Death of funding bill to impact ME projects
A federal spending bill that was scrapped Thursday will impact funding for Maine projects, including transportation work related to a new MaineGeneral Hospital in Augusta and the University of Maine's offshore wind research.
Senate leaders abandoned efforts to pass the omnibus bill that would have authorized government spending for fiscal year 2011 and instead opted to focus on a short-term funding bill, according to a press release from U.S. Sen. Susan Collins' office and the Portland Press Herald. Funding in the failed measure included $4.5 million for an I-95 exit to service a new hospital by MaineGeneral Health. MaineGeneral spokesman John Begin said the organization will move ahead with the hospital project and seek additional funding sources to build the exit. The bill also contained $10 million for UMaine, the loss of which will impact 35 businesses working on the university's wind power research, professor Habib Dagher told the paper. Dagher said he hoped Collins would be able to secure the funding in another way.
The bill also included a provision to extend a pilot program allowing trucks weighing 100,000 pounds on the federal interstate north of Augusta. That pilot program expired Dec. 17. In her release, Collins said she plans to continue working to restore funding for the project.
Go to the article from the Portland Press Herald >>
Most Recent
Most Recent
Comments