County to get $60 million from U.S. budget

Passed by Congress on Dec. 19, the budget bill covers federal spending for most major departments and will dictate spending for the rest of the fiscal year, which began on Oct. 1.

Because of the massive scope of funding, Congress normally does not pass the federal budget until well after the fiscal year begins.

Each department’s budget is approved one at a time during the year and they are all folded together into the final version, known as an ‘‘omnibus” budget bill.

The 23 earmarked projects for the county range from $14.5 million for agricultural research to $42,000 for a bilingual victims advocate for the Prince George’s County State’s Attorney’s Office.

The local haul comes after more than a year of negotiations in Congress, congressional aides said.

‘‘The senator works all year long on this, from meetings with the county executive and Gov. [Martin] O’Malley in January, through the committees in the spring, to the floor votes in the summer and then down to the wire like this month,” said Melissa Schwartz, spokeswoman for Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski (D) of Baltimore.

Many of the local projects in the federal budget focus on security and public safety.

About $12 million of a $49.3 million grant will go to the University of Maryland, College Park for the university’s center for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terror. The center is a combined partnership of more than 25 universities, who will get the remaining portion of the grant.

Since it was founded in 2004, the center has conducted studies on factors that lead to terrorist recruitment and examined other topics from an academic viewpoint, all relying on federal funding.

‘‘A lot of it will go to our graduate students, actually,” said Gary LaFree, a criminal justice professor and director of the START center in College Park. ‘‘We’re collecting a lot of data.”

Prince George’s will also benefit indirectly from a $6.1 million grant Congress approved for the Capital Wireless Integration Network, a regional database that allows police in the metropolitan region to crosscheck names and incidents.

But other grants will have a direct impact on public safety. The appropriations bill contains nearly $2 million to upgrade the county police radio system to work across the region, and another $470,000 to give the same integrated, 800-megahertz radios to the Bowie Police Department.

Other big grants were for federal programs already in Prince George’s County. The new budget includes $14.5 million in restored funds for the Beltsville Agriculture Research Center. The funds will revive several previously cut research studies on topics ranging from Lyme disease to cow genetics.

Other agriculture research money will go to UMD, this time to explore alternative uses for tobacco crops.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Patuxent refuge and research center off Route 197 will also receive $8.58 million for operating costs.

Improvements to Suitland Parkway also made up a big share of local earmarks. In addition to $2.5 million in federal highway funding to improve the intersection of the parkway and Pennsylvania Avenue near the Beltway, another $1.5 million was set aside for nearby road improvements.

The federal government will give $500,000 for design work to create a parkway interchange between Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue and Interstate 295 at the Washington, D.C. line, and another $1 million to widen Suitland Road from Allentown Road to the parkway.

Environmental projects on the Anacostia River and Paint Brach tributary also got a share of funding. Officials approved $2,6 million to restore eroded shorelines on Paint Branch, and other funds to create a long-term plan to avoid flooding from the waterways that cut through the urban western edge of the county.

Smaller local projects made up the rest of the federal appropriations, including $160,000 to restore the aging roof at Poplar Hill on His Lordship’s Kindness in Clinton.

The mansion that dates back to 1787 is a National Historic landmark. However, its 75-year-old roof leaks in heavy rains and snow.

The smallest federal grant is also arguably one of the most needed. Officials set aside $42,000 for a victims’ advocate who can translate and assist prosecutors investigating crimes against the county’s Hispanic and South American immigrant population.

State’s attorney spokesman Ramon Korionoff welcomed the new funding, though he said it’s unclear when the office can spend it. Despite months of advertising, officials have not found a qualified candidate for the job.

‘‘We have a slot,” said Korionoff, who said competition with translator jobs in nearby police and counties makes it more difficult to find candidates.

As it came down to the final days of the current session, the budget bill almost didn’t pass.

Up until the end, Bush had threatened to veto the bill if military funding came with strings attached. Democrats had tried to include conditional funds that tied war funding to eventual military withdrawals from countries.

Though the stipulations passed the House on Dec. 17, the Senate voted not to place conditions on the $70 billion in military funding for Iraq and Afghanistan when the final bill passed two days later.

The argument over funding led Rep. Albert R. Wynn (D-Dist. 4) of Mitchellville to vote against the final budget bill.

‘‘It was very difficult” to oppose the bill with local projects, said Wynn, who is being challenged over his war votes in next month’s primary.

‘‘It is a mistake to give the president a blank check to continue this terrible war with no end in sight,” he said in a statement.

In addition to county projects, the federal budget includes $37 million for a new headquarters building for the Food and Drug Administration in White Oak near Silver Spring, as well as more than $40 million in programs to study and support conservation efforts on the Chesapeake Bay.

E-mail Daniel Valentine at dvalentine@gazette.net.

County projects receiving federal funds

Congress approved the following Prince George’s projects in its $555 billion appropriations bill last week:

$14.5 million in research funding for the Beltsville Agriculture Research Center.

$12 million to the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terror center at the University of Maryland, College Park.

$8.5 million to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Patuxent research center and wildlife refuge.

$6.1 million towards the Capital Wireless Integration Network, a regional law enforcement database.

$2.7 million for shoreline restoration of the Paint Branch tributary.

$2.6 million to University of Maryland, College Park for designing robots for space exploration work.

$2.5 million for a new interchange at Suitland Parkway and Route 4.

$2 million for a new police radio system for Prince George’s County emergency services.

$1 million in road improvements to Suitland Road.

$1 million for transportation needs on Route 301.

$818,000 for a Langley Park Transit Center to serve Prince George’s and Montgomery counties.

$742,000 to the University of Maryland Energy Research Center.

$658,000 for a regional communications center for police in Hyattsville, Bladensburg, Greenbelt, Mount Rainier and Riverdale.

$611,000 for radio system upgrades in Laurel.

$500,000 for designs for a new interchange at Suitland Parkway and Interstate 295.

$492,000 to create a comprehensive management plan for the Anacostia River.

$459,620 for blight removal on Route 1 in College Park.

$470,000 for police radio upgrades in Bowie.

$400,000 for a county office of the Small Business Administration focusing on international trade in Africa.

$393,900 for Colmar Manor Community Center.

$300,000 to a mixed-use development, parking garage and new city hall building in College Park.

$300,000 to the Housing Partnership Network for homeownership and rental opportunities.

$297,000 to the Agricultural College at University of Maryland College Park.

$292,000 grant to Best Buddies Maryland, a mentorship program for children with developmental disabilities.

$195,000 to create a training and certification program for school principals at Bowie State University.

$160,000 to replace the roof at Poplar Hill on His Lordships Kindness in Clinton.

$146,000 to the College Park Aviation Museum.

$134,000 to market pre-natal health programs to low-income women in Prince George’s County.

$100,000 for a storm management plan for Paint Branch tributary.

$42,000 for a bi-lingual victim advocate in the county State’s Attorney’s Office.