Numerous Nevada projects are funded by Congress

Benjamin Grove

Monday, Dec. 18, 2000 | 11:41 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- A number of Nevada-related projects were included in the final budget package assembled by Congress last week before lawmakers packed up and went home for the year.

Wrapped in the agreement were $7.6 million for hiring more teachers to reduce class sizes and $5.5 million for school renovations in the state, Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said.

Reid also battled to launch a $100 million national dropout prevention program, but got only a 10th of that when the dust settled. States and districts will be able to apply for $10 million in grants for dropout prevention programs.

"Ten million dollars is a drop in the bucket," Reid said. "We should have done better than that. It's a national embarrassment that that is all we spent."

Reid has a seat at the table during final budget negotiations as a member of the Appropriations Committee and the No. 2 Democrat as the Senate minority whip.

Among his other prizes were $5 million to clean up abandoned mines; $1.8 million to consolidate the UNLV Cancer Institute into a single space; $500,000 for maternal and neonatal services at University Medical Center because of a 10 percent spike in births there each year; and $650,000 for projects to battle unemployment at the UNLV Center for Workforce Development and Occupational Research.

Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., also helped secure Nevada money, including $750,000 for Las Vegas downtown development; $425,000 for the Clark County School District's English as a Second Language programs; and $383,000 for the Community College of Southern Nevada's Medical Careers Center.

Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., also worked behind the scenes to secure money for the state. He praised Congress for the final budget deal, especially for its education funding and $30 billion in additional funding to be added to the Medicare program. Gibbons said he was proud of a number of earmarks for Nevada projects, including several for improvements at Nellis Air Force Base.

"I look forward to continuing our work in the 107th Congress and hope to extend our accomplishments to include the signing of a Medicare prescription drug benefit, tax fairness and education reform into law," Gibbons said.

A lode of cash for Nevada runs through the 13 annual spending bills that Congress uses every year to outline federal spending. Some of the other bills passed this year that contained money for the Silver State: