WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen announced Tuesday their Congressionally Directed Spending Requests (Community Spending) for three appropriations bills: (1) Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations; (2) Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations; and (3) Homeland Security Appropriations. Together, these proposed federal investments will strengthen economic development and public safety through multimodal transportation infrastructure, clean water, housing and community centered programs.
“Every Marylander deserves clean water, convenient and affordable transportation options, a safe and welcoming place to call home, and opportunities for economic advancement. Team Maryland strives to support deserving local initiatives that will bring tangible benefits to our communities – making them safer, more accessible and more equitable for residents,” said Senator Cardin, Chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee. “There is no single solution for every infrastructure challenge facing Marylanders, which is why we sought out community projects that boost local capacity in essential areas, including those that will assist our neediest communities.”
“Updating our infrastructure – from fixing our roads and bridges, to increasing access to affordable housing, to providing clean water to our residents – is vital to the lives and livelihoods of Marylanders. That’s why we’ve partnered with nonprofits, local governments, and community leaders across our state to identify these projects that will help expand economic opportunity for Marylanders, improve our environment, and invest in the success of our state. We’ll be working to bring these funds directly to our communities, ensuring that these resources go directly to where they’re needed most,” said Senator Van Hollen a member of the Appropriations Committee and member of the Subcommittees on Transportation, Housing & Urban Development and Related Agencies and Interior & Environment and Related Agencies.
Senator Cardin’s FY22 requests can be found here. Senator Van Hollen’s FY22 requests can be found here. These pages will be updated as Appropriations subcommittee requests are submitted.
Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations
PROJECT TITLE: 411 Kitchen
Recipient Name: Cross Street Partners
Location: Cambridge, Maryland
Project Purpose: The 411 Kitchen is part of a broader redevelopment of the former Phillips Packing Company, Factory F (Packing House) in Cambridge, Maryland, and intended to support and grow economic opportunity in agriculture, aquaculture, environmental technologies, and tourism. Federal funds will cover gap financing to finish the physical build out of the project and purchase equipment necessary for a fully functioning commercial kitchen. The 411 Kitchen is a shared-use commercial kitchen designed to empower, elevate and establish a thriving food entrepreneur community in Cambridge and the greater Mid-shore Region. The project will increase access to consistent and healthy food resources for the underserved communities in the region through this project. In addition to educating the region on the benefits of healthy eating, the 411 Kitchen is essential in supporting Maryland's resource-based industries. The kitchen will not only preserve Cambridge's unique agricultural heritage but will launch a new entrepreneurial engine that will bring vibrancy to be agricultural and food-related markets. As part of the broader Packing House redevelopment, the kitchen helps attract private investment, creates economic and employment opportunities, provides job training, reduces vacant space, and grows the local tax base.
Amount Requested: $1.4 million
PROJECT TITLE: Baltimore County Transit Headquarters
Location: Towson, MD
Recipient Name: Baltimore County
Project Purpose: Funds will be used to build the county’s first transit headquarters to support transit operations, including administration and maintenance. Establishing a centralized transit headquarters will help continue expanding the system in the county and generate long-term savings by facilitating in-house transit vehicle maintenance.
Amount Requested: $1 million
PROJECT TITLE: Baltimore Healthy Housing to Advance Health and Racial Equity Project
Location: Baltimore, MD
Recipient Name: Green and Healthy Homes Initiative
Project Purpose: Funds will be used to improve housing conditions for low-income families with children and seniors in East Baltimore through lead hazard control, asthma trigger reduction, and energy efficiency/weatherization. The Green and Healthy Homes Initiative will hire, train, and accredit up to 12 community residents to perform the work.
Amount Requested: $1 million
PROJECT TITLE: Baltimore Penn Station Multi-Modal Access Project
Location: Baltimore, MD
Recipient Name: Maryland Department of Transportation
Project Purpose: Funds will be used for sweeping renovations to Baltimore Penn Station in order to improve transportation for residents and visitors. Updates will provide for dedicated bus lanes, new pick up and drop off zones, bike lanes and storage, public plazas and green spaces, and kiosks to provide transit riders with information about community and multimodal options. Improved connection to the station from the surrounding communities will also improve economic development opportunities for Baltimore City, allowing City residents and neighborhoods improved access to numerous jobs along the MARC Penn Line and the Northeast Corridor and to tourists and visitors that come to Baltimore by train.
