WASHINGTON -- Maryland will get more than $200 million in earmarks - pet projects sponsored by members of the state's congressional delegation - in the omnibus spending measure approved yesterday by Congress. But the figure fell millions short of what lawmakers had hoped to receive.
More than $15 million will go toward rail and road improvements to accommodate the tens of thousands of new households expected to arrive in Maryland with the military base expansion over the next five years.
The figure is more than $5 million below the amount approved earlier by the Senate to help state and local officials prepare for the expansion of Aberdeen Proving Ground, Fort Meade and other military facilities in the nationwide base realignment and closure program known by its initials, BRAC.
Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown, chairman of Gov. Martin O'Malley's BRAC Cabinet, said the state would continue to invest in necessary transportation projects, even with reduced federal funding.
"It doesn't deter us from our goals and objectives," he said. "It's just a question of how quickly we get there."
The Maryland projects were contained in the omnibus package to fund the government through September 2008. Congressional Democrats, facing a veto threat by President Bush, reduced overall domestic spending in the measure.
The legislation, which Bush is now expected to sign, also reduces funding for base realignment and closure nationwide by nearly $1 billion - a cut that could slow the expansion of the Maryland facilities. State officials are counting on that growth to draw tens of thousands of new workers and pump billions of dollars into the Maryland economy.
"Unfortunately, President Bush's refusal to negotiate with congressional Democrats has shortchanged our nation's domestic priorities," Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski said through a spokeswoman.
After Maryland lawmakers sought large earmarks to accommodate the growing facilities, the Senate approved $21 million in September to buy more locomotives for the MARC commuter rail system, improve access to Aberdeen Proving Ground and develop the Central Maryland Transit Operations Facility at Fort Meade, among other projects. The legislation now contains $15.36 million.
Still, Mikulski, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, called it "a big win for the communities who are already at work to design and implement new initiatives to prepare for BRAC."
