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U.S. Rep. Mark DeSaulnier (D-Concord) announced this month that he had advanced a request for federal funding in Congress for more than a dozen local projects throughout his district, including in the Tri-Valley.
The approximately $30.5 million in congressional funding for local projects DeSaulnier is seeking includes $8.2 million for several Tri-Valley efforts headed by the cities of San Ramon and Dublin, Zone 7 and the Livermore Amador Valley Transit Authority for environment, public safety, and transportation and infrastructure projects.
“Whether by lowering everyday costs for families, increasing access to public spaces, or by making our communities safer, these projects will each have a meaningful impact on the daily lives of people across our district,” DeSaulnier said in the April 18 announcement. “I am grateful to our cities and local organizations for their advocacy and partnership in advancing these projects, and I will fight for them through each step of the process.”
In San Ramon, the $2 million in requested funding would go toward a publicly owned and operated fiber-optic network throughout the city for use by residents and businesses along with city facilities, traffic signals and automated license plate readers.
“On behalf of the City of San Ramon, I would like to thank Congressman DeSaulnier for his support of our Intelligent Transportation System and Citywide Communications Infrastructure Project, which creates numerous opportunities to benefit residents and our business community through a citywide, publicly-owned fiber optic network,” San Ramon Vice Mayor Mark Armstrong said.
LAVTA was identified for $2.5 million for a second hydrogen fueling tank that would expand the agency’s capacity for fueling its bus fleet.
“The Livermore Amador Valley Transit Authority is thrilled that our Hydrogen Fueling Station Expansion Project is on the list for consideration as part of the United States House Appropriations Committee’s Community Project Funding solicitation,” said David Haubert, LAVTA board chair and Alameda County supervisor. “This project represents critical infrastructure needed to operate future zero-emissions buses and to meet the growing transportation needs of Tri-Valley residents.”
Zone 7’s Chain of Lakes PFAS Treatment Facility Project is among the five environmental projects proposed for congressional funding by DeSaulnier, who is seeking $3.5 million to advance the facility.
“Zone 7 Water Agency is thrilled to be considered for federal funding to construct a PFAS treatment facility at the Chain of Lakes wellfield. PFAS are a significant concern in our community and the treatment facility will help ensure continued access to safe and reliable water,” Zone 7 General Manager Valerie Pryor said.
As one of the three public safety projects in the current list up for consideration, DeSaulnier is seeking to secure $198,000 for the city of Dublin’s Situational Awareness Camera Project that would provide additional security cameras near the city’s parks and schools.
“This money will help to fund new situational awareness cameras near our community parks and schools, which will ensure that Dublin Police have the necessary tools and technology to help reduce crime and keep our community safe,” Dublin Mayor Melissa Hernandez said.
Selecting community projects and submitting requests for federal funding are the first steps in the process of securing funds via Congress, which are then subject to vetting by the House Appropriations Committee as part of the 2024 fiscal year appropriations process.
The US House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly last Tuesday to pass a resolution marking Israel’s 75th anniversary, heralding the importance of the US-Israel relationship and urging the expansion of the Abraham Accords.
H.Res.311 passed 401-19, with 18 progressive Democrats opposing the measure amid growing comfort within the party to take such public stances against Israel.
Guess who was one of those Democrats? Mark DeSaulnier (D-Concord). The very clown endorsed by this local rag. What a joke.
I thought DeSaulnier was more of centrist. Instead, he’s shown his true socialist colors. He voted not to support Israel along with LIhan Omar and Rashida.
Another Democrat rat gone astray.
This Danville San Ramon article is about congressional funding for local projects that Congressman DeSalnier is seeking…not his vote on U.S.-Istaeli relations.
Just pointing out another socialist Democrat.
@Malcom Hex:
Though I am a firm supporter of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ social & economic agenda, it is obvious that in a country as large as the United States, a Socialist system is not feasible.
It is best reserved for smaller countries like Denmark and Sweden.
On the other hand, certain U.S. states if they were countries, would be prime candidates for a Socialist economic system including California, Illinois, New York, and possibly Michigan…in other words, states with stable industrial economies and tax revenues.
Red states are perhaps best served by Republican economic and social dogmas because many of their constituents adhere to such policies.
There has been ongoing discussion of a political and cultural civil war taking place in America but unlike 1860-65, there are no hard-line geographical boundaries like north and south.
It is a civil war of thought processes and social acceptances.
@ the DD Fontaines:
Ah yes, the same Bernie Saunders who partied with the communists in the former Soviet Union and called their system beautiful. You mean, that Bernie Saunders? But I digress…
Scandinavian “socialism” does not exist, except in the Marxian imagination of radical progressives. It is a chimera wrapped in an illusion inside a dream.
Fact: The economies of Denmark and the other Scandinavian countries are not socialist but capitalist. They depend on the free market to generate the funds that make their extensive welfare system possible. That’s right. Danes accept the universal high taxes as the price of the country’s universal welfare. Bernie Sanders prefers to skip over the fact that the top 10 percent of wealthy Danes pay “only” 26 percent of all income taxes.
@Mr. Hex:
The local Tri-Vally project funding that Congressman DeSalnier is seeking far outweighs the importance of voting to commemorate some distant accord that most people are oblivious to.
@Hakeem
Maybe you should become more enlightened.