Appropriations Information

• The Orange County Soil & Water District Commission, P.O. Box 532094, Orlando 32853. $600,000.  These funds will be used to develop a soil and water district strategic plan for coordination of a long-term USDA water-quality, conservation initiative and related activities for Orange County and soil and water District. This plan will include short and long-term planning and activities surrounding the issues of recycling of water, watershed alternatives and clean streams/lakes programs. Additionally, the plan provides public education on water conservation and how to protect the environment. 
• The United States Department of Agriculture - Agriculture Research Service. USDA-ARS, 1400 Independence Avenue, Washington D.C. 20250.  $3,450,000.  These funds will advance the study of sugar cane as a viable alternative and reliable form of energy. Specifically funding will advance sugar cane energy research, increase personnel and equipment at the ARS Sugar Cane Field Station in Canal Point, FL, and evaluate sugar cane germplasm under high-stress, low-input production systems for sugar and energy production.  

• Child is Missing Program (ACIM) to establish a Caylee Anthony Missing Child Program in Orlando, 500 S.E. 17th St., Ft. Lauderdale, 33316. $500,000. This funding will bolster child and elderly safety programs by assisting law enforcement agencies in the first few hours a child or an elderly adult is reported missing via a telephony technology and satellite mapping system. This funding will also provide additional law enforcement training regarding missing children/elderly cases, and promote community education and awareness meetings involving child safety issues in the State of Florida. 
• The American Legion of Orlando, 1912 Lee Rd. #A, Orlando 32810. $250,000.  This funding will provide free life skills programming and assistance for returning veterans. Specifically, this money will help soldiers and their families to re-integrate into the community and workforce through education, training courses, and mentoring. This also will help individuals who haven’t completed high school to complete their education and find local employment.  
• Community Legal Services of Florida. 122 E. Colonial Dr., Orlando 32801. $400,000. This funding will provide comprehensive legal assistance to needy Central Floridians such as; the elderly, victims of domestic violence and poor families. These funds would provide free legal services to assist elderly victims of consumer scams, help domestic violence victims and their children break free from abuse, work to ensure that poor families live in decent, safe and healthy affordable housing and assist veterans who have been denied Social Security benefits.
• The Covenant House of Florida. 5931 E. Colonial Dr. Orlando 32807 $700,000.  This funding will establish a Parenting Education and Health Support program that will serve pregnant or parenting homeless teen mothers in central Florida. The project will provide a specialized curriculum for runaway and homeless youth (teen mothers and fathers) on parenting and parenthood, childbirth, infant feeding and breastfeeding promotion, baby care basics, and education regarding risky behavior and other risk factors that may result in harm to fetuses and newborns (i.e, tobacco, alcohol and drug use).
• The Florida Civil Rights Association, 1003 S. Kirkman Rd. $350,000.  This funding will be used to help keep people in their homes by providing free legal assistance to individuals in desperate need of legal advice, particularly for those seeking legal assistance in preventing home foreclosure. 
• Orlando Health Orange County Children's Advocacy Programs, 3160 Southgate Commerce Blvd., Orlando 32806. $600,000.  This funding will provide youth crisis intervention and counseling. The Children’s Advocacy program provides more than 28,000 services to clients each year including advocacy, crisis intervention, lethality assessments, non-offending caregiver support and education, and mental health counseling. Funding will be used to sustain existing Child Advocates and four therapists. These advocates and therapists provide direct assistance to child victims of abuse, their siblings, and the non-offending caretakers—ensuring that the family is able to recover in a supportive, healthy environment together.
•  University of Central Florida, University of North Florida and State University System of Florida to expand in Orlando, FL the state-wide consortium on Hurricane Mitigation Strategies and the IBM LA Grid Consortium, 7735 Porters Hill Lane, Lorton, Virginia, 22079. $7,500,000.  The consortium will work to improve high-resolution probabilistic hurricane modeling, which aims to provide location for specific threats (i.e, hurricane landfall location/intensity, winds, gust, rainfall quantitative and spatial distribution, inland flooding) from land-falling hurricanes over the State of Florida. Florida led the nation in the number of billion-dollar weather disasters in the last 30 years. Improved forecasting of these events and higher resolution than currently achievable are vital.

