Cardin, Hoyer hear infrastructure needs
Broadband, veteran services also discussed at annual federal priorities meeting on Friday
Sen. Ben Cardin (DMd.) and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md., 5th) warned the Charles County Board of Commissioners that funding for construction at Naval Support Facility Indian Head could be at risk due to President Trump’s recent executive order to reallocate federal funds to build a border wall.
Speaking at the annual Federal Priorities Meeting on Friday, Cardin said that $229 million has been appropriated for construction at the base, including $18 million for the Center for Energetics, but the sweeping authority granted by the executive order could potentially put that funding, and other allocations, in jeopardy.
“With this emergency declaration, the president could very well take that money that has been specifically appropriated for that project without the permission of Congress and use that for his medieval wall on the southern border,” Cardin told the commissioners. “This is at what’s at stake with what the president is trying to do with his executive order.”
Earlier last week, the House and Senate had passed a resolution seeking to overturn the executive order. However, shortly after the briefing to the county commissioners Trump issued the first veto of his presidency to overturn it.
Cardin noted that NSF
Indian Head has successfully fended off closure threats in previous Base Realignment and Closure reviews, in part due to the efforts of the Military Alliance Council of the Charles County Chamber of Commerce.
Economic development at NSF Indian Head and the surrounding community topped the list of the commissioners’ priorities for federal funding as presented to Cardin, Hoyer and Scott Travers, representing Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), who was unable to attend.
The county and MAC have partnered with the College of Southern Maryland to construct a new training facility, called the Velocity Center, on the site of the old Ely’s Warehouse in Indian Head.
The commissioners are seeking $4 million to facilitate a technology transfer program that would encourage companies to move to Indian Head to work with the base on robotics and other high-technology programs.
The Velocity Center will feature a lab that can be used by CSM students and robotics clubs and a space for NSF Indian Head personnel to conduct research and security operations. The facility will also include space that can be rented by local organizations and businesses.
“Indian Head, as we all know, is critical to the economy of Southern Maryland,” Cardin said. “We’re going to put together a state strategy on all of our military installations, but I can tell you the Velocity Center and the technology transfer issue are very important to me.”
“We all know the challenges that Indian Head has been facing,” Hoyer said. “Those can be solved if we bring some jobs outside the gate. None of these issues is a Democratic or Republican issue.”
On the issue of bringing broadband internet service to rural Charles County, Commissioner Gilbert Bowling III (D) noted that such a program directly affected other federal priorities like economic development and transportation.
“You have businesses out in the rural part of the county ... that can’t function,” Bowling said. “You have people who want to work from home, they can’t work from home because of this issue.”
“You can’t get people off the road if they can’t function at their home doing work,” Bowling said.
Hoyer agreed, noting that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 included $7 billion for rural broadband infrastructure, and during the presidential campaign Trump promised to allocate $1 trillion for infrastructure improvements.
“Broadband is essential for our children, our families ... in rural areas,” Hoyer said. “It’s critical to be connected.”
Commissioners’ President Reuben B. Collins II (D) pointed out that Sen. Arthur Ellis (D-Charles) has sponsored legislation in the General Assembly that would require the Maryland Department of Transportation to begin the first round of design, engineering and environmental studies for the proposed light rail route from the Branch Avenue Metro station in Prince George’s County to White Plains.
Collins was one of four witnesses who traveled to Annapolis to testify in favor of the bill before the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee last Wednesday.
Cardin, the ranking member of the Senate Subcommittee on Transportation and Infrastructure, said that he was hopeful that Congress would be able to draft and pass an infrastructure bill this year that could make more funding available for studies such as those needed to get the Southern Maryland rapid transit program under way.
Hoyer noted that although the president’s proposed federal budget zeroes out funding for Chesapeake Bay cleanup programs, “that will not stand.”
Collins also raised the issue of services for the county’s veterans, expressing the wish that an outpatient clinic like the one being constructed in Charlotte Hall could be built in Charles County.
Hoyer said that although the Veterans Administration received its biggest ever budget increases between 2007 and 2011, under the majority leadership of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), technological problems have hindered the VA’s ability to get service members’ records and other information from the Department of Defense.
“We’re making strides in that, but we’re not where we need to be,” Hoyer said.
Following the briefing, the Maryland Independent asked Hoyer about what Maryland residents could expect from Congress on efforts to restore federal subsidies for a class of health insurance plans bought through the state’s health insurance exchange.
The White House cut of f the subsidies in November 2017, forcing state legislatures to scramble to find ways to keep insurance costs from spiraling out of control. Last year, the General Assembly passed emergency legislation to transfer federal funds from another program to help offset health insurance rate increases, but the transfer was intended to be a stopgap measure until the subsidies can be restored.
“Maybe we’ll [be able to] pass a bill through the House, but until we get bills through the Senate and to the president, and signed by the president, it’s problematic,” Hoyer said. “Maryland has historically been, with the governor’s help, trying to fill the gap of coverage, and to preserve access for our citizens.”
“We want to make sure the Affordable Care Act works and we’re going to pass legislation to do that,” Hoyer said. “We’re having hearings now on how best to do that. It will be a hot topic if we don’t fill this gap.”