U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen met virtually with the Montgomery County members of the Maryland General Assembly Friday to update legislators on what the federal government is doing and also to learn what the local delegation would like him to stress.
“Right now, in this current Congress, we are just trying to keep the government open,” Van Hollen said during the 30-minute meeting. He was referring to the federal government’s efforts to pass a budget rather than a continuing resolution.
“Congress is quite dysfunctional,” he said.
Van Hollen pointed to a few items he hopes will be increased in the next budget, including a request to increase funding for the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda by $48 million.
He also spoke of increased funding for NIST in Gaithersburg, which Van Hollen said is a leader in artificial intelligence testing.
He also talked about efforts to make Montgomery County headquarters for the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, which is an independent agency within the NIH. Work on that is “a multi-year project,” he said.
Van Hollen also is working on keeping the federal government’s funding of the Purple Line, which he said has “huge cost overruns and delays” and increasing funding for security grants for religious institutions.
Assembly members questioned him about the American Legion Bridge, offshore wind projects and funding for schools.