Amount Requested: $1 million - $10 million
PROJECT TITLE: Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport Air Traffic Control Tower
Recipient Name: Maryland Department of Transportation
Location: Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport
Project Purpose: Support a new air traffic control tower for BWI Airport, as the existing tower does not meet current building code standards and cannot fully reap the benefits of Next Generation air traffic control technology, including safety, environmental, and efficiency benefits. In addition, the existing tower constrains the airport’s ability to add new domestic and international gates due to sight line limitations from the existing tower to operational areas in planned future expansions. With the forecasted recovery from COVID-19 impacts and continued growth in international and low-cost carrier activity at BWI, additional gate capacity will be needed in the next several years.
Amount Requested: $4 million
PROJECT TITLE: Bethel Empowerment and Wellness Center
Recipient Name: Bethel Empowerment and Wellness Center
Location: Baltimore, Maryland
Project Purpose: The Bethel Empowerment and Wellness Center (BEWC) serves as a community resource hub that connects low-income residents of Baltimore to resources and service providers to improve the quality of life and well-being of West Baltimore's impoverished Upton community. The vision for the Center is providing quality resources and hosting vetted vital health, education, daycare, financial, nutrition, employment training, community development, cultural, and other services and small businesses to initiate long-term community change. Our board came together eight years ago to rejuvenate a vacant building owned by the Bethel Outreach Center (a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization) that had fallen into disrepair. Funding this Center will allow the community to have a revitalized focal point, showing that out of despair can come something good, particularly in light of many years of neighborhood disinvestment and higher than average levels of poverty where nearly 40 percent of households are living in poverty. The project is intended to be self-sustaining with rental income from tenants.
Amount Requested: $251,000
PROJECT TITLE: Bethesda Metro South Entrance
Location: Bethesda, MD
Recipient Name: Montgomery County Department of Transportation
Project Purpose: Funds will be used for a new Bethesda South Metro Access that will provide access from Elm Street west of Wisconsin Avenue to the southern end of the Bethesda Metrorail Station. The station will provide connection to the Purple Line via the Bethesda Light Rail Transition station platforms just west of Wisconsin Avenue, helping to integrate the Purple Line with the WMATA Metrorail system.
Amount Requested: $2 million
PROJECT TITLE: Bladensburg Trade School
Recipient Name: Town of Bladensburg, Maryland
Location: Bladensburg, Maryland
Project Purpose: Support the Town of Bladensburg’s construction of a new Trade School facility that would facilitate education, training, and career opportunities for local students and workers. In partnership with a long-time Bladensburg business, federal funding would be used to tear down an aging structure and allow space to build a new energy efficient trade school. This meets a direct community need for low-income residents and would allow the Town and Prince George’s County to provide apprenticeship opportunities to earn skills while enrolled in high school and obtain gainful employment in the skilled trades immediately after graduating that directly meet the needs of local employers.
Amount Requested: $1 million
PROJECT TITLE: Brentwood Gateway Arts District Façade Improvements
Recipient Name: Town of Brentwood, Maryland
Location: Brentwood, Maryland
Project Purpose: Fund the federal match for façade improvements within the Town of Brentwood’s Gateway Arts District. The purpose of the facade improvements would be to improve the streetscape along and adjacent to major roads and increase the walkability of the neighborhoods within the Gateway Arts District. Additionally, the improvements would serve to increase the viability of local businesses, thereby stimulating the local economy, reduce blight, facilitate investment, and increase access to local businesses to those with disabilities. Federal funding would cover rehabilitation and repair improvements such as window or door replacement, painting or other like finishes, exterior lighting, signage, and awnings, exterior shutters and gutters, masonry, etc. that are approved under the approved Gateway Arts District Approved Sector Plan.
Amount Requested: $80,000
PROJECT TITLE: Cecil County Belvidere Road Expansion
Location: Cecil County, MD
Recipient Name: Cecil County Government
Project Purpose: Funds will be used for planning and engineering of the expansion of Belvidere Road as part of the approved new Interstate 95 interchange, improving local traffic and commuting.
