Federal Budget Includes Millions For MA 5th Congressional District

WOBURN, MA — Communities in Massachusetts’ Fifth Congressional District are set to receive more than $20 million through the $1.7 trillion 2023 fiscal year federal government budget bill approved by Congress and sent to President Joe Biden last week.

U.S. Rep. Katherine Clark announced the majority of the local money in the form of earmarks secured for specific projects in the Fifth District, which she represents.

Earmarks are set to help pay for projects ranging from stormwater management upgrades in Melrose to a Boys and Girls Club building project in Stoneham, according to Clark and budget documents.

“Our local leaders know best where federal resources can make a difference, and I am proud to have partnered with them to bring home investments that will improve our climate resiliency and make life more affordable for Massachusetts families,” Clark said of local earmarks in her announcement.

The Fifth District stretches from Winthrop to Southborough, representing a large swath of the Greater Boston region. Its earmarks are spread across over a dozen projects.

Two of the largest earmarks in the bunch will send $3 million to projects in Framingham and Stoneham. Framingham money help construct a trail linking open space and recreational areas to the downtown area along the existing Sudbury Aqueduct. The Stoneham earmark will go to the Boys & Girls Club of Stoneham and Wakefield to help pay for a new childcare facility and training center.

Other large earmarks include $2 million for the Revere Food Hub, roughly $1.98 million for climate resiliency upgrades elsewhere in Revere, $1.7 million for a clean water project at Framingham’s Lake Waushakum and $1.5 million for solar infrastructure at Carr Park in Medford.

Woburn is set to get just over $2.9 million in funding to help remove the city’s old Hurld Elementary School and construct a new park on the former school property.

This money comes on top of state funding and a previous federal earmark earlier this year for the project.

Malden will get upward of $1.3 million for its planned Malden River Works project, which aims to build a waterfront park along the Malden River.

Other million-dollar earmarks include $1 million for design work on an envisioned shared use path along the Mystic River and Lower Mystic Lake in Arlington. Dubbed the Mystic River Path Project, the finished path is expected to link the northern end of the Alewife Brook Greenway to the Minuteman Bikeway in Arlington Center, as noted in Clark's budget funding request. The project will also look to improve safety and accessibility with its 12-foot-wide path along both the Mystic River and Lower Mystic Lake, among other things.

$1 million for the Cambridge Public Health commission will help fund a new surgical robotics initiative while $1 million will go to Melrose for stormwater management and climate resiliency work around Ell Pond.

Smaller earmarks will send $500,000 to Advocates Inc. in Framingham, $400,000 to Massachusetts Bay Community College, $240,000 to the city of Watertown, $115,000 to the Charles River Watershed Association and $247,000 to the Charles River Community Health Center for various projects.

Lawmakers had the option to request earmarks, now known as community project funding in the House of Representatives and congressionally-directed spending in the Senate, through the 2023 fiscal year budget process.

Clark detailed her requests in a page on her website, including some proposed earmarks that ultimately didn’t make the cut in the final budget agreement.

Of those, three proposed earmarks would have sent close to $10 million to the Natick Soldiers System Center.

Lawmakers sent their funding package to Biden on Friday of last week. The deal includes over $15 billion in earmarks for community projects across the country, as reported by the New York Times.

The larger legislation marks $800 billion for non-defense funding, with $858 billion in federal defense funding.

Biden responded in a statement Friday, celebrating the agreement before later signing the budget into law.