Two more spending bills advance from Senate committee, include funds for 3 Central Oregon projects

WASHNGTON (KTVZ) – Senator Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, announced Monday he's secured critical investments in Oregon transportation, affordable housing, economic development, and community public safety in the second set of fiscal year 2025 government spending bills to pass the committee—a key first step on the road to becoming law. 

Central Oregon projects included in the list below include $2 million to the city of Redmond for the Cinder Hollow affordable housing project; $1.78 million to help Jefferson County replace the Feather Drive bridge; and $1 million for the Heart of Oregon Corps' Centralized Campus project in Redmond.

Merkley helped to make sure the investments—including nearly $43 million for 27 critical community-initiated projects across Oregon—were incorporated into the FY25 Senate Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies (THUD) bill and the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies (CJS) bill. Both bills, which passed the committee last week with bipartisan support, will particularly invest in rural, coastal, and underserved communities.

“As I hold a town hall in each of Oregon’s 36 counties every year, I hear firsthand from folks about what matters most to them, including the need to take on the affordable housing crisis, invest in transportation, infrastructure, and community safety improvements, and move the state faster toward a renewable energy future,” Merkley said. “The funding included in these bills for programs and critical community-initiated projects will benefit Oregonians in every corner of the state for years to come.” 

Merkley is the only Oregon member of Congress from either chamber since Senator Mark Hatfield to serve on the Appropriations Committee, which is one of the most powerful on Capitol Hill. He joined the committee in 2013 so that Oregon would have a strong voice in decisions about the investments our nation should be making. 

Merkley, along with Senator Ron Wyden, secured the following 22 Oregon community-initiated projects in the Senate’s draft FY25 THUD funding bill: 

• $3 million to Meals on Wheels People to build and remodel their new Southeast Portland facility, which will improve access to nutrition and high demand services for seniors and marginalized communities.
• $2.82 million for the Klamath Tribes’ project to address housing insecurity and homelessness in the Tribal community.With the funding, the Klamath Tribes Housing Department will build six affordable homes on a 55-acre shovel-ready site to provide safe, stable housing for Tribal elders and families. 
• $2 million for the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde for the second phase of their tumwata village project, which is a long-term effort to bring cultural, ecological, and economic restoration to the Willamette Falls.
• $2 million for Rogue Valley Transit District to replace six gasoline-powered paratransit vehicles that are past their useful-lives with electric paratransit vehicles.  
• $2 million for Umpqua Community College’s (UCC) efforts to boost affordable housing for students. The funding will go toward redeveloping the downtown Roseburg UCC building into affordable housing for 60 students pursuing workforce training at the rural community college.
• $2 million for the Corvallis Daytime Dropoff Center to construct a Homeless Services Navigation Center in Benton County.This new Navigation Center will provide critical emergency shelter services to low-income community members who are experiencing homelessness, and will connect them with health services, permanent housing, and other supportive services.
• $2 million to the City of Redmond for their Cinder Hollow affordable housing project, which will support the development of five acres of land on which the city will build 30 affordable housing units. The funding will be used for pre-development infrastructure needs including sewer collection, water service, fire hydrants, and sidewalks.
• $2 million to the Marion Polk Food Share for their Food Bank Warehouse Relocation and Expansion project to help address food insecurity. The funding will help purchase a property for their multi-phase project to construct a new, highly efficient building to serve as a hub for food banking and their Meals on Wheels program.
• $1.787 million the help Jefferson County replace Feather Drive Bridge. This bridge serves as a critical access point for community members and emergency services, but the weigh-limited timber bridge has structural deficiencies. The funding will go toward demolition of the existing bridge and the construction of a new, structurally sound bridge. 
• $1.7 million for the McKenzie Community Land Trust to build six affordable, fire-safe, multi-family Community Land Trust homes in Blue River. These homes will help to rebuild and revitalize this community in Lane County, which was devastated during the 2020 Holiday Farm Fire.
• $1.5 million for Columbia Gorge Education Service District to renovate a former middle school into The Dalles Early Learning Center. This new center will serve over 200 young children in low-income communities.
• $1.5 million to help the Albina Vision Trust acquire a 10.5-acre site for the future redevelopment of over 1,000 units of affordable housing for low-to-moderate income families. This site is part of Albina Vision Trust’s larger comprehensive strategy to redevelop and revitalize Portland’s historically Black Albina neighborhood.
• $1.5 million to Network for Oregon Affordable Housing based in Portland to provide low-cost mortgages to first-time homeowners across the state using innovative ownership models such as Community Land Trusts. The goal of the fund is to create affordable homeownership and wealth creation opportunities for lower income and traditionally underserved households throughout Oregon. 
• $1.45 million to John Day School District #3 for the Grant Early Learning Center. The funding will be used to renovate an existing building and enable partners to come together under one roof to share professional training, behavioral approaches, curriculum, and parent engagement strategies, thus helping children with a smooth transition to kindergarten in this rural community.
• $1 million for the Heart of Oregon Corps for their Centralized Campus project in Redmond. This project will lead to enhanced and expanded workforce services and training, confidential rooms for behavioral health services, collaboration spaces, as well as trauma-informed design principles for supporting mental health.    
• $1 million to the City of Portland to redevelop the Clara Vista— an important affordable housing complex in Northeast Portland’s highly diverse, low-income Cully Neighborhood. The funding will go toward replacing the 108 aging housing units in the complex with affordable, energy-efficient rental units that include outdoor amenities and community spaces. 
• $750,000 for Bridge Meadows to continue predevelopment on a new affordable, intergenerational housing community in Eugene. The project seeks to create approximately 100 units of safe, affordable housing, fostering a sense of community and security and to ensure permanent housing for especially vulnerable populations such as children in foster care, families, and low-income seniors.
• $722,000 for Lane Transit District to upgrade the existing electrical infrastructure at their Glenwood Station in order to support multiple charging stations as they transition to an electric transit fleet.
• $536,000 for Farmworker Housing Development Corporation to conduct the first phase of their multi-family affordable housing project in Albany. This funding will specifically go toward the construction of 50 units of multifamily farmworker housing.
• $500,000 for Wallowa Resources to renovate an apartment building in the rural community of Enterprise to ensure that these rental units remain affordable. This will help address Wallowa County’s shortage of affordable workforce housing, which makes it difficult for employers to attract permanent and seasonal workers to the County.
• $157,000 to the City of Sumpter to renovate its Community Center. Surrounded by forests on all sides, upgrades to this central building are needed to keep the community safe and healthy in light of increased wildfire and smoke threats.
• $105,000 to Linn-Benton Community College for critical upgrades to the Periwinkle Child Development Center. Improvements will include a new roof and upgrades to security. This project will help ease the urgent need of early childcare teachers to staff the many childcare facilities in the area.

