The Bicycle Commuter Act

[ODB]

Not sure if I posted this before but it needs to be up again.

The Bicycle Commuter Act (H.R.807, S.2635) is before congress right now. It would provide a tax benefit to employers who offer cash reimbursements to employees who ride to work in order to help defray their commuting costs. All this requires is an amendment to the Transportation Fringe Benefit of the tax code to extend the definition of “transportation” to include bicycles. Employers are given the flexibility to set their own levels of benefit payments and the bike commuter can use those payments to pay for a bike, accessories, safety equipment, insurance, and locker or shower fees.

Here’s what you do:
Go to this link—The Bicycle Commuter Act —and input your zip code, and the page generates emails to go to all your congress people.

Then just “e-sign” it and send along.

Civil discourse, easy as cake.

[rgv]

done.

[Mark57]

I just sent it to all three of mine.

Rep. Cubin will ignore it completely. Sen. Thomas' office will send back some sort of meaningless and completely inane email response. Sen. Mike Enzi's office will likely respond with an intelligent email explaining whether he does or doesn't support the measure, and a detailed explaination of the reasoning behind his decision.

I'm going to forward it to everyone I can think of, too. Thanks for posting the link.

[jijin]

man I wish they had that bill across here on this side of The Pond. Britain could use more people cycling around instead of fitting their huge butts into cars

[FishrCutB8]

done.

[Pman]

done

[emartin10]

Done and done.

E

[Mark57]

Looks like I called it right.


Here's the reply from Sen. Enzi:

Dear Mark:

On March 13, 2007, Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) re-introduced the Bicycle Commuter Benefits Act (S. 858). I am an original cosponsor of this legislation.

S. 858 amends the federal tax code to allow public and private employers to offer employees a monthly benefit payment to help cover the costs of riding their bikes to work instead of driving and parking their cars. Current law allows for qualified transportation fringe benefits provided by an employer be excluded from an employee's gross income and wages for the employment tax purposes. S. 858 would modify the definition of "qualified transportation fringe benefit" to include the new commuting allowance. S. 858 has been referred to the Senate Finance Committee for further consideration.

I look forward to working with Senator Wyden and our Senate colleagues to pass this legislation and others that promote alternative transportation options.

Thank you for contacting me about this legislation.

I want my constituents to have access to a more complete view of Congress and my activities so I have started a monthly e-newsletter. It is a brief summary of important issues and happenings. I encourage you to sign up on my web page at enzi.senate.gov. You can unsubscribe at anytime.

Sincerely,

Michael B. Enzi
United States Senator

MBE:sr

Here's a auto-response from Sen. Thomas:

Thank you for your message.

This is an automatic response to inform you that I have received your email. Our office policy is to reply only to inquiries from Wyoming residents who include their full mailing address. These inquiries will receive a written response via electronic mail.

If your request requires more immediate attention, please don't hesitate to contact my office at 202-224-6441. If you are interested, you can visit my official website at http://thomas.senate.gov/

Again, thank you for writing. I look forward to hearing from you in the future.

Sincerely,

Craig Thomas
United States Senator

Note that the original letter did include my full name and address, but I still haven't received anything further from Craig. I still haven't, and still don't expect to ever, get a response from Rep. Cubin.