• The Nicholson Center for Surgical Advancement, 400 Celebration Place, Celebration, 34747. $5,250,000. This funding will enhance healthcare outcomes by utilizing robotic and simulation technologies, NCSA’s Robotics and Simulation Research Project will enhance military and civilian healthcare outcomes, increase patient safety, and reduce healthcare costs by both evaluating and inventing new robotic and simulation technologies and training surgeons to use them. The funding will lead to the direct creation of 50+ high tech jobs over a five (5) year period (average wage of $55,000) in Central Florida and the indirect creation of 20+ high tech jobs due to new collaboration initiatives. 

• The City of Mount Dora, 510 N. Baker Street, Mount Dora 32756. $800,000.  This funding would provide for the “green” reconstruction of Mount Dora’s renovation of the Palm Island Boardwalk by replacing the current deteriorating and overstressed boardwalk with green/energy efficient materials consistent with the mission of conservation.
• The City of Winter Garden, 300 W. Plant Street, Winter Garden, 34787. $300,000.  This funding would be used for a community-wide weatherization project for several historically Black, impoverished residential neighborhoods in East Winter Garden, specifically the Center Street and 10th Street areas. The City plans to renovate and provide “Green” retro-fitting of dilapidated homes in the community while constructing new affordable housing throughout the neighborhood. The goal is to promote an environmentally-conscience, safe, and “green” community by revitalizing existing homes while building new homes.
• The Solar Demonstration & Research Facility at the Orange County Agricultural Extension Center, 800 Mercy Drive, Orlando 32808. $700,000.  This funding will help Orange County meet the goals of their Local Climate Action Plan and the State’s Energy Act by constructing a 150 Kilowatt Photovoltaic Demonstration/Research Facility at the Orange County Agricultural Extension Center, which will reduce fossil fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emission by expanding new forms of energy.

Financial Services: Departments of Treasury and Judiciary

• Barry University's Institute for Community & Economic Development,   11300 N.E. 2nd Avenue, Miami Shores 33161.  $250,000.  This funding will expand the reach and leverage of the new Entrepreneurial Institute, dedicated to poverty elimination through the development of entrepreneurial skills in the community. The Institute delivers research-based education and training to minority and women-owned business enterprises, and those providing leadership in the non-profit sector in Florida.
• The Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Metro Orlando, 315 E. Robinson St., Orlando 32801. $550,000.  This funding will expand small business training, assistance and outreach to minority communities throughout Orange County, Mt. Dora, Tavares, Eustis, Umatilla, Astatula, Ocala, and Silver Springs. Programming will provide initiatives to all businesses, with over 1100 members in Orange County, Mt. Dora, Tavares, Eustis, Umatilla, Astatula, Ocala, and Silver Springs.   These funds will be directed toward free workshops on how to start your own business, business plan development, filing taxes and how to expand your business or become a franchise. Additionally, funds will cover the cost for targeted Spanish-language business guides and literature for the Orange, Marion and Lake Counties and assist the Chamber in the costs for an annual career expo for job-seekers.   
• Latino Leadership, Inc., 639 E. Colonial Dr., Orlando 32803. $150,000. This funding would provide for the Black and White to Color Project to execute a financial literacy program called From Red 2 Black: Taking Control of My Financial Future. This program is targeted to minority homeowners, individuals living from paycheck-to-paycheck and those seeking information about bankruptcy. Latino Leadership will hold public workshops on financial literacy, planning and saving for homeownership, financial foreclosure prevention and targeted programming on savings and credit cards for children, teens and college students.
• Score Orlando Chapter, 315 E. Robinson St., Orlando 32801. $300,000.  This funding will help provide one-on-one counseling and financial planning with small business owners and individuals interested in launching their own small businesses. Additionally, these funds will be used to collaborate with the Orange County, Lake County and Marion County Chambers of Commerce to provide free small business workshops for individuals wanting to open their own small businesses but requiring assistance on drafting a business plan, needing help requesting SBA loans, and requiring technical assistance for franchising opportunities. 

