Earmark Declaration
Floor Speech
EARMARK DECLARATION -- (Extensions of Remarks - February 26, 2009)
Mr. FORTENBERRY. Madam Speaker, pursuant to the Republican Leadership standards on member requests, I am submitting the following information regarding the earmarks I received as part of H.R. 1105, the FY09 Omnibus Appropriations Bill:
Requesting Member: Congressman Jeff Fortenberry
Bill Number: H.R. 1105, FY09 Omnibus Appropriations Bill
Account: Special Research Grants
Project Name: Drought Mitigation
Amount: $469,000
Name and Address of Requesting Entity: University of Nebraska-Lincoln located at 202 Agricultural Hall, Lincoln, Nebraska 68583
Description: This funding is for the National Drought Mitigation Center (NDMC) which conducts research and educational programs on drought mitigation and planning for drought. The project has assisted numerous states and municipalities in developing drought plans and implementing drought response action teams. The Center has received national visibility for providing information on the severity of drought throughout the United States. Both print and electronic mass media routinely use Center produced materials in their news stories on the drought.
The NDMC's program is directed at lessening societal vulnerability to drought through a risk-based management approach. The NDMC works with local, state, and tribal governments, federal agencies, and non-governmental organizations. The objectives of the NDMC are: (1) to develop and evaluate existing drought policies and plans in the United States and elsewhere with the goal of improving drought-coping capacity and (2) to develop and evaluate new techniques and methodologies for monitoring drought severity and its impacts, identifying and classifying users in the United States and elsewhere.
Requesting Member: Congressman Jeff Fortenberry
Bill Number: H.R. 1105, FY09 Omnibus Appropriations Bill
Account: Buildings and facilities
Project Name: Systems Biology Research Facility
Amount: $1,088,000
Name and Address of Requesting Entity: University of Nebraska-Lincoln located at 202 Agricultural Hall, Lincoln, Nebraska 68583
Description: This funding will be used toward construction of a University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL)/Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Research Facility. This facility would provide critically needed space for UNL and ARS research addressing two areas of national concern: renewable energy and water resource conservation and management. Agriculture is expected to provide almost 40 percent of the nation's liquid fuels within 30 years. This will further intensify demands on our soil and water resources. UNL and ARS scientists have been collaborating at UNL since the 1930s. Very strong collaborative programs continue today, including the ARS program at UNL that has been developing improved switchgrass varieties for 30 years and is the leading program in the world on the use of switchgrass for cellulosic ethanol. These scientists are scattered across the UNL campus and the proposed building will enable them to share collaborative, cutting-edge research space that will move this important research forward more rapidly. This project would advance major research focused on essential national efforts.
Requesting Member: Congressman Jeff Fortenberry
Bill Number: H.R. 1105, FY09 Omnibus Appropriations Bill
Account: COPS Law Enforcement Technology
Project Name: Lincoln Police Department Security Upgrades
Amount: $132,000
Name and Address of Requesting Entity: City of Lincoln located at 555 S. 10th Street, Lincoln, Nebraska 68508
Description: The Lincoln Police Department wants to take its first steps into the emerging technology of digital recording systems for police patrol cars. The proposal would equip 20 police patrol vehicles with digital video systems integrated with the Department's existing mobile data computers. These systems will capture video from car-mounted cameras onto flash memory media that can be downloaded for archiving. These systems will replace older analog video tape recorders and cameras. This would integrate digital content into our extensive Intranet resources, so digital video can be used by police and prosecutors. Although many departments are beginning to make the transition to digital recording equipment, this integration is the key component of this project that differentiates it from most. The equipment will allow for greater efficiencies within the Department and accelerate information-sharing with neighboring jurisdictions.
Requesting Member: Congressman Jeff Fortenberry
Bill Number: H.R. 1105, FY09 Omnibus Appropriations Bill
Account: Corps of Engineers--Construction
Project Name: Antelope Creek Flood Damage Reduction Project:
Amount: $400,000
Name and Address of Requesting Entity: Lower Platte North Natural Resources District located at 511 Commercial Park Road, Wahoo, Nebraska 68066.
