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Rep Anna Eshoo

Eshoo Announces Critical Funding for 14th Congressional District Communities

December 8, 2003

December 8, 2003

Washington, D.C. -- Rep. Anna G. Eshoo, D-Palo Alto, announced several important community and regional projects which were included in the Omnibus Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2004, which passed the House today by a vote of 242-176.

The funding in the Omnibus legislation includes:

ENVIRONMENT

  • Sand Hill Bluff
  • The 147 acres that make up Sand Hill Bluff, in North Santa Cruz County, provide a habitat for a variety of rare and endangered plants and wildlife. $2 million in federal funds, in conjunction with matching state funds, will allow Sand Hill Bluff to be added to the California State Park system.

    TRANSPORTATION

  • Palo Alto Intermodal Transit Center
  • $750,000 will help alleviate traffic congestion by creating a regional intermodal transit center to double the number of passenger bus tracks, creating passing tracks for express service and increasing the number of bus transfer layovers.

  • Zero-Emission Bus Demonstration: $1.2 million
  • San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties will receive $900,000 and $300,000, respectively, for a zero-emission bus demonstration program. The program includes the purchase of new fuel cell buses, the installation of a fueling station, and facility modifications to accommodate these new, cleaner buses.

    EDUCATION

  • Children's Library of Palo Alto
  • Built in 1940, the Children's Library of Palo Alto has the distinction of being the first stand-alone children's library in the nation. $100,000 has been secured for the library's rehabilitation and expansion effort.

  • Institute of HeartMath, Boulder Creek
  • $1 million will be provided to undertake a national demonstration project on student standardized testing. The Redwood City School District is one of eight school districts across the country that will participate in this project, which will help identify "best practices: schools can undertake to meet the educational goals set out in the No Child Left Behind Act.

  • Santa Clara University Information Commons
  • $600,000 will assist the creation of a state-of-the-art learning center which will serve as a national model for community-based technology in education and outreach.

    SCIENCE

  • NASA's Satellite Test of the Equivalence Principle (STEP) Program
  • $3 million will help NASA conduct experiments related to gravitation that go beyond Einstein's theories. Working with scientists at Stanford and a number of national and international universities and research centers, STEP will advance physics by measuring a new force believed to accompany gravity which can only be studied in space.

    HEALTH

  • Santa Clara County Children's Health Initiative (CHI)
  • The CHI seeks to provide health care for all uninsured children in Santa Clara County whose families have incomes at or below 300% of the federal poverty level. The $100,000 in funding provided will be used to help workers evaluate families™ eligibility and assist families in enrolling their children in the appropriate health insurance program.

    WATER

  • East Palo Alto City-Wide Water Master Plan
  • $110,000 will help East Palo Alto develop a master plan for drinking water, sewer and storm water infrastructure. This is critical since the city already uses 95% of its allocation of drinking water from the Hetch Hetchy system and new development projects in the area will quickly overwhelm the city's capacity.

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