Articles

Originally published in: Patch

U.S. lawmakers passed a roughly $1.7 trillion government funding bill for fiscal year 2023 last week that includes funding for several projects in Arlington, according to Rep. Don Beyer (D), who represents all of Arlington, Falls Church and Alexandria and parts of Fairfax County.

The omnibus appropriations bill also includes language that will officially rename a post office on N. George Mason Drive after letter carrier Jesus Collazos.

“This project funding will make our community healthier, support clean energy, boost our transportation infrastructure, support affordable housing, feed the hungry, and help improve law enforcement transparency,” Beyer said in a statement.

Collazos was a letter carrier who immigrated to Northern Virginia from Colombia and worked Arlington postal routes for 25 years. Collazos retired from the USPS in February 2019. In 2020, he was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer and died later that year.

Among Beyer’s projects in Arlington that received funding in the omnibus bill are:

$750,000 for the Arlington County Integrated Gray/Green Infrastructure projects to be installed in the Gulf Branch watershed downstream of Military Road, and in the Lower Long Branch Watershed on S. Walter Reed Drive Corridor.

$750,000 on behalf of the Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing for the Oakwood Senior Residences.

$750,000 for the Sanitary Sewer Interceptor Pipe Rehabilitation – Columbia Pike/ Sparrow Pond section of the Four Mile Run Interceptor.

$750,000 for the Sanitary Sewer Interceptor Pipe Rehabilitation - Rosslyn Area of Potomac Interceptor.

The House passed the $1.7 trillion omnibus funding bill on Dec. 23, one day after it passed the Senate. President Joe Biden signed the bill on Thursday.

An omnibus spending bill is a combination of appropriations bills that each authorize funds for different parts of the government. In an omnibus bill, legislators in the House and the Senate can vote on a single spending package rather than on individual funding bills for different agencies or areas of government.