Description: The Antelope Creek Flood Damage Reduction Project is a critical element of a flood control, transportation and community revitalization project known as the Antelope Valley Project. The project is being constructed in central Lincoln adjacent to the University of Nebraska Lincoln main campus to improve flood control, transportation networks and community well-being in the city's down-town area.
Essential to progress on the entire Antelope Valley Project is the completion of the flood damage reduction component. This multi-purpose project is a partnership of the City of Lincoln, the University of Nebraska Lincoln, and the Lower Platte South Natural Resources District, along with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the federal Departments of Transportation and Housing and Urban Development. The project reduces flooding threats to over 800 dwellings and businesses and 1,200 floodplain residents and removes 100-year floodplain restrictions on 400 acres.
Requesting Member: Congressman Jeff Fortenberry
Bill Number: H.R. 1105, FY09 Omnibus Appropriations Bill
Account: Corps of Engineers--Construction
Project: Sand Creek Environmental Restoration Project
Amount: $400,000
Name and Address of Requesting Entity: Lower Platte North Natural Resources District located at 511 Commercial Park Road, Wahoo, Nebraska 68066.
Description: The Sand Creek Project will restore several types of historic wetlands and add to the national wetlands inventory in support of the Administration's ``net gain'' national wetlands policy. A quantitative analysis of all environmental outputs by the Corps of Engineers in addition to the Feasibility Study demonstrated a significant level of benefits for this wetland restoration project for the Lower Platte River watershed which serves the North American Central Flyway.
The Sand Creek Project supports the national goal of a net gain in American wetlands. Active pursuit of this goal also provides for improvements in water quality and water supply to achieve watershed improvement. Flooding in Wahoo along the U.S. 77 Expressway corridor occurred twice during 2006. Completion of the wetlands restoration structure will also provide flood damage reduction benefits and the roadway allowing completion of this expressway between Lincoln and Sioux City. This is a key segment of the expressway.
Requesting Member: Congressman Jeff Fortenberry
Bill Number: H.R. 1105, FY09 Omnibus Appropriations Bill
Account: Corps of Engineers--Construction
Project: Western Sarpy-Clear Creek Flood Damage Reduction Project Amount: $2,775,000
Name and Address of Requesting Entity: Papio-Missouri River Natural Resources District located at 8901 S. 154th Street, Omaha, NE 68138.
Description: The Western Sarpy-Clear Creek Flood Damage Reduction Project is vital to the health and well-being of a large number of Nebraskans. It is planned to protect vital drinking water resources that supply up to 50% of Nebraska's population in the eastern part of the state from flooding due to potential ice jams on the Platte River. Elected officials at local, regional and state levels in Nebraska have been long committed to this project's construction because of risk to water supplies and other infrastructure.
Significant construction progress towards completion is vital to Nebraska in the year ahead. The Congress has provided construction funding for the past four years in the Energy and Water Development Appropriations Act.
In 1993, flooding in the Lower Platte severed one-half of the City of Lincoln's water supply and catastrophe was again threatened in 1997 from ice-jam induced flooding. That portion of the new Omaha Metropolitan Utilities District well field on the western side of the Platte River now under development south of U.S. Highway 92 will also receive vital protection from this project. Treatment facilities for water from this well-field will be completed in the months ahead.
Additionally, this project is needed to provide protection to: I-80 and U.S. Highway 6; The Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad, an Amtrak line; Military facilities at the National Guard Camp at Ashland; National telecommunication lines; and Other public infrastructure.
Construction of a separate but companion levee at the Nebraska National Guard Camp at Ashland was fully funded by the Congress in the FY '04 Military Construction Appropriations Bill and is completed. Neither of these adjoining levees is effective without the other. Ice jams with the potential for flooding in the area around Camp Ashland and the 1-80 Bridge where it crosses the Lower Platte River occurred again as recently as 2001 and will continue to be a significant threat until both of these projects are completed.
