Maryland?s congressional delegation, with new clout under Democratic control of the U.S. House and Senate, pledged Monday to bring more federal dollars home to assist with homeland security needs and to help with the relocation of 10,000 federal jobs here.
After having breakfast with Gov. Martin O?Malley, Sen. Barbara Mikulski, now the senior senator and chairman of an appropriations subcommittee, said the lawmakers “want to make sure Maryland gets it fair share” of federal dollars.
Under the Base Realignment and Closure commission, thousands of federal jobs will come to Fort Meade and Aberdeen Proving Grounds. In addition, the staff of Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington will move to Bethesda Naval Hospital. The new federal jobs may generate as many as 60,000 new state residents, including family members, contractors and suppliers.
Mikulski faulted the departed Ehrlichadministration for not providing a detailed list of needs for federal funds to respond to the influx of new residents. She was especially interested in getting more federal impact aid for school systems in Maryland that will get more students generated by parents in nearby federal facilities.
O?Malley said, “There are few governors in the country that have a delegation as influential and as strong” as Maryland?s. “We have to work more closely together.”
Monday?s breakfast was apparently the first time in four years that some of 10 members had been invited to the governor?s office, including Republican Rep. Roscoe Bartlett.
O?Malley is particularly interested in putting Maryland in the forefront of homeland and port security.
“We are a region that is very high up on the target list” for terrorist attacks, said new House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, who represents the fifth congressional district. If the Washington metro area is attacked, it will rely for immediate aid on the Baltimore and Richmond, Va., regions.
Rep. Chris Van Hollen, who represents the 8th congressional district including Montgomery County and parts of Prince George?s County, said the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, which the House passed last week, would change the formula for distribution of a homeland security grants to “a more risk-based formula, rather than being used for pork barrel projects.”
In some past cases, regions near Washington and New York received less funding than less-threatened areas of the country.
Getting those changes through the Senate will be “tough,” said Sen. Ben Cardin.
