New Dem Members Deliver Big Wins for Their Constituents, Secure Millions in Community Project Funding in FY2024 Government Funding Bills
With the passage of Fiscal Year 2024 government funding, New Dems Members not only helped to avert a harmful and costly government shutdown, but also secured critical funding to support important projects in their districts through Community Project Funding requests.
From improving vital infrastructure, building affordable housing, and bolstering public safety initiatives to supporting cancer research, workforce development, and education, New Dems delivered across the board for their constituents.
Read more about some of the projects New Dems helped fund:
Rep. Colin Allred (TX-32) secured $16.8 million for his district, including $500,000 for software to allow Dallas Police Dept. officers and detectives to analyze gaming sites, social media, and dark web chats for violence, hate, and other crimes.
Rep. Ami Bera (CA-06) secured $14.3 million for his district, including $2.4 million for Hub in the Heights, which would be used to help revitalize an under-resourced corridor through the construction of a mixed-use building that would provide affordable and senior housing options, commercial/retail space, a community gathering space, and an economic empowerment center.
Rep. Don Beyer (VA-08) secured $13 million for his district, including $1.5 million for Doorways to launch Safe Start, a program that will acquire a set of one-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments that will provide shelter and longer-term housing for survivors of domestic or sexual violence in Arlington County, Virginia.
Rep. Nikki Budzinski (IL-13) secured $136.1 million for her district, including $5 million for upgrades to the East Alton Water Treatment Facility. The funding will be used to bring the facility up to current Environmental Protection Agency standards and increase its capacity from 3 MGD to 4.5 MGD. This will help the city meet the demands of industrial and residential customers and ensure that microbiological contaminants stay out of the water.
Rep. Salud Carbajal (CA-24) secured $13.4 million for his district, including $2 million to help fund the replacement of the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office’s radio dispatch system, including upgraded hardware and software.
Rep. Troy Carter (LA-02) secured $17.5 million for his district, including $4.1 million for the Lincoln Beach Access Bridge to redevelop Lincoln Beach. This allocation is part of the overall $24.6 million funding dedicated to bringing Lincoln Beach back to New Orleans East.
Rep. Sean Casten (IL-06) secured $11.4 million for his district, including $700,000 for Capital Rehabilitation of the Glendale Heights Program Campus. The Bridge Communities plans to renovate its Glendale Heights campus, comprised of one eight-flat building (1579 Floyd Brown Lane) and one six-flat building (1561 Floyd Brown Lane). For 33 years, Bridge Communities has been serving extremely low- to low-income homeless families, mostly single mothers with two or more children.
Rep. Gerry Connolly (VA-11) secured $12.3 million for his district, including $4.1 million to construct the new Fairfax Family and Domestic Violence Shelter. The project will help establish a modern, safe family and domestic violence shelter in an easy-to-reach, opportunity-rich area next to a police station that will give residents the ability to access transit, services, and employment as they and their families begin to rebuild their lives.
Rep. Joe Courtney (CT-02) secured $11.8 million for his district, including $1.7 million for the nonprofit Eastern Connecticut Housing Opportunities Inc. to purchase and rehabilitate single-family homes to be sold and rented to low- and moderate-income residents.
Rep. Sharice Davids (KS-03) secured $15.8 million for her district, including $3.5 million to complete the reconstruction of the Kansas Avenue Bridge, which connects Kansas and Missouri and supports 8,000 daily trips. The project will reconnect the two states using modern streetscapes with improved pedestrian, bicycle, and ADA accommodations.
Rep. Suzan DelBene (WA-01) secured $18 million for her district, including $5 million for the Snohomish County Food and Farming Center. This center will provide farmers with equipment and infrastructure to strengthen sustainable food supply, boost the regional economy, and help ensure that Snohomish County families have access to fresh produce.
Rep. Jim Himes (CT-04) secured $14.1 million for his district, including $500,000 for improvements to the Stamford Boys & Girls Club Yerwood Center. This funding will go towards installing a critical security system and supporting other long-needed repairs, refurbishment, and upgrades.
Rep. Steven Horsford (NV-04) secured $28.2 million for his district, including $6.8 million for the Cheyenne Sports Complex Safety and Activity Project, which will increase the safety and activity offerings for this cherished urban core park.
Rep. Val Hoyle (OR-04) secured $16.6 million for her district, including $2 million for the construction of a new chemotherapy clinic at Curry General Hospital in Gold Beach, as well as the purchase of related equipment. Currently, chemotherapy isn’t available in Curry County, and patients must travel up to seven hours for treatment.
Rep. Derek Kilmer (WA-06) secured $19.5 million for his district, including $2 million for Jefferson Healthcare to be used in the construction of a new clinic offering specialty care in neurology; pulmonology; ear, nose, and throat (ENT); and geriatrics to seniors who face geographic barriers to health care.
Rep. Annie Kuster (NH-02) secured $16.8 million for her district, including $1.6 million for the City of Lebanon to support the construction of the new Lebanon Childcare Facility, which will provide high-quality, educational daycare for 200 infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. This project will help alleviate the shortage of childcare centers in New Hampshire’s Upper Valley, where 43% of families struggle to find affordable childcare.
Rep. Rick Larsen (WA-02) secured $19.2 million for his district, including $3 million for the Mount Vernon Library Commons Project, a multi-use infrastructure project. Combining several community needs, this project is a catalyst for economic development in the Cascadia Innovation Corridor along the Interstate 5 corridor between Seattle and Vancouver, BC, and represents a $53 million investment in the local economy.
