Washington, DC  – Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, senior member of the Florida Congressional Delegation, is pleased that an amendment to give priority to emergency evacuation routes, has been approved and will be included in the final bridge bill, the “National Highway Bridge Reconstruction and Inspection Act.” Ros-Lehtinen spoke on the Floor of the House in support of the amendment.

This amendment was a very simple yet much needed change to this legislation. It emphasizes the importance of public safety in prioritizing new highway bridge funding as well as includes emergency evacuation routes as a reason to give a specific bridge risk based priority for rehabilitation or replacements. 

Said Ros-Lehtinen: “The 2004 and 2005 hurricanes emphasized the need for safe emergency evacuation routes, when millions of Floridians faced mandatory evacuations, including millions of residents of the Florida Keys and other barrier islands.

This amendment simply focuses on the importance of public safety as well as ensuring that Americans have access to safe evacuation routes during times of impending disasters.”

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