Amount Requested: $500,000
“Every Marylander deserves clean water, convenient and affordable transportation options, a safe and welcoming place to call home, and opportunities for economic advancement. Team Maryland strives to support deserving local initiatives that will bring tangible benefits to our communities – making them safer, more accessible and more equitable for residents,” said Senator Cardin, Chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee. “There is no single solution for every infrastructure challenge facing Marylanders, which is why we sought out community projects that boost local capacity in essential areas, including those that will assist our neediest communities.”
“Updating our infrastructure – from fixing our roads and bridges, to increasing access to affordable housing, to providing clean water to our residents – is vital to the lives and livelihoods of Marylanders. That’s why we’ve partnered with nonprofits, local governments, and community leaders across our state to identify these projects that will help expand economic opportunity for Marylanders, improve our environment, and invest in the success of our state. We’ll be working to bring these funds directly to our communities, ensuring that these resources go directly to where they’re needed most,” said Senator Van Hollen a member of the Appropriations Committee and member of the Subcommittees on Transportation, Housing & Urban Development and Related Agencies and Interior & Environment and Related Agencies.
Senator Cardin’s FY22 requests can be found here. Senator Van Hollen’s FY22 requests can be found here. These pages will be updated as Appropriations subcommittee requests are submitted.
Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations
PROJECT TITLE: 411 Kitchen
Recipient Name: Cross Street Partners
Location: Cambridge, Maryland
Project Purpose: The 411 Kitchen is part of a broader redevelopment of the former Phillips Packing Company, Factory F (Packing House) in Cambridge, Maryland, and intended to support and grow economic opportunity in agriculture, aquaculture, environmental technologies, and tourism. Federal funds will cover gap financing to finish the physical build out of the project and purchase equipment necessary for a fully functioning commercial kitchen. The 411 Kitchen is a shared-use commercial kitchen designed to empower, elevate and establish a thriving food entrepreneur community in Cambridge and the greater Mid-shore Region. The project will increase access to consistent and healthy food resources for the underserved communities in the region through this project. In addition to educating the region on the benefits of healthy eating, the 411 Kitchen is essential in supporting Maryland's resource-based industries. The kitchen will not only preserve Cambridge's unique agricultural heritage but will launch a new entrepreneurial engine that will bring vibrancy to be agricultural and food-related markets. As part of the broader Packing House redevelopment, the kitchen helps attract private investment, creates economic and employment opportunities, provides job training, reduces vacant space, and grows the local tax base.
Amount Requested: $1.4 million
PROJECT TITLE: Baltimore County Transit Headquarters
Location: Towson, MD
Recipient Name: Baltimore County
Project Purpose: Funds will be used to build the county’s first transit headquarters to support transit operations, including administration and maintenance. Establishing a centralized transit headquarters will help continue expanding the system in the county and generate long-term savings by facilitating in-house transit vehicle maintenance.
Amount Requested: $1 million
PROJECT TITLE: Baltimore Healthy Housing to Advance Health and Racial Equity Project
Location: Baltimore, MD
Recipient Name: Green and Healthy Homes Initiative
Project Purpose: Funds will be used to improve housing conditions for low-income families with children and seniors in East Baltimore through lead hazard control, asthma trigger reduction, and energy efficiency/weatherization. The Green and Healthy Homes Initiative will hire, train, and accredit up to 12 community residents to perform the work.
Amount Requested: $1 million
PROJECT TITLE: Baltimore Penn Station Multi-Modal Access Project
Location: Baltimore, MD
Recipient Name: Maryland Department of Transportation
Project Purpose: Funds will be used for sweeping renovations to Baltimore Penn Station in order to improve transportation for residents and visitors. Updates will provide for dedicated bus lanes, new pick up and drop off zones, bike lanes and storage, public plazas and green spaces, and kiosks to provide transit riders with information about community and multimodal options. Improved connection to the station from the surrounding communities will also improve economic development opportunities for Baltimore City, allowing City residents and neighborhoods improved access to numerous jobs along the MARC Penn Line and the Northeast Corridor and to tourists and visitors that come to Baltimore by train.
