Nevada projects get $94M boost in House spending bill

WASHINGTON — A $1.5 trillion bipartisan spending package passed by the House on Wednesday to fully fund federal agencies includes nearly $94 million for Nevada projects.

The massive bill wending its way through Congress this week includes $730 billion for domestic programs, a nearly 7 percent jump from last year, due in part to congressional requests.

It’s the first time in nearly a decade that local projects — dubbed earmarks — were allowed following 2011, when disclosure of questionable pork barrel spending led to a ban on the timeworn practice.

But House and Senate leaders last year invited lawmakers to submit requests for community projects, subject to transparency rules, to improve infrastructure and services in cities, towns and counties still recovering from the coronavirus pandemic.

Nevada lawmakers were successful in securing funding for 52 projects that include road improvements in Las Vegas, Henderson, Reno, Carson City, as well as equipment and facilities for Nye County, Sparks and the Metropolitan Police Department.

The state’s colleges and universities, and the Clark County School District, also received funding for programs, research, equipment and training centers. Creech Air Force Base would also get money.

Nevada Democratic Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen worked with Democratic Reps. Dina Titus, Steven Horsford and Susie Lee, and Republican Rep. Mark Amodei, on project requests, many of which came from local leaders seeking federal help.

Amodei and Lee sit on the House Appropriations Committee, which wrote the government omnibus spending bill for fiscal year 2022, which ends Sept. 30.

Titus is a House Transportation subcommittee chairman and steered requests for Las Vegas road improvement projects. Horsford serves on the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee.

Cortez Masto and Rosen used their committee positions to secure local projects in the Senate legislation as party leaders in both chambers ironed out differences. Military and humanitarian aid for Ukraine were passed in a separate package with overwhelming bipartisan support.

The House passed the domestic spending portion of the bill, 260-171. The entire Nevada delegation voted for passage. It now goes to the Senate.

President Joe Biden has signaled he will sign the legislation into law.

Tucked into the bill is funding for projects throughout the Silver State, according to documents released by the House Appropriations Committee.

Nevada will see $36 million in transportation and housing projects that include zero-emission buses for Maryland Parkway in Las Vegas, Historic Westside street improvements, a North Las Vegas sports complex, Washoe County homeless programs and highway projects in Henderson, Reno and Tahoe.

Health and education programs include $22.5 million to be spent at the University of Nevada, Reno, UNLV, Truckee Meadows Community College, Western Nevada College, Nevada State College, the College of Southern Nevada and the Clark County School District.

Interior Department spending includes $16.6 million in water and sewage projects in Ely, Sparks, Reno, Fallon, Boulder City and Carson City.

Creech will get $4 million for two training centers. Another $3.6 million will pay for Lake Mead drainage, and Henderson will get a $2 million workforce training center.

Justice and Commerce department spending includes $6.7 million for Nevada programs that include a Metro training center and first-responder equipment for Sparks.

Carson City is slated to get $2 million in Homeland Security funding for an emergency operating center.

The Agriculture Department will provide $500,000 for wild horse management fencing in Nevada’s Virginia Range.

Contact Gary Martin at gmartin@reviewjournal.com. Follow @garymartindc on Twitter.