• City Of Tavares Hurricane Emergency Operations Center and Public Safety Facility, 201 E. Main St., Tavares 32778.  $7,775,000.  This funding will create  a Hurricane Emergency Operations Center and Public Safety Facility that will house the main Fire Station, Police Department, and Emergency Operations Center and purchase hurricane disaster equipment and supplies. This project will create 311 jobs for Lake County. 
• Marion County Hurricane and Public Safety Communications Center, 601 S.E. 25^th Avenue, Ocala 34471. $4,250,000. This funding will create a new Hurricane and Public Safety Communications Center in Marion County to modernize its operations by constructing a facility of approximately 15,000 sq. ft. The County’s existing communications center is approximately 20 years old. This facility will give Marion County and its five municipalities a stable platform for continuity of operations on both a daily basis and during man-made and natural events, which might threaten the community.
• Orange County Government, 3511 Parkway Center Court, Orlando 32808. $2,600,000.  This funding would provide for the Orange County Government Evacuation Shelter to improve first responders’ communications. This would also assist in their communications with Emergency Operations Centers, 911 dispatch centers, and Public Safety agencies, while providing services to citizens displaced from their homes during an emergency. Costs associated with this program include equipment, supplies and installation.

• Ocoee - Orange County Reclaim Interconnection, 150 N. Lakeshore Dr., Ocoee 34761. $1,300,000.   This funding will be used for the Ocoee-Orange County Reclaim Interconnection for the installation of a reclaim water interconnection and the extension of reclaim water lines, including construction of a much-needed regional master lift station. This force-main and regional master lift station is desperately needed because sixty percent of the City's sewage currently flows through one lift station. These funds will relieve an overburdened sewer system and transition thousands of residents who rely on septic tanks to a more effective and efficient sewer system.
• The City of Winter Garden's Reclaimed Water Storage & Pumping Facility,   300 W. Plant St., Winter Garden 34787.  $1,750,000.  The funding would be used to monitor the conservation of potable water supplies, which has become a major concern in Central Florida. The City of Winter Garden is promoting reclaimed water as a means of conservation and an alternative for various household water needs. 
• Winter Park Gravity Sewer Improvement Project, 401 S. Park Ave., Winter Park 32789. $750,000. The funding would be used to improve and upgrade the sewer system along Fairbanks Avenue to include approximately 1 mile of gravity sewer, 2.3 miles of force mains and one master lift station. Installation of this sewer line will allow higher density redevelopment of adjacent residential and commercial properties, maximize the potential for a commercial corridor to increase business investment and tourism, transition properties from septic tanks to sanitary sewer lines, and protect against environmental hazards.