Amount Requested: $1 million - $10 million
PROJECT TITLE: Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport Air Traffic Control Tower
Recipient Name: Maryland Department of Transportation
Location: Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport
Project Purpose: Support a new air traffic control tower for BWI Airport, as the existing tower does not meet current building code standards and cannot fully reap the benefits of Next Generation air traffic control technology, including safety, environmental, and efficiency benefits. In addition, the existing tower constrains the airport’s ability to add new domestic and international gates due to sight line limitations from the existing tower to operational areas in planned future expansions. With the forecasted recovery from COVID-19 impacts and continued growth in international and low-cost carrier activity at BWI, additional gate capacity will be needed in the next several years.
Amount Requested: $4 million
PROJECT TITLE: Bethel Empowerment and Wellness Center
Recipient Name: Bethel Empowerment and Wellness Center
Location: Baltimore, Maryland
Project Purpose: The Bethel Empowerment and Wellness Center (BEWC) serves as a community resource hub that connects low-income residents of Baltimore to resources and service providers to improve the quality of life and well-being of West Baltimore's impoverished Upton community. The vision for the Center is providing quality resources and hosting vetted vital health, education, daycare, financial, nutrition, employment training, community development, cultural, and other services and small businesses to initiate long-term community change. Our board came together eight years ago to rejuvenate a vacant building owned by the Bethel Outreach Center (a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization) that had fallen into disrepair. Funding this Center will allow the community to have a revitalized focal point, showing that out of despair can come something good, particularly in light of many years of neighborhood disinvestment and higher than average levels of poverty where nearly 40 percent of households are living in poverty. The project is intended to be self-sustaining with rental income from tenants.
Amount Requested: $251,000
PROJECT TITLE: Bethesda Metro South Entrance
Location: Bethesda, MD
Recipient Name: Montgomery County Department of Transportation
Project Purpose: Funds will be used for a new Bethesda South Metro Access that will provide access from Elm Street west of Wisconsin Avenue to the southern end of the Bethesda Metrorail Station. The station will provide connection to the Purple Line via the Bethesda Light Rail Transition station platforms just west of Wisconsin Avenue, helping to integrate the Purple Line with the WMATA Metrorail system.
Amount Requested: $2 million
PROJECT TITLE: Bladensburg Trade School
Recipient Name: Town of Bladensburg, Maryland
Location: Bladensburg, Maryland
Project Purpose: Support the Town of Bladensburg’s construction of a new Trade School facility that would facilitate education, training, and career opportunities for local students and workers. In partnership with a long-time Bladensburg business, federal funding would be used to tear down an aging structure and allow space to build a new energy efficient trade school. This meets a direct community need for low-income residents and would allow the Town and Prince George’s County to provide apprenticeship opportunities to earn skills while enrolled in high school and obtain gainful employment in the skilled trades immediately after graduating that directly meet the needs of local employers.
Amount Requested: $1 million
PROJECT TITLE: Brentwood Gateway Arts District Façade Improvements
Recipient Name: Town of Brentwood, Maryland
Location: Brentwood, Maryland
Project Purpose: Fund the federal match for façade improvements within the Town of Brentwood’s Gateway Arts District. The purpose of the facade improvements would be to improve the streetscape along and adjacent to major roads and increase the walkability of the neighborhoods within the Gateway Arts District. Additionally, the improvements would serve to increase the viability of local businesses, thereby stimulating the local economy, reduce blight, facilitate investment, and increase access to local businesses to those with disabilities. Federal funding would cover rehabilitation and repair improvements such as window or door replacement, painting or other like finishes, exterior lighting, signage, and awnings, exterior shutters and gutters, masonry, etc. that are approved under the approved Gateway Arts District Approved Sector Plan.
Amount Requested: $80,000
PROJECT TITLE: Cecil County Belvidere Road Expansion
Location: Cecil County, MD
Recipient Name: Cecil County Government
Project Purpose: Funds will be used for planning and engineering of the expansion of Belvidere Road as part of the approved new Interstate 95 interchange, improving local traffic and commuting.
Amount Requested: $500,000