Economic recovery money acquired by Senator Reid serves all parts of state

April 8, 2009

Washington, D.C. – More than $166 million acquired by Nevada Senator Harry Reid in the recently passed economic recovery package will soon be available to get Nevadans back to work.
 
With our state facing unprecedented economic challenges, Reid brought home more than $1.5 billion in stimulus funding to get Nevada on the path to revitalization, including tax relief for the middle class. Just six weeks after President Barack Obama signed the economic recovery bill into law, funding for projects in health care, rural housing, clean energy, aviation safety and veterans’ facilities will soon be on its way to the Silver State. Many of these projects will create numerous construction jobs for shovel-ready projects:

• $44 million for clean energy and energy efficiency jobs: Projects benefitting areas throughout the state will receive more than $32 million to put Nevadans to work inspecting buildings for energy inefficiency and performing retrofitting work to make them more efficient, as well as work developing and installing on-site renewable energy for government buildings, and making transportation improvements like synchronizing traffic signals and creating bike lanes, pathways and pedestrian walkways. The package also includes $12 million for clean energy projects in Fallon and Hawthorne.
• $20 million for construction of important improvements to Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas, Reno’s Veterans Administration (VA) hospital and Hawthorne Army Depot: The construction projects will create desperately needed jobs. More than $13 million will be dedicated to construction of a new Child Development Center at Nellis AFB. In Reno, more than $5.5 million is slated to make vital repairs and improvements to the VA hospital serving northern Nevada’s veterans. Hawthorne Army Depot’s family housing area will benefit from a new water main, a project of nearly $1 million.
  

Economic recovery money will also help those affected by job loss in other ways:

• $22 million for guaranteed housing loans in rural Nevada: Funding from the economic recovery package will initially provide 15,000 rural families throughout the country with loan guarantees for homeownership financing, creating or saving approximately 7,500 jobs. When the full amount is released, it could save as many as 42,000 jobs nationwide.
• $1.4 million for community health centers: This funding will improve health care in northern Nevada. The Increased Demand for Services (IDS) grants will be used to expand services offered at community health centers. Two Nevada facilities will obtain funding as part of the grant program: Health Access Washoe County in Reno will get nearly $1 million and Nevada Health Centers, Inc., in Carson City will receive nearly $500,000.
  

“This money can’t get to Nevada soon enough,” Reid said. “Our unemployment rate is at a 25-year high and the people of this state are struggling to stay in their homes and put food on the table for their families. I worked to get economic recovery money for Nevada so it could be put to work as soon as possible to put people to work. What we’ve received thus far is just the beginning – more help is on the way.”