A massive $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill for FY-2023 passed by the United States Senate yesterday will include substantial funding for two major federal employers in Montgomery County, the National Institutes of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg and the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda. Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen pressed for those and other Maryland priorities in the controversial and complicated negotiations and agreement. The deal found some Republican senators joining with the Democratic majority in an attempt to lock in spending before the GOP gains control of the House of Representatives in January.
The Senate deal includes $48 billion for NIH, and $1.7 billion for NIST. It also includes renovation funds for a failing bridge over the Baltimore-Washington Parkway to Goddard Flight Center. Van Hollen and other Democrats lamented they could not get other priorities filled in the agreement, but considered the end run around potential GOP cuts in next year's session to be a success worth compromising for. "While I was deeply disappointed that Republicans refused to support a number of key priorities, it was vital that we pass a new government funding bill instead of kicking the can down the road," Van Hollen said in a statement late yesterday afternoon. "On balance, this package will meaningfully invest in the critical priorities of our state and nation.”
Senate Republicans who voted for the bill were Roy Blunt (Missouri), John Boozman (Arkansas), Shelley Capito (West Virginia), Susan Collins (Maine), John Cornyn (Texas), Tom Cotton (Arkansas), Lindsey Graham (South Carolina), Jim Inhofe (Oklahoma), Mitch McConnell (Kentucky), Jerry Moran (Kansas), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Rob Portman (Ohio), Mitt Romney (Utah), Mike Rounds (South Dakota), Richard Shelby (Alabama), John Thune (South Dakota), Roger Wicker (Mississippi) and Todd Young (Indiana). The majority of them have already publicly distanced themselves from President Donald Trump in varying degrees.
The cult leader Jim Jones of The People's Temple was influenced by a preacher named "Father Divine" who was probably born in an African American section of Rockville called Monkey Run.
ReplyDeletePeerless Rockville has an article about the Father Divine birthplace:
Deletehttps://peerlessrockville.org/historic-rockville/peerless-people-2/george-baker-jr-father-divine/
Of course, the name of the neighborhood was coined by whites at the time; the residents themselves did not call it "Monkey Run."
Thank you,that's very interesting about peerless Rockville. I will read that.The whole Jim Jones story is horrible,starting in the mid 1960s when allegations of abuse and misconduct by Jones came to light and going through to the terrible assassination of Congressman Ryan and the deaths.Interesting that Jones met with Father Devine and took inspiration from him.Apparently Father Devine rejected gender classifications and was a socialist.Sound familiar?My question is,why did the high ranking democrats in San Francisco embrace Jim Jones in the 1960s?Mayor of San Francisco George Moscone and City council member Harvey Milk were both good friends with Jones and got many people to join his church!
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