Rep. Susie Lee (NV-03) secured $21.6 million for her district, including $4 million for the University of Nevada Las Vegas for the purchase of high-performance computing equipment. This funding will allow UNLV to execute a major hardware and software upgrade at its National Supercomputing Institute, in support of research across computing, cybersecurity, privacy, and more.
Rep. Lucy McBath (GA-07) secured $13 million for her district, including $1.7 million for the implementation of a new, all-electric, local fixed bus route that will provide a meaningful connection between two major cities, healthcare centers, and institutions of higher learning.
Rep. Gregory Meeks (NY-05) secured $15.5 million for his district, including $3.5 million for the Southern Queens Park Association to convert underutilized space into the “Goodrich Legacy Center for Workforce Development” to support youth and adult workforce development.
Rep. Jimmy Panetta (CA-19) secured $15.2 million for his district, including $3 million for the Carmel River Floodplain Restoration and Environmental Enhancement Project, one of the most extensive and important multi-benefit flood protection and habitat restoration efforts on the Central Coast. The project will utilize green infrastructure to reclaim the southern floodplain to direct water away from developed areas north of the Carmel River.
Rep. Chris Pappas (NH-01) secured $9.2 million for his district, including $1 million for the renovation and expansion of the Wolfeboro, NH Police Department. This investment will help ensure law enforcement can fully meet the needs of the local community and first responders.
Rep. Scott Peters (CA-50) secured $15.1 million for his district, including $1.5 million to convert unused San Diego Housing Commission office space in downtown San Diego into a 45-bed homeless shelter. Once completed, individuals housed at this location will also be connected with services and put on a path toward permanent housing.
Rep. Deborah Ross (NC-02) secured $12.6 million for her district, including $1 million for the CASA Supportive Housing for Youth Transitioning out of Foster Care in Raleigh to develop a safe, supportive, and affordable housing community for youth aging out of foster care who are experiencing homelessness.
Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (PA-05) secured $11.6 million for her district, including $615,000 for the expansion of the City of Philadelphia Group Violence Intervention Program. This new federal investment would enable the City to hire additional staff that would be assigned geographically, with a focus on areas most impacted by gun violence.
Rep. Brad Schneider (IL-10) secured $11.8 million for his district, including $171,400 to upgrade equipment in Buffalo Grove’s emergency operations center, including new communication technologies that will enable first responders to more swiftly react to emergencies.
Rep. Terri Sewell (AL-07) secured $13.1 million for her district, including $1 million to renovate the former Loveman Village Public Housing Community in Birmingham and expand its daycare facility to accommodate more children.
Rep. Adam Smith (WA-09) secured $17 million for his district, including $4 million to construct Weld Seattle’s 1426 Collaborative Reintegration Resource Center. The building will serve as a one-stop shop for people reentering their communities with a history of criminal justice involvement.
Rep. Eric Sorensen (IL-17) secured $132 million for his district, including $847,000 for a new, state-of-the-art police training center in Winnebago County. This new facility will help prepare, recruit, and retain police officers in Northern Illinois.
Rep. Darren Soto (FL-09) secured $13.7 million for his district, including $1.8 million for “The Haven on the Vine,” a new affordable housing project that will remodel an old motel to provide low-income housing for vulnerable communities.
Rep. Greg Stanton (AZ-04) secured $11.9 million for his district, including $2.8 million across two CPFs for the City of Tempe’s Kyrene Water Reclamation Facility. The facility has been dormant since the Great Recession. Once operational again, it will make sure the city of Tempe can provide residents with a clean and reliable water supply – recycling water to get more out of every drop – and protect its water supply for years to come by banking treated water underground.
Rep. Haley Stevens (MI-11) secured $13.7 million for her district, including $4.1 million to replace the Martin Luther King Jr. bridge, ending the liability, safety concerns, and traffic disruptions that the closure of the bridge has caused for residents trying to access homes, businesses, and healthcare.
Rep. Marilyn Strickland (WA-10) secured $13.4 million for her district, including $1.7 million for the Thurston County Food Bank to create a Community Hub at Lacey’s Food Pantry, involving the construction of additional office spaces for local human service partners.
Rep. Shri Thanedar (MI-03) secured $15.1 million for his district, including $1.9 million for the I-75 Overbuild Planning Project, a proposed 4.9-acre cap over I-75 to transform a key Detroit neighborhood through the restoration of community connectivity, expanded mobility and improved economic opportunities for present and future residents of the city.
Rep. Lori Trahan (MA-03) secured $13.9 million for her district, including $3.6 million for the Lowell Regional Transit Authority’s Gallagher Intermodal Transportation Center, to be used for the repair and replacement of vital structures including its pedestrian bridge, elevator cars, access ramp and more.
Rep. Marc Veasey (TX-33) secured $13.9 million for his district, including $4.1 million to support the construction of Hughes House. This mixed-use development will provide affordable housing in the Stop Six neighborhood of Fort Worth, Texas.
Rep. Jennifer Wexton (VA-10) secured $15 million for her district, including $4.1 million for the construction of the Loudoun County Crisis Receiving Center, which will treat and provide services to those experiencing a mental health crisis.
Rep. Nikema Williams (GA-05) secured $12.5 million for her district, including $850,000 for the Urban League of Greater Atlanta’s Financial Empowerment Center. The funding will support the effort to convert the former US Atlanta Job Corps Site into mixed-use permanent supportive, affordable housing units. Residents will have access to on-site economic mobility wraparound services inclusive of job training/workforce development, healthcare, a community wellness center, and other community learning and collaborative facilities, support services, like mental health care and substance abuse services.
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