Congressional Art Competition
Congratulations to Ms. Anna Hodges, a student at the Baltimore School for the Arts, for winning this year’s Congressional Art Competition! Ms. Hodges’ winning piece, Eleanor, will be on display in the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC for a year.

Foreclosure Prevention Forum
On Saturday, July 19, I will be hosting a free foreclosure prevention event at the Morgan State University Clarence M. Mitchell Engeineering Building at 1700 E. Coldspring Lane in Baltimore City from 10am to 3pm. This event is free and open to the public. For more information, please contact Harry Spikes at 410.685.9199.

• $741,623 to Baltimore County for HUD Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing.
• $526,304 to Sickle Cell Disease Association for sickle cell disease and newborn screening programs.
• $516,813 to Johns Hopkins University for training in anti-cancer drug development.
• $497,533 to the University of Maryland Baltimore to study aging, inflammation, and exercise in chronic strokes.
• $32,520 to the University of Maryland for scholarships for disadvantaged students.

Last month, the House of Representatives and the Senate both passed the Farm, Nutrition, and Bioenergy Act of 2007, also known as the Farm Bill. This legislation offers critical support to hungry families coping with skyrocketing food prices by increasing the minimum monthly benefit of food stamps for the first time in 30 years and by providing an additional $1.25 billion in support to food banks and soup kitchens.  Additionally, the bill provides a disaster relief program for farmers hit by droughts or flooding.  It also reduces tax credits for corn-based ethanol, instead offering subsidies for more efficient ethanol made from stalks, wood, and grass. The legislation also mandates important labeling of our meat supply and invests in a Chesapeake Bay conservation program for the first time in history. Although President Bush vetoed this bill, the House and Senate both successfully overturned this veto before the Memorial Day recess. For more details about the bill, click here.

As the number of foreclosures continues to soar, my colleagues and I are working relentlessly to assist families in danger of losing their homes and ease the burden of these foreclosures on the neighborhoods in which they are located. Foreclosures cause reduction in property values of neighboring homes, and vacant houses can lead to crime and vandalism. We recently passed a comprehensive housing package in the House of Representatives responding to these issues. The Neighborhood Stabilization Act, H.R. 5818, provides $15 billion in loans and grants to states to acquire foreclosed homes, rehabilitate foreclosed property, and restore home values in neighborhoods that have been hit the hardest by the housing crisis. The amendments to the American Housing Rescue and Foreclosure Prevention Act, H.R. 3221, takes several steps to keep families from losing their homes and to stabilize the housing market. To read more details about this legislation, click here.

Our nation has witnessed job losses for five consecutive months, and many individuals are long-term unemployed, meaning they have been unemployed for six months or more. In Maryland alone, the number of long-term unemployed totals 13,000, and economists predict this number to increase to 36,000 by the end of next year. In May, the House passed an amendment to H.R. 2642, the Supplemental Appropriations Act, which would extend unemployment benefits by an additional thirteen weeks. In addition to assisting the men and women who are seeking employment but have exhausted their benefits from unemployment compensation, this legislation would also provide a proven stimulus to our economy. In fact, extending these benefits is projected to boost the economy by more than $1.7 billion per month, as the money is likely to be spent on immediate needs. For more information on the amendment, click here.

The House recently passed H.R. 5658, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which authorizes defense spending for fiscal year 2009. Included in the bill are a number of amendments that I introduced and co-sponsored to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the U.S. Armed Forces. These amendments include increasing and enhancing the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC), increasing the recruitment and retention of minority officers within the Armed Forces, protecting the jobs of qualified civilian employees, implementing a database for the collection of sexual assault incidents, enacting oversight of certain property lease agreements dealing with private developers, and regulating the use of High-Performing Organizations to protect the rights and benefits of employees. The Senate is expected to vote on their version of the NDAA soon. For more information, click here.

At the beginning of May, I was pleased to join several of my colleagues on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee to introduce railroad legislation that would benefit Maryland’s 7th District. H.R. 5658, the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act, also known as the Amtrak reauthorization, would authorize the modernization of rail infrastructure along the Northeast Corridor. This includes the authorization of $60 million to replace or circumvent the antiquated Baltimore and Potomac (B&P) tunnel, which could improve local MARC service from Washington, D.C., to Baltimore. The bill passed the House yesterday by a veto-proof majority of 311-104.  Click here to read more.

On May 20, I convened a hearing in the House Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation on a report issued by the Department of Homeland Security’s Inspector General that paints a bleak picture of the Coast Guard’s marine casualty investigation program. This program is responsible for the examination of marine accidents to determine their causes and formulate recommendations to prevent future accidents. The report found that marine casualty investigations are being conducted by unqualified personnel and at inappropriate levels, and that there is a substantial backlog of open cases due to ineffective management. To read more about this subject, click here.

Summit on School Safety Solutions
Last week, in response to the attack of an art teacher at Reginald F. Lewis High School that occurred on April 4, I was joined by Dr. Nancy Grasmick, the State Superintendent for the Maryland State Department of Education, in hosting a Summit on School Safety Solutions. Our goal was to identify a set of solutions that can be implemented to decrease violence in our State’s schools, and we were pleased to see hundreds of students, parents, and teachers come out for the event.

We were able to bring together a number of exceptional panelists with expertise ranging from education to psychology and law enforcement. We then split into breakout sessions, where groups brainstormed solutions for preventing and coping with school violence that were later shared with the larger group. This event was a great opportunity to come together as a community and strategize ways to make our schools safe for students and teachers.