News

FIREFIGHTERS RECEIVE $400,000 IN FEDERAL FUNDING
SUZANNE POLLAK, Montgomery Community Media

Maryland’s federal legislators announced July 16 the awarding of almost $400,000 for firefighters in Montgomery County to continue purchasing personal protective equipment.

Montgomery County will receive $357,800 and the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Rescue Squad will receive $45,780 through the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Assistance to Firefighters – COVID-19 Supplemental program.

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Baltimore Area Gets More Than $450K To Help Minority, Women-Owned Businesses, Lawmakers Announce
WJZ-TV (CBS)

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Rep. John Sarbanes (D-MD) on the GOP Police Reform and COVID-19 Response
Sirius XM (‘POTUS Press Pool with Julie Mason’)

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"DEMOCRACY, POLICING, AND VIRUS VOTING"
Barbara R. Arnwine, Esq., WOL-AM (Igniting Change Radio)

On Tuesday, June 9th, 2020, 12:00-1:00 PM Eastern Time, Host Barbara R. Arnwine, Esq. founder and president of the Transformative Justice Coalition (TJC), and her Co-Host Daryl D. Jones, Esq., TJC Board Chair and Henault & Sysko Chartered Partner, conducted a special interview with Congressman John Sarbanes (D-3 MD