Biden signs $1.5 trillion spending bill into law. What does it mean for Fresno?
Help for an anti-gun violence program in Fresno. Rehabilitation of the historic Merced County Courthouse Museum. Money for an ambitious job training program in west Fresno.
And more.
The $1.5 trillion federal spending bill President Joe Biden signed into law Tuesday gets very specific about projects in the Fresno area that will get some of that money.
Such projects, submitted by local members of Congress, used to be called “earmarks,” and were often criticized as wasteful pork. They’ve since been rebranded as “community project funding.”
There are an estimated 4,000 such projects funded. Unlike past years, guidelines were stricter: No for-profit interests could get funding, members could seek a maximum of 10 projects and had to certify that neither they nor immediate family members had any financial interest in the project.
More spending for Fresno
The projects pushed by Rep. Jim Costa, D-Fresno, address education, infrastructure and other community needs.
Among them:
▪ Gun violence. $300,000 for Advance Peace Fresno’s efforts to help prevent gun violence. The group says it’s committed to “healthier, safer, and more just communities by putting an end to cyclical and retaliatory gun violence in urban neighborhoods.”
▪ Merced County Courthouse Museum. $2 million to rehabilitate the structure. Built in 1875, it’s one of the state’s oldest historic buildings.
▪ Help for Alzheimer’s patients. $475,000 to UCSF Fresno to build an Alzheimer’s Center and Center on Aging. It will provide clinical services for age-related care, and will be a center for geriatric and neurological education for students and residents;
▪ Help for English language students. $625,000 to the Madera Unified School District to help approximately 5,500 English language learners.
▪ Help for the water in Dos Palos. $279,000 would go to making repairs to the existing water system, while a new water plant is built.
City Manager Darrell Fonseca said in a statement that the money, along with other government funds, “allows the city to make necessary infrastructure improvements so that our community can avoid critical water shortages and contamination that shut down the water flow to homes in our community in recent years. “
▪ Help for job training and counseling in Fresno. $1.9 million to build a training center in west Fresno. It would help women, minorities, veterans, ex-offenders, at-risk and disconnected young adults, and other underrepresented individuals with job training and counseling.
▪ Fixing a corroded pipeline in Madera. $3.5 million would go to the project. The pipeline carries water from the city’s wastewater to its treatment plant.
▪ More nurse practitioners. $475,000 would go to Fresno City College to develop the Nurse Pipeline Extension Project. Collaborating with Fresno State, the project would help increase the number of nurse practitioners in the San Joaquin Valley.
▪ Other projects: $500,000 to study expanding Los Banos Creek into a multi-purpose reservoir and $950,000 for the city of Gustine to finish a water loop line from North Avenue to East Avenue.
This story was originally published March 15, 2022 at 12:11 PM.
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