Click HERE for quotes from community-initiated project recipients included in the draft Senate THUD bill. 

Additionally, Merkley and Wyden secured the following 5 projects for Oregon in the Senate’s draft CJS bill:

• $3 million to University of Oregon (UO) to obtain and install a modern transmission electron microscope. This powerful equipment will be housed in UO’s Center for Advanced Materials Characterization (CAMCOR) in Eugene to advance a multitude of needs including academic research, training opportunities, and high-tech business support. This work will further the state’s leadership in the semiconductor industry.
• $2.52 million to Oregon State University (OSU) to procure and install high-tech, specialized equipment for a Next Generation Semiconductor Test (NGST) facility, such as a high-speed sampling oscilloscope and a millimeter-wave vector network analyzer. This will further position the state as a leader in semiconductor research and testing.
• $2.25 million to Jackson County for its Sheriff’s Office Communications Equipment Upgrade. Funds will go toward the purchase of modern radio communications equipment, which will improve and standardize interoperability, protocols, and collaboration across multiple agencies and jurisdictions. The project is especially critical to protect communities during disasters, such as devastating wildfires.
• $1.65 million for Portland State University to purchase imaging and fabrication equipment to create a Semiconductor Innovation and Nanoscience Center. This new center will provide a diverse university student body with access to sophisticated instrumentation, typically only available in industry, thereby spurring collaboration across industry and academics and improving access to high-wage career paths to PSU students. 
• $1.5 million to Oregon Department of Land and Conservation Development for the implementation of Oregon’s offshore wind roadmap strategy. Funds will be used toward scientific and technical studies, policy development, and robust community engagement in the State’s development of an offshore wind roadmap. This will help ensure the offshore wind siting process is conducted in the “Oregon Way”. 

