I urge you to contact your senator and ask him or her to vote YES on the following amendments to MAP-21 (S.1813), the transportation spending reauthorization bill.  Both of these amendments greatly reduce the size and scope of the federal government. DeMint Amendment SA 1589 – This amendment would eliminate a large number of federal subsidies for alternative fuel and renewable energy programs.  These subsidies have long distorted the market for new sources of energy by allocating funding to the technologies with the best lobbyists instead of those with the most value to consumers.  When the government picks winners and losers, we get unwise and failed investments like Solyndra.

DeMint Amendment SA 1756 – This amendment would reduce the federal government’s role in transportation funding by giving states direct control of their shares of the transportation funds.  This would eliminate the problem of certain states receiving more in funding than they paid in to the federal government.  Giving states more control over their own essential transportation projects also eliminates many of the strings that come attached whenever the federal government disperses money, and eliminated the inefficiencies of working through a middleman.