Washington, DC – Today, Rep. Adam Schiff announced that the House of Representatives passed a critical funding bill late last night, which included money for three important education, safety and health care projects in Glendale. As a member of the House Appropriations Committee, Rep. Schiff helped secure funds for the Glendale Adventist Medical Center to improve emergency room care, for a railroad crossing safety improvement project, and for Glendale Community College for the Cimmarusti/NASA Science Center to expand its K-12 science education outreach program. The measure also included a provision urging the EPA to address health standards for ingested hexavalent chromium.
“These funds are vital investments in our community that will support local emergency care, education and safety,” said Schiff. “They will make our community a safer, healthier, and more prosperous place to live.”
The funding was included in the Foreign Operations Appropriations/Consolidated Appropriations bill (H.R. 2764). This bill is also known as the omnibus appropriations bill for the Fiscal Year 2008, because it packages together several funding measures into one single bill. The omnibus was necessary due to both the inability of the Senate to pass individual funding measures and the President’s vetoes.
The Glendale Adventist Medical Center (GAMC) will receive $359,000 to assist in renovations that will double the size of its emergency room. This renovation and upgrade will help improve access to emergency medical care in the region, which has suffered due to the recent closings of hospitals and emergency rooms. GAMC is partnering with a local Federally Qualified Health Clinic to increase access to healthcare to the uninsured and underinsured population.
“Glendale Adventist has a century-long history of meeting the health care needs of this community with quality services,” said Morre Dean, President & CEO of Glendale Adventist Medical Center. “As access to health care continues to be a challenging national issue, we are proud to invest in this community's health well into the future. We greatly appreciate Congressman Schiff's work on behalf of GAMC and for the health of our community.”
The City of Glendale will receive $490,000 to improve safety at the railroad crossings on Broadway, Grandview Avenue, and Sonora Avenue in Glendale. Over the past several years, there have been a number of collisions involving trains and vehicles at these crossings. Currently 64 Metrolink and Amtrak passenger trains along with 20 Union Pacific freight trains operate daily on the San Fernando Road corridor. It is anticipated that passenger train volumes will significantly increase in the future due to high demand from commuters. This funding will be used to improve safety measures and help reduce accidents at these railroad crossings by upgrading railroad circuits and railroad warning devices installing an advanced pre-emption system, and other improvements.
“We are very happy that Representative Schiff has worked hard to keep funding for Glendale’s rail crossing safety improvements in the bill,” said Glendale Mayor, Ara Najarian. “This money will go to critical crossings in Glendale that will add to increased safety and mobility for residents and commuters who must cross the tracks to get to their homes and to work.”
Glendale Community College will receive $235,000 to assist in the expansion of the college’s Cimmarusti/NASA Science Center outreach program. The Cimmarusti/NASA Science Center is an important science education resource for the region, featuring a digitized planetarium; an advanced chemistry lab; seismographic and global positioning system stations for earthquake and weather study, with real time linkages to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and Caltech databases; and a K-12 outreach workshop center.
The Center seeks to improve science and math education for elementary and secondary schools in the Los Angeles area by serving as a resource and assistance center. Over the last two years, the Center has provided science education programs for K-12 schools in Glendale, Burbank, and Pasadena. The Center will use this funding to expand its outreach to other schools throughout the region. The College will train 120 4th and 5th grade teachers in science education geared to the California State science standards.
Lastly, the measure included a provision urging the EPA to develop an updated health standard for hexavalent chromium in drinking water, which then should be used to revise the Maximum Contaminant Level Goal as soon as possible.
Earlier this year, a draft report of a federal cancer study of the health effects of ingesting chromium 6 was released. In 2001, Rep. Schiff spearheaded a California delegation-wide effort to commission the study from the National Institutes of Health’s National Toxicology Program. The two-year study found that high doses of chromium 6 in drinking water can cause cancer in rodents. He also obtained funding for a water treatment facility in Glendale designed to remove hexavalent chromium from the water.
Rep. Schiff was appointed to serve on the House Appropriations Committee in the 110th Congress and is a member of its Commerce, Justice, and Science Subcommittee, the State Department and Foreign Operations Subcommittee, Financial Services Subcommittee, and the Select Intelligence Oversight Panel. He also serves on the House Judiciary Committee and its Subcommittee on the Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property. He represents California’s 29th Congressional District, which includes the communities of Alhambra, Altadena, Burbank, East Pasadena, East San Gabriel, Glendale, Monterey Park, Pasadena, San Gabriel, South Pasadena and Temple City.
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