Requesting Member: Congressman Jeff Fortenberry
Bill Number: H.R. 1105, FY09 Omnibus Appropriations Bill
Account: Corps of Engineers--Construction
Project Name: Missouri National Recreational River
Amount: $335,000
Name and Address of Requesting Entity: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers located at 106 S. 15th Street, Omaha, Nebraska 68102
Description: This funding is for the Missouri National Recreational River (MNRR), located on the Missouri River from Gavins Point Dam downstream to Ponca, Nebraska. Federal activities pursued within the MNRR must protect and enhance the values for which it was designated--scenic, recreational, fish and wildlife, historic, and cultural. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' FY09 capability of $9 million would be used for bank stabilization, easement acquisition, and fee title purchase.
Requesting Member: Congressman Jeff Fortenberry
Bill Number: H.R. 1105, FY09 Omnibus Appropriations Bill
Account: Section 205
Project Name: Fremont Section §205 Flood Control Study
Amount: No specific dollar amount
Name and Address of Requesting Entity: Lower Platte North Natural Resources District located at 511 Commercial Park Road, Wahoo, Nebraska 68066
Description: This funding is for the federal share to complete the Fremont South Section 205 Flood Control Study. Funding for this Section 205 project will continue urgent feasibility planning to strengthen an existing flood control levee in order to remove a portion of South Fremont from the threat of flooding in the 100 year flood plain. This Fremont South area will be soon identified by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (``FEMA'') as within the designated flood plain. The total cost of the project is $1,086,000 split equally between the Corps of Engineers and the nonfederal sponsor.
Requesting Member: Congressman Jeff Fortenberry
Bill Number: H.R. 1105, FY09 Omnibus Appropriations Bill
Account: Section 205
Project Name: Schuyler Section 205 Flood Control Study
Amount: No specific dollar amount
Name and Address of Requesting Entity: Lower Platte North Natural Resources District located at 511 Commercial Park Road, Wahoo, Nebraska 68066
continue the Schuyler, Nebraska Flood Control Study. The amount requested will continue the Schuyler, Nebraska §205 Flood Control Study. The purpose of the study is to plan for mitigation of flooding in 40% of the city which is anticipated to be placed in the flood plain for the first time when designated by FEMA. The total cost of the study is $772,000 split equally between the Corps of Engineers and the non-federal sponsor.
Requesting Member: Congressman Jeff Fortenberry
Bill Number: H.R. 1105, FY09 Omnibus Appropriations Bill
Account: Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
Project Name: Bioenergy Demonstration Project: Value-Added Products from Renewable Fuels
Amount: $1,903,000
Name and Address of Requesting Entity: University of Nebraska-Lincoln located at 302 Canfield Administration Building, Lincoln, Nebraska 68588
Description: The funding will be used by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln to establish a pilot-scale corn-ethanol bioenergy facility and research program. Research will focus on developing new fractionation processes for removing value-added components from corn before and after fermentation to biofuel and on exploring new commercial uses for these products. Establishment of a research facility and program will help ensure the economic viability of the rapidly expanding biofuel industry during periods of commodity price uncertainty for grain and ethanol. The ability to test feed formulations with greater amounts of biofuel co-products will be critical to the livestock industry as corn and soybean prices rise in response to expanded biofuel production. This research facility's goals align with the U.S. Department of Energy's goal of displacing 30 percent of 2004 gasoline demand with biofuels, primarily ethanol, by 2030. Achieving this ambitious goal requires a rapid expansion of the fuel ethanol industry and research on the most efficient and cost-effective means of producing ethanol and of utilizing the byproducts of that process.