• The A. Philip Randolph Institute for Job Training and Pre-Apprentice Assistance, P.O. Box 568701, Orlando 32856.  $500,000.  The Institute will serve as the community liaison for the City of Orlando Venues Project through Workforce, and provide Orientation, Education and Job related counseling to assist and provide guidance and employment opportunities based on each client’s needs. The Institute will counsel and prepare participants with life skills to assure job placement, retention as well as advancement. 300-500 participants will also be assisted in overcoming barriers that may prevent their success for enrollment and completion in pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeship programs.
• Best Buddies Florida, 124-A East Colonial Dr., Orlando 32801. $150,000.  This funding will provide people with intellectual disabilities an opportunity for social integration and employment, while simultaneously raising public awareness for the inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities. These funds will support 15 middle school, high school and college Best Buddies chapters in Florida’s 8^th District. This project will have 375 participants, train 60 student leaders, provide leadership and advocacy training to 15 students with intellectual disabilities, and improve the lives of 1,875 parents, siblings, and friends.
• Clean Water Fund, 2002 E. 5th Avenue, Unit 101, Tampa 33605. $300,000. These funds will provide educational outreach in the Central Florida community in order to safeguard water quality and public health. Currently, the program operates with five full-time staff, twenty part-time staff, and a reliance on volunteer support. Funds would be used to educate the community on the quality of the water, threats to public health, and common sense solutions to insure public health and safety.
• The Covenant Community Development Corporation, 2210 S. Rio Grande Avenue, Orlando 32805.  $500,000.  These funds would be for the Covenant Community Development Corporation for the Rio Grande School of Excellence.  Rio Grande School of Excellence will expand its facility to meet the large demand of students on the waiting-list to enroll at the school, hire more teachers from the community and provide after-care services for children who would otherwise be left at home alone from the hours of 3-7 pm. 
• Jobs With Justice, 231 East Colonial Dr., Orlando 32803.  $500,000.  Funding would expand the Jobs With Justice job training and readiness program. The work-readiness skills program is designed to teach essential employment skills to youth planning to enter the workforce. The program aims to increase young people’s awareness of the types of attitudes, skills and behaviors employers expect from new employees. Such attitudes and skills apply equally to success in full-time, part-time and summer jobs, as well as success in school and educational programs.
• Latino Leadership, Inc., 639 E. Colonial Dr., Orlando 32803.  $200,000. This funding would be used for the Adelante! Program for a school retention and recruitment project. There are two levels of recruitment needed for this project. The first level is the student participants. Latino Leadership will work with high school teachers, deans, and guidance counselors to select the at-risk students that will participate. The second level of recruitment is for community leaders who will serve as mentors. These mentors will be recruited from political, business, education, and athletic entities. Once a week, during non-holiday times, Latino Leadership will host the students for “Engage”. Engage serves as the cornerstone of the project. Engage meet-ups will consist of themed discussions. By using a themed structure, students will have knowledge of the topics to be discussed in advance. These themes will be incorporated into speaker selections, blog entries, reflections, projects, etc. A blog will be set-up for students to document various aspects of the program activities. This blog will be linked to Latino Leadership’s www.latino-leadership.org website. 
• National Civilian Community Corps of the Corporation of National & Community Service, 1201 New York Ave., Washington D.C., 20525. $5,500,000.  This funding would enhance hurricane research and response to natural disaster by establishing a campus in Tavares, Florida that would house up to 180 NCCC volunteers, advance research on hurricanes and natural disasters and promote conservation activities in the southern region of the United States. The City of Tavares has designated city land and developed the blueprints for the immediate construction of the campus. 
• Orange County Library System, 101 E. Central Blvd., Orlando 32801. $500,000.  This funding is for the Orange County Library System to purchase certain media and books, specifically Spanish language materials at the South Creek and South East Branches. This provides greater opportunity to participate and improve English speaking skills.
• Prevent Blindness Florida, 1112 E. Kennedy Boulevard, Tampa 33602.  $300,000.  This funding would be for the “See the Difference” Vision Screening Program, which provides free vision screening, assistance at local county health department clinics for eye-related education and treatment services, and funding to upgrade existing vision screening equipment to more technologically advanced and portable equipment. Additionally, Prevent Blindness Florida will expand its  free monthly vision screening and consultative events. Many children and adults suffer from low-vision, resulting in a financial burden.
• United Arts of Central Florida, 2450 Maitland Center Parkway, Maitland 32751. $880,000.  These funds would provide for 109,000 art experiences for the Orange, Lake and Marion County community, offer free after school arts and performing arts programming for children in Orange, Lake and Marion County Public Schools; all extend operations, administrative and technical assistance for community arts centers and museums. The UACF would fund the following arts centers and museums: Wells’Built Museum of African American History, the Hannibal Square Heritage Center, the Mount Dora Center for the Arts, The Garden Theatre in Winter Garden, and Michelee Puppets (Spanish-language theatre). UACF will also use funds to expand their public school theatre experience program to allow ALL 2^nd, 4^th and 5^th Graders in Orange County and Lake County Public Schools attend arts-related performances.
• Winter Garden Family Health Care Center, 1210 E. Plant St., Winter Garden 34787.  $700,000.  This funding will expand its operating hours, hire medical and professional staff, and provide dental, pediatric and primary health care services to approximately 15,000 uninsured, underinsured, Medicare and Medicaid patients in Winter Garden and surrounding areas.

• It has come to my attention via several constituents and national groups who tour and lobby the Capitol and our House office buildings that Congress should make available assisted-care restroom facilities. There are several examples of the need for this type of restroom. For instance, a father, visiting with his 26 year-old daughter who is wheelchair-bound and suffering from multiple sclerosis, told my staff that he was embarrassed by the fact that as the only individual accustomed to assisting his daughter use the restroom, he had to request that a non-family member (a member of his lobbying group) assist his daughter in the women’s restroom. Another example, which I can whole-heartedly appreciate as the father of five children, is that of a mother who was traveling with four of her children (three boys and one girl) and trying to direct them all into the women’s restroom. This mother told my staff that if there were family or assisted-care restrooms, it would be easier for her to get her children in and out of the restroom and not disturb other visitors and staff attempting to use the women’s restroom. There is certainly a need, so I ask that you consider the following request for the FY 2010 Legislative Branch Appropriations Bill:

