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Washington, D.C., November 14th – Congressman Jim Moran, Virginia Democrat and senior member of the House Appropriations Committee, included funding in the House passed FY 2008 Transportation, Treasury, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations bill (H.R. 3074) for projects in Northern Virginia and the metropolitan region. Final passage of the conference agreement on H.R. 3074 is expected to occur later this afternoon. The President is threatening to veto the bill.
“Congress is reinforcing its strong support for bringing Metro rail to Dulles with this $35 million infusion,” said Moran. “As evidenced by the Minneapolis bridge collapse earlier this year, our nation’s transportation infrastructure needs bolstering. President Bush should not stand in the way of Congress’ effort to strengthen America’s bridges, highways and transit systems. I hope his veto threat will be reconsidered.”
In the FY ’08 Transportation, Treasury, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations bill Moran included:
• $35 million for construction of Phase 1 of the Metro Rail extension to Dulles International Airport. This was a joint request from Sen. Warner, Webb and Reps. Moran, Wolf and Davis. These funds supplement the more than $216 million in previously secured appropriations by the Northern Virginia delegation.
• $3 million for improvements to the 14th Street Bridge, I-395/George Washington Memorial Parkway interchange. The funds would be used to construct a merge lane from the 14th Street Bridge to GW Parkway going north and a full environmental impact study that will consider other improvements to the corridor including extending HOV and possibly HOT lanes from Virginia into the District.
• $200,000 for the Arlington Housing Corporation (AHC) to aid their efforts at addressing low income housing needs in Northern Virginia. This funding would go to two projects AHC is working on 1) the conversion of storage space into a classroom that can be used as a pre-school at the Berkeley Apartments and 2) refurbishing an outdoor play area for children living at Harvey Hall. Both properties are located in South Arlington.
• $200,000 for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) to enhance safety of the transit system including use of cameras on buses, video analysis equipment, an automated bus performance monitoring system, pedestrian warning systems, enhanced stop lights and safety upgrades at bus facilities. These funds were allocated in response to last year’s tragic bus accident that killed a local pedestrian.
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