* Requesting Member: Congressman Jeff Fortenberry
* Bill Number: H.R. 1105, FY09 Omnibus Appropriations Bill
Account: Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
Project Name: Intelligent Controls for Net-Zero Energy Buildings
Amount: $475,750
Name and Address of Requesting Entity: University of Nebraska-Lincoln located at 302 Canfield Administration Building, Lincoln, Nebraska 68588
Description: The funding will be used by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln to develop intelligent real-time controls for buildings using distributed electrical generation systems. The U.S. Department of Energy has set a goal of marketable net zero energy buildings buildings with annual net energy consumption of zero by 2025. Because residential and commercial buildings consume almost 70% of U.S. electricity, reducing energy use in existing and new buildings is critical to achieving zero energy buildings. Many large buildings needing an uninterrupted power supply, such as hospitals, schools, manufacturing facilities, hotels, and retail buildings, use distributed generation systems that include diesel generators and steam and gas turbines and could include solar, wind, and fuel cells. The intelligent controls developed by this project will decide in real time which energy source to employ and how much to charge and discharge storage systems to balance energy use and emissions over a year. These controls will enable operators to determine the optimal mix of on-site power generation and utility grid-supplied power needed for large buildings to maximize energy consumption and carbon emission credits. This research will lead to improved distributed generation applications in retrofit and new construction that reduce the energy use and carbon footprint of buildings.
Requesting Member: Congressman Jeff Fortenberry
Bill Number: H.R. 1105, FY09 Omnibus Appropriations Bill
Account: STAG Water and Wastewater Infrastructure Project
Project Name: City of Lincoln Wastewater Treatment Upgrades
Amount: $550,000
Name and Address of Requesting Entity: City of Lincoln located at 555 S. 10th Street, Lincoln, Nebraska 68508
Description: New and stricter wastewater treatment NPDES effluent discharge permit limits were issued in January 2004 to the City of Lincoln for both the Theresa and Northeast Wastewater Treatment Facilities. Over the last five years, more than $61 million in improvements have been made to these facilities to meet the new NPDES permits. The last of these improvements is nearing completion. The City continues to make improvements to the treatment facilities and collection system pipelines and pumping systems to be more cost efficient; reduce overall energy use; control and reduce odor emissions; reduce greenhouse gas emissions by further utilizing biogas generated by the treatment processes, and minimize the overall carbon footprint of facility operations. The City's six-year Capital Improvement Program (CIP) identifies $17.7 million in treatment facility improvement projects and $84.9 million for maintenance and improvement projects to the collection system. These improvement projects are essential for assuring air and water quality, protection of the environment, public health and safety of the community. The City expects to incur the majority of the costs to make improvements to the collection and treatment facilities through a capital construction program funded by user fees and federal assistance.
Requesting Member: Congressman Jeff Fortenberry
Bill Number: H.R. 1105, FY09 Omnibus Appropriations Bill
Account: Higher Education (includes FIPSE)
Project Name: Northeast Community College
Amount: $761,000
Name and Address of Requesting Entity: Northeast Community College located at 801 E. Benjamin Avenue, Norfolk, Nebraska 68702
Description: This funding is for a new collaborative education center in South Sioux City, Nebraska. Northeast Community College (a comprehensive community college), Wayne State College (a regional comprehensive public state college), and South Sioux City, Nebraska, are partnering in this project. The new College Center will serve the area by creating a ``one-stop'' consolidated service center offering community and economic development resources in addition to providing educational opportunity for area residents at an affordable price. The primary purposes of the joint center are:
to improve access to higher education in an underserved area of Nebraska with special focus on the large number of minority and first-generation students in the region
to offer comprehensive ``start-to-finish'' degree programs that will allow place-bound students to earn associate's, bachelor's, and master's degrees in focus areas without having to relocate
to support economic and community development in the region through workforce training and consolidation of services
The vision for the Center is to meet the educational demands of the region, provide a combination of classroom and lab instructional space adapted to the customized needs of regional employers, as well as to collaborate with area high schools to provide academic transfer, career and technical instruction for secondary students. This project will serve regional needs of Northeast Nebraska and the greater Siouxland area, including the southeast portion of South Dakota, and the west central to northwest portion of Iowa.
The new College Center facility will be designed to serve 500 full-time students by providing space for general classrooms, specialized instructional spaces for distance learning, science labs, computer labs, nursing labs, and a multi-purpose conference area that can be used as training classrooms for business and industry and learning community activities. It will also include areas for support services and academic support spaces for testing, tutoring, library services, study commons, and conference spaces. The South Sioux City Community Development Agency has donated 57 acres of centrally located land to Northeast Community College. The College Center will be located at this site.
