Your Congressman and You

Perusing the Congressional website, we come across young Tim Ryan, the up-and-coming Democrat hailing from the 17th District in Ohio.  I think I know where that is; it takes in Youngstown, Niles, Warren, Ravenna…and a few other towns.  Being neither a huge tax base nor a huge numerical voting base, a smaller town like ours tends to be a bit overlooked.  Not to worry though, that’s why we have the internet!

Timmy has been a bit busy lately in that well oiled machine known as Washington D.C. 

 

RYAN SECURES $7.5 MILLION FOR YOUNGSTOWN AIRBASE

 WASHINGTON, D.C.  Congressman Tim Ryan announced today that he obtained $7.5 million for Youngstown Air Reserve Station in the House's version of a military spending bill. The money would fund the construction of approximately 100 reservist lodging rooms at the airbase as part of a three-phase project known as the Joint Services Lodging Facility.

The funding follows $1,000,000 in federal money that Ryan secured in a spending bill last year for the engineering and design phase of the project. Completion of all three phases will add a total of 338 rooms to the airbase.

A study of the Youngstown Air Reserve Station completed suggested adding reservist lodging would increase the airbase's ability to compete in the BRAC process.  Because the airbase currently has only 76 rooms, reservists on drill weekends must be placed into double occupancy in existing rooms or moved off-base to local hotels

"The BRAC process is not yet over, and I intend to do everything I can to make our base more attractive as we move forward," Congressman Ryan said.  “This money is huge bonus for the Youngstown Airbase, making it more effective for training soldiers, and hopefully increasing the base’s ability to grow.”.

The base housing money is contained in a spending bill, H.R. 2528, known as the 2006 MilCon (Military Construction) bill.  It passed the U.S. House of Representatives Thursday evening and now moves to the Senate for approval.

Congressman Ryan added, "I'm very pleased my Democratic and Republican colleagues on the appropriations committee recognized the importance of this project, and I intend to work aggressively at obtaining more federal dollars for the completion of the housing and future improvements."

Its great that he’s able to get this money for the airbase, it is in need of continued growth, and is a credit to the Reserves.  Now I wonder how we can get some of that magic federal money to filter in our direction…