Montgomery County residents could gain $600,000 of federal money for pedestrian safety projects in Silver Spring and a group home for three adults with developmental disabilities in Rockville, if congressional leaders can bring home the bacon.
Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., a member of the Senate Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Subcommittee, earmarked $400,000 for pedestrian safety in Silver Spring’s Long Branch community as part of a spending bill the Senate approved Wednesday. She also scored $200,000 in the bill to help the Jewish Foundation for Group Homes convert a single-family home in Rockville into a group home that would house three adults with developmental disabilities.
Leslie Paige, spokeswoman for Citizens Against Government Waste, a group that opposes all earmark or “pork” projects, objected to the appropriations process that gets federal dollars for community development projects.
“Sure, who could be against a group home for disabled people?” Paige asked Thursday. “I take issue with the process, not the beneficiaries. That $200k for the group home is no great shakes in light of the whole budget, but you add up projects like that, and it’s ten of billions of dollars in pork.”
Mikulski spokeswoman Melissa Schwartz said the senator believes in “smart earmarks that make a federal investment in community projects that have shown a demonstrated need, a strategic plan and leveraged investments from state, local, community and private sources.”
The House of Representatives’ version of the bill included funding for the Silver Spring pedestrian safety project but did not include money for the Rockville group home project, according to House staff members.The bill now moves to conference committee, where both houses work out differences between approved bills.
Staff members for Mikulski and Reps. Chris Van Hollen and Albert Wynn, both D-Md., could not say where the request for funds for the group home originated.
