Ports, school, arts in El Paso stand to gain in legislation

EL PASO – An $825 billion economic
stimulus bill with money allocated
to El Paso for purposes including
flood control and the arts passed the House
of Representatives appropriations committee
Thursday.
“This bill is going to benefit our country
for the next decade,” said Rep. Silvestre
Reyes, D-Texas. “It’s a very comprehensive,
well thought out, very balanced bill.”
Although there are no “earmarks” –
when Congress pegs money for specific
projects, often eliciting charges of cronyism
and pork-barrel spending – Reyes
said money is dedicated to larger projects
that will help El Paso. The money is expected
not only to improve infrastructure
but also to provide jobs.
To become law, the bill must pass the
full House and the Senate and then be signed
by the president.
The bill includes $3.75 billion for Defense
Department medical facilities, Reyes
said, which could provide money to build
the new Beaumont Army Medical Center
planned for East El Paso. An additional
$224 million is directed at “repairing
flood-control systems along the whole international
boundary of the Rio Grande,”
he said. He added the money could help fix
a levee in Juárez that threatened to over-
flow during the 2006 floods.
And $1.15 billion would be allocated for
construction and renovation of border ports
of entry, Reyes said. Some of that money
could be spent in El Paso to build a new
bridge and to add lanes to existing bridges
to improve border security and ease trade
and commerce, he said.
Some of the money could be used to upgrade
the clamshell on the stage at the Chamizal
National Memorial, Reyes said.
Rep. Ciro Rodriguez, a Texas Democrat
whose district reaches eastern El Paso
County, said agencies that don’t aggressively
pursue the money may be left out.
“I want to encourage our communities to
again revisit previous funding sources and
identify projects within those agencies,”
said Rodriguez, who is on the House
Appropriations Committee. “This is a
critical time, and I want to make sure we
are ready and that we prosper from this
stimulus.”
Stimulus bill
•Modernization of Land Ports of Entry
Facilities – $1.15 billion: $1 billion for
land ports of entry for General Services
Administration (GSA), $615 million of
which could be awarded within a 120-day
time frame, which is meant to ensure the
money circulates into the economy quickly;
$150 million for Customs and Border
Protection. •Education – Money is included to increase
the size of Pell Grants, support
work-study programs, increase the amount
of money available for student loans, prevent
cuts in services to K-12 education, boost
support for special education and make
more money available for disadvantaged
children.