Click HERE for quotes from community-initiated project recipients included in the draft Senate CJS bill. 

Other key funding for top programs that passed out of the Senate Appropriations Committee to benefit housing, transportation, community safety and more in Oregon include: 

Affordable Housing: As rural and urban communities across Oregon continue to experience housing crises, the THUD bill includes an increase for affordable housing programs for some of Oregon’s most vulnerable people—low-income families, seniors, and people living with disabilities, including $16.7 billion for housing unit specific rental assistance. The THUD bill also protects funding for housing programs that benefit the elderly and people living with disabilities.

Rural Housing: The Self-Help Homeownership Opportunity Program (SHOP) and Rural Capacity Building Program received $13million and $5million, 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.

HUD-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing: The program under THUD received a $15 million increase to expand rental assistance vouchers for homeless veterans, along with case management and clinical services. To prevent veteran homelessness, this agreement includes $59 million for Supportive Services for Veterans Families (SSVF). This funding will sustain rental vouchers for veterans experiencing homelessness, and when combined with prior year appropriations and available unleased vouchers, has the potential to reduce veteran homelessness.

Homeless Assistance and Prevention: The THUD funding bill includes $4.32 billion for Homeless Assistance Grants, a $268 million increase that will benefit organizations across Oregon. Within that funding, rapid rehousing programs for victims of domestic violence will receive an additional $52 million; homeless youth programs will receive $107 million; and Emergency Solutions Grants—particularly important to the Portland metro area—will receive $ 290 million to support street outreach, emergency shelter, homelessness prevention, and rapid re-housing assistance.

HOME Investment Partnerships Program: The THUD funding bill includes $1.425 billion, a $175 million increase above fiscal year 2024, 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 $168 million in the THUD funding bill. The national nonprofit offers support for affordable housing and community development through public-private partnerships.

Community Development: The bipartisan THUD funding bill includes $4.6 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.

Economic Development Administration (EDA): $483 million is secured for the program through the CJS funding bill. The EDA leverages existing regional assets to support economic development in rural communities.

Support for Salmon: The CJS bill includes critical funding to support our salmon populations. The bill includes $80 million for Pacific Salmon, which is $5 million above the fiscal year 2024 level.  Of these funds, $7 million will be used to address the backlog and expedite approval of Hatchery and Genetic Management Plans.

The Pacific Salmon Treaty also received $43 million, the Treaty regulates the fisheries that occur in the ocean and inland waters of Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, the Yukon, and southeast Alaska, and includes the rivers that flow into these waters. 

Further, the Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund received $70 million in the CJS funding bill. This competitive grant program is designed to address declining Pacific salmon and steelhead populations by supporting conservation efforts in California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Alaska.

Sea Grant Program: $82 million for the National Sea Grant College Program, an increase of $2 million over fiscal year 2024 enacted levels, is secured in the CJS funding bill. The program is a priority for Oregon State University and uses targeted local investments to create economic growth, sustainable fisheries, and resilient coastal communities.

Coastal Zone Management: The Coastal Zone Management grants were funded at $83 million in the CJS funding bill. This is a $1.5 million increase from last year. The program works with Oregon and other coastal states to address some of today’s most pressing coastal issues — climate change, ocean planning, and planning for energy facilities and development. These grants help protect natural resources, improve public access, facilitate coordination between state and federal authorities, and manage hazardous areas.

Tribal Grants and Victim Assistance: Historically, the Native and Tribal community in Oregon has been disenfranchised in law enforcement, health outcomes, and victims’ rights. To address these critical issues, the committee approved a total of $139 million in grant funding for various programs, including $60 million for Tribal assistance, $37 million for Tribal resources, and $15 million for the Office of Violence Against Women for a special domestic violence criminal jurisdiction program. 

Addressing Violence Against Women: The CJS funding bill contains $739.5 million, the highest funding level ever, for grants provided by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women. This funding supports multiple grant programs that support training for police officers and prosecutors, state domestic violence and sexual assault coalitions, rape prevention programs, domestic violence hotlines, and women’s shelters and transitional housing support services.

Now that the bills have cleared the Senate Appropriations Committee, they next head to the Senate floor for a vote before the bills can be conferenced with counterpart bills in the U.S. House of Representatives. The final, merged legislation must then be passed by both chambers before it is signed into law.