Senators list key Oregon items in transportation, housing bill

Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., announced Friday key provisions in the Senate Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Committee bill that will help Oregon communities.

“Oregon is facing a housing crisis, so I’m glad to be able to add hundreds of millions of dollars to rental assistance,” said Merkley, who serves on the Senate Appropriations Committee. “We have urgent infrastructure needs, and got $1 billion in funding for TIGER grants to improve roads and bridges. The point of our government should be to improve the lives and well-being of working families and strengthening our communities, not enriching the powerful, and that’s what I’ve been fighting for in this bill.”

“The bottom line is that real progress on our country’s infrastructure and skyrocketing rent prices in Oregon requires real federal attention,” Wyden said. “The Trump administration continues to make empty promises to the American people on housing, jobs and infrastructure investment. But this bill provides much-needed funding for proven programs that combat homelessness, increase access to affordable housing and invest real dollars in infrastructure development for our state.”

Merkley is the only Oregon member of Congress from either chamber since Senator Mark Hatfield to serve on the Appropriations Committee, considered to be one of the most powerful on Capitol Hill.

Merkley secured a projected $47 million in additional funding for grants used by cities across Oregon for important transportation projects. Other investments that will benefit Oregon include:

Capital Investment Grant Program: The bill includes $2.5 billion for the program, which provides funding for major transit investments that support sustainable transportation and reduced congestion in Oregon’s growing cities. Merkley also successfully fought for report language highlighting the damaging delays caused the Trump Administration in awarding these grants, and directing the Secretary of Transportation to continue to advance existing projects and does not stall the awarding of grants.

TIGER Grants: The program received a $1 billion investment for 2019, building on the previous fiscal year’s investment of $1.5 billion. This critical transportation grants program, which the Trump Administration’s budget zeroed out for the second year, has helped fund projects like the repair and renovation of the North Santiam River Bridge — a major rural connector on a designated freight route near Mill City, which sits in Linn and Marion counties. This increased investment will help fund similar transportation projects across the state.

Transit Improvement Grants: The program received $9.93 billion, including $777 million for Bus and Bus Facilities Grants to help transit agencies purchase new buses and replace aging fleets, in particular transitioning to new low- or no-emission vehicles. Transit agencies in Oregon cities like Eugene, Salem and Portland, are leading on this transition. The Salem Area Mass Transit District, for instance, recently received grant funding to construct a new transit center and replace six low-efficiency buses.

FAST Act: Merkley successfully protected funding for rail programs authorized under the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act, including $255 million for Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvement grants and $300 million for Partnership for State of Good Repair grants, which support capital investment and maintenance projects for Amtrak routes and rail assets.

Essential Air Service and Contract Towers: Merkley won $315 million for the Essential Air Service, a $30 million increase. The Essential Air Service program supports flights between the City of Pendleton and Portland International Airport, a vital connection to support economic development across Eastern Oregon. Merkley has also introduced a bill that would make the Klamath Falls airport, another small but critical regional hub, eligible for the program. Additionally, the bill increases funding for FAA Contract Towers by $3 million to $168 million. There are six contract towers across Oregon, and this funding ensures their continued operation.

Key housing appropriations that will benefit Oregon include:

Community Development Block Grants: Rejecting the Trump Administration’s request to eliminate the program, Merkley successfully advocated for $3.365 billion for the Community Development Block Grant Program. This program funds vital housing rehabilitation, supportive services, public improvements and economic development projects in communities across Oregon and the nation while encouraging local investment.

Affordable Housing: As rural and urban communities across Oregon continue to experience housing crises, Merkley successfully advocated to increase for affordable housing programs for some of Oregon’s most vulnerable people — low-income families, seniors, and people with disabilities. The bill provides $22.8 billion to renew rental assistance for 2.2 million low-income households, a $765 million increase from 2018. The senator also protected funding for housing programs that benefit the elderly and people with disabilities.

Fair Market Rents: Merkley also successfully included a provision to require the Department of Housing and Urban Development to produce a report identifying the barriers that Public Housing Authorities face in conducting and receiving reimbursement for rent surveys. This is a significant step forward in the battle to address the affordable housing crisis, by ensuring that vouchers keep pace with the real cost of rent in competitive rental markets.

Rural Housing: The Self-Help Homeownership Opportunity Program (SHOP) and Rural Capacity Building Program received $10 million and $5 million, respectively. SHOP provides funds for non-profit sweat-equity homebuilders, such as Habitat for Humanity, to cover land purchases and infrastructure costs. The Rural Capacity funds are intended to build the capacity of rural low income housing non-profits by providing training, information, technical assistance, and financing.

Key elements of the bill that seek to address homelessness in Oregon include:

Homeless Assistance Grants: Merkley secured $2.6 billion for Homeless Assistance Grants, a $99 million increase that will benefit organizations across Oregon. Within that appropriation, rapid rehousing programs for victims of domestic violence received $50 million; homeless youth programs received $80 million; and Emergency Solutions Grants — particularly important to the Portland metro area — received $270 million to support street outreach, emergency shelter, homelessness prevention, rapid re-housing assistance.

United States Interagency Council on Homelessness: The bill includes $3.6 million for the program to continue its coordination of federal agencies working to combat homelessness.

HOME Investment Partnerships Program: The bill includes $1.36 billion for the program to provide states and localities with flexible resources to respond to their affordable housing challenges, including rental housing and paths to homeownership for low-income families.

Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation: The program, also known as NeighborWorks America, received $147 million, a $7 million increase. The national nonprofit offers support for affordable housing and community development through public-private partnerships. President Trump’s proposal would have eliminated this program, crippling its six locations across Oregon.

HUD-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing : The program received $40 million to provide rental assistance vouchers for homeless veterans, along with case management and clinical services. These vouchers have been critical to reducing veterans’ homelessness by 46 percent since 2010. For instance, in Central Oregon, 80 vouchers are used each month to house veterans.

The bill was voted out of the Senate Appropriations Committee on Wednesday. The next step for the bill is a full Senate vote, and eventually merging with a counterpart bill from the U.S. House of Representatives in order to be passed by both houses and signed into law.