Requesting Member: Congressman Jeff Fortenberry
Bill Number: H.R. 1105, FY09 Omnibus Appropriations Bill
Account: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Project Name: Environmental Health Informatics Database
Amount: $238,000
Name and Address of Requesting Entity: University of Nebraska Medical Center located at 986380 Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska 68198
Description: This funding is for the University of Nebraska Medical Center to create a Midwest Health Informatics database to assess environmental influences on the development of diseases by collecting health information from 50,000 Midwesterners. Currently most information about the relationship between disease and the environment is generated by major databases located in large urban areas on the east and west coasts which tend to be regionally specific and generally not applicable to rural areas. This database would be the first research cohort in the Midwest to study the relationship between rural populations, the environment, and disease development. This project could reveal environmental factors responsible for birth defects or lymphoma, a cancer with high incidence in Nebraska. The data will provide valuable information on the factors influencing development of deadly diseases like cancer and position UNMC Eppley Cancer Institute to be designated a National Cancer Institute (NCI) Comprehensive Cancer Center. This high distinction will allow for the most advanced patient care and research to be available in Nebraska. UNMC is the ideal institution to spearhead this database with its numerous resources, well-established statewide hospital network to collect data, a state-of-the art cancer research team and facilities, and comprehensive database capabilities to collect and assess acquired data from this project.
Requesting Member: Congressman Jeff Fortenberry
Bill Number: H.R. 1105, FY09 Omnibus Appropriations Bill
Account: Transportation, Community, and System Preservation
Project Name: Antelope Valley Transportation Improvements
Amount: $570,000
Name and Address of Requesting Entity: City of Lincoln located at 555 S. 10th Street, Lincoln, Nebraska 68508
Description: The City of Lincoln is committing significant resources for road and pedestrian improvements associated with Antelope Valley. Some of the important projects that remain in the $125 million transportation component of Antelope Valley Project include: construction of 5 miles of roadway (including the Antelope Valley Parkway from 17th & Y Streets to Capital Parkway) to improve traffic in the City's central core and Northeast Lincoln; reducing through traffic congestion on the University campus and on downtown streets; eliminating two dangerous mainline at-grade rail crossings, and providing a new overpass (16th Street Overpass) to the State Fair Park, Devaney Sports Center, state military areas, and surrounding neighborhoods. The federal assistance would be used in FY 2009 on Construction of P and Q Street bridges and roadways that are over the flood control channel that is to be constructed concurrently by the Corps of Engineers.
Requesting Member: Congressman Jeff Fortenberry
Bill Number: H.R. 1105, FY09 Omnibus Appropriations Bill
Account: Transportation, Community, and System Preservation
Project Name: Nebraska Highway 35
Amount: $380,000
Name and Address of Requesting Entity: Nebraska Department of Roads located at 1500 Highway 2, Lincoln, Nebraska 68502
Description: The intent of this project in northeast Nebraska is to develop the most efficient route from Norfolk to South Sioux City. Currently, the route is comprised of several short segments of highway winding its way to the northeast. This project has significant regional and national importance. It would provide substantial safety and economic development benefits. The Nebraska Department of Roads has classified the Highway 35 project as a planned expressway.
Requesting Member: Congressman Jeff Fortenberry
Bill Number: H.R. 1105, FY09 Omnibus Appropriations Bill
Account: Transportation, Community, and System Preservation
Project Name: Rulo Bridge Replacement Project
Amount: $95,000
Name and Address of Requesting Entity: Nebraska Department of Roads located at 1500 Highway 2, Lincoln, Nebraska 68502
Description: This funding is for the Rulo Bridge project between Nebraska and Missouri. The funding would be used for the initial planning and design of a replacement bridge. The current Rulo Bridge was built in 1939 and is too narrow to handle modern-day traffic. It also has dangerous curves in both of its approaches, limiting visibility and making it difficult for safe passage of vehicles meeting each other.
Source