Government

Senate Bill Has $700 Million For Construction

The Senate Appropriations Committee on July 30 approved a measure that would create a new $700-million school-renovation program.

The provision, sponsored by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), is part of a $730-billion fiscal 2010 spending bill for the Labor, Health and Human Services and Education departments. The measure would direct the Education Dept. to distribute grants to states to build or renovate public elementary and secondary schools. Priority would go to projects in areas that have high percentages of disadvantaged children or that plan to use green construction practices.

The Labor-HHS-Education bill that the House passed on July 24 does not include a school-construction grant provision.

Pam Hunter McFarland was a Senior Editor of ENR and her expertise was: Sourcebooks, Environment, Labor

As ENR's former Washington Bureau Chief, Tom Ichniowski wrote about the federal government since the George H.W. Bush administration, and covered at least five major highway bills. A recognized expert on government policy on infrastructure and regulation, Tom is also a Baltimore native and Orioles fan who grew up rooting for Brooks and Frank Robinson. He is a graduate of Columbia College and Columbia’s graduate school of journalism, where he once used “unrelentless” in a headline.

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