Newsletter: DC and District Highlights

Statement

Dear Friend,

This past week in Washington, DC was a busy one. On Thursday, the House prioritized funding a strong military by passing H.R. 2685, the FY16 Department of Defense Appropriations Act, which includes a 2.3% pay raise for our troops while remaining within budget caps. The House also passed H.R. 2577, the 2016 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Act, and I joined with Rep. Jeff Denham in passing an amendment to H.R. 2577 that would prohibit any further federal funding of California's high speed rail proposal. The measure specifically prohibits so-called "tapered matching", in which the state spends federal funds without concurrently providing the required state matching funds. Despite years of broken deadlines and the hundreds of millions spent on consultants and PR firms as well as a just-for-show groundbreaking, California's high speed rail project is no closer to being built than it was seven years ago, and it is time to hit the brakes.

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