the word from Blumenauer’s legislative assistant Katie Drennan:
“Ms. Pelosi is looking at purchasing 100% renewable energy, making the capitol carbon-neutral, and amongst other things, finding ways to encourage more employees and visitors to bike there. Dan Beard contacted our office and James (Koski, Earl’s Chief of Staff) and I, along with representatives from the Washington Area Bicyclist Association, Andy Clarke from the League of American Bicyclists, and Bikes Belong sat down in a long meeting to discuss the multitude of ways to encourage more biking. We covered everything from improving access by removing barriers, to bike sharing programs, to improvement of facilities, and even various incentive based programs that exist around the country to encourage biking. Since that meeting, our advocates have followed up with an extensive memo drawing out some of the ideas we talked about in the meeting. I think Mr. Beard is very serious about making some improvements to the Capitol Campus and encouraging biking all around.”
According to Blumenauer Chief of Staff James Koski, the Office of the Chief Administrative Officer will issue a report later in June that will highlight what they plan on doing to reach these “Green Goals”.