• Celebration Library, 1 Courthouse Square, Kissimmee 34741.  $750,000. This funding would be used to build a library in Celebration, Florida. This unincorporated area and many county residents are in need of a library facility. The Celebration Company is donating $100,000 toward design costs. Federal funds would be used for the final construction phase. The plans are to make this library technologically advanced, and to be a certified LEED building. It is estimated that there will be a first-year circulation of over 100,000, and computer use alone of over 87,000 users.  
• City of Mt. Dora Community Center, 510 N. Baker St., Mount Dora 32756. $800,000.  This funding would be used towards the renovation and restoration of the Mount Dora Community Center. The renovation project will accomplish the following: (1) The main auditorium will return to its original scope, with exposed wooden ceiling, new seating, and better stage and support access. (2) A new lobby will facilitate meeting space, provide modern restrooms and upgrade all HVAC and other systems. (3) The basement area will have improved meeting rooms and support functions for the building. (4) The lighting, audio and theatrical systems will be modernized. The end result will be a community building that restores a central source of public cohesion and meeting in downtown Mount Dora. It will also serve as an economic generator of activities and people to support our business and tourist goals.
• City of Orlando, Dr. P. Phillips Performing Arts Center, 400 S. Orange Ave., Orlando 32801. $10,000,000.  This funding will be used to complete the renovation of the Dr. P. Phillips Orlando Performing Arts Center. The Dr. P. Phillips Orlando Performing Arts Center is a hub for the City of Orlando’s tourism and arts. The Center’s renovation has been halted as a result of a drop in tax revenues and donations. These funds will allow for the completion of the Center—generating jobs, increasing tourism and providing an opportunity to showcase the arts in downtown Orlando.
• Community Legal Services of Mid-Florida, 122 E. Colonial Dr. #200, Orlando 32801.  $500,000.  This funding would provide  for housing counseling, specifically foreclosure prevention and education. Community Legal Services provides housing counseling and direct legal services to homeowners about to lose their homes, and works with the community to provide public education and outreach activities on homeownership and foreclosure.
• Grand Avenue Economic Community Development Corporation, 3200 W. Colonial Dr., Orlando 32808.  $200,000.  This funding will be used to rehabilitate Maxwell Gardens and to provide the necessary funds for making the space into a resident community center, with office space for agencies to provide on-site counseling and services, resident activities, and meetings.
• Harbor House of Florida, P.O. Box 680748, Orlando 32868. $700,000. These funds willbe used to provide domestic violence assistance programs for battered women and their children. The shelter is a renovated farm house and a rotting modular building. There are approximately 2 years left on the viable use of these properties. With these funds Harbor House will rebuild the existing 52-bed structures on the existing 5-acre campus, and extend shelter service hours.
• LYNX Central Station, 455 W. Garland Ave., Orlando 32801. $550,000. This funding will establish a demonstration, state-of-the-art “green”, energy-efficient parking lot at LYNX's intermodal center in downtown Orlando. This site will feature improved handicapped and pedestrian access to the facility, with expanded parking for disabled persons and Drop-off/Pick-up capability for commuters, and simplified access to bus platforms for seniors and para-transit users. It will include solar 911 police call capability, and security lighting and "plug in" outlets for future alternative fuel or electric powered vehicles relying on solar panels, a 100% renewable, carbon free energy source. Increasing ridership and handicap accessibility to ridership will be good for the environment, and energy-efficient.  
• Main Street Project of Mills 50, 911 N. Mills Ave., Orlando 32803. $250,000.  This funding will help make needed renovations to enhance and encourage development of business in the downtown Orlando area, while preserving the historic nature of the community.
• Rotary Club of West Orlando, 475 S. Kirkman Rd., Orlando 32811.$150,000.These funds would purchase the wood and construction supplies to build wheelchair ramps for people who need handicap accessibility to their homes. Each ramp can cost up to $1,000, and the West Orlando Rotary Club has built more than 2,000 in the club’s history. This project will provide access and mobility to thousands of residents throughout Florida’s eighth district.  

•  Sharpe's Ferry Bridge, Marion County Government, 601 SE 25th Ave., Ocala 34471. $6,000,000. The Sharpes Ferry Bridge Replacement project has been identified as a number one public safety and operational priority by the Ocala/Marion County Transportation Planning Organization and the Marion County Transportation Improvement Plan for several years. The State of Florida has prioritized this bridge and committed $1,300,000 in State funds. These funds will assist in the final completion of this project.