Congress has passed and the President has signed a multi-year national highway bill known as the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act, or the FAST Act.

The bill reauthorizes the Federal Highway Administration’s Recreational Trails Program (RTP) for the next five years and provides $85 million annually for the program.

The last highway bill was set to expire in December and Congress has been working on various versions of a national surface transportation bill for most of this year. During the Congressional process several attempts were made to eliminate the RTP program from the bill. However, these attempts were unsuccessful. 

“We are very pleased RTP was included in the FAST Act,” said AHC vice president of government affairs Ben Pendergrass. “Every time a multi-year national highway bill is debated there is always an attempt to eliminate this program and this time was no different. Grassroots support from recreational trail users, including many equestrians, played an important role in making sure RTP was included in bill. The AHC appreciates all the individual horsemen and organizations that contacted their Representatives in support of RTP