There are nine projects in New York’s 23rd Congressional District that will receive financial support with the return of items from donating members. U.S. Representative Tom Reed, on his weekly conference call, noted that he voted in favor of the $1.5 trillion spending plan.
“The House passed the bipartisan omnibus bill that secured much-needed humanitarian and defense assistance for Ukraine, delivered real results for the American people, and averted a government shutdown,” he said. he added. he said. “We are also very proud of our work to ensure that this bill includes specific funding for our community’s priorities.”
In the plan, Reed said there will be funding for a number of local projects.
“We have about nine lines of direct funding that will primarily go to water and sewer projects, for areas like the City of Corning, City of Cherry Creek, City of Bradford, City of Seneca Falls, Village of Portville, Village of Dundee, Village of Mayville, Elmira College, as well as the Dream It, Do It in New York Vocational Training Program which is located in Jamestown. On top of that, we were able to negotiate and put in the invoice additional funding for the US Corp of Engineers that will specifically go towards the operation and maintenance of the Port of Barcelona and the Port of Dunkirk. These are all things we should be celebrating,” he said.
The Hill, a Washington, DC-based newspaper and digital media company, criticized the omnibus bill. In his review, he noted that some of the assignments provide millions of dollars more than the Biden administration had asked for. “The omnibus includes $5.9 million for the port of Dunkirk on Lake Erie, $5 million more than the $680,000 requested by the administration,” Hill said.
During the conference call, Reed defended bringing back articles from members. “I am very pleased to have these community-funded projects back as they are now labeled, as we communicate with the district.
We understand district priorities, talking to people across the district. To be able to meet our constitutional obligations to spend money and to authorize that for Congress, we are able to ensure that those priorities are met,” he said.
Reed said he believed all nine projects were worthwhile. “I would be happy to stand in front of any community with my community allies and local elected officials, to champion these projects as wise investments for our community,” he said.
Local fundraising projects had not been included in Congress for 11 years. Reed, who is not running for office, said he understands the need for community-funded projects. “You’ll never get a perfect bill, especially when you’re working in a bipartisan way. And now to have the community-directed funding line in these packages it changes the math to make these things strong enough to justify something that’s not perfect legislation buy a good enough bill that you can back at 80% instead of 100%”, he said.
According to The Hill, the $1.5 trillion, 2,741-page omnibus spending program includes more than 4,000 assignments. “There was a decade of pent-up desire to get back to postings and you see some of that coming to fruition, especially those who were writing the appropriations bills, dealing with all these types of issues and not getting the sauce that they certainly did earlier in their careers,” said Steve Ellis, president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonpartisan group that tracks federal spending.
Other local projects receiving funding include:
¯ $2 million for the Environmental Protection Agency through the state’s Revolving Fund and Tribal Assistance Clean Water Grants. This will allow the City of Cherry Creek to upgrade the water pollution control facility and sanitary sewer collection system to meet new state DEC regulations.
¯ $2 million for the Environmental Protection Agency through the State Revolving Fund for State and Tribal Drinking Water Assistance Grants. This will allow Mayville to construct a new water well and associated treatment infrastructure that will replace existing contaminated wells.
¯ $250,000 for the Department of Labor for the administration of employment and training through Dream It, Do It in Jamestown. The funding will be used to invest in essential classrooms and laboratories.
¯ 1.15 million dollars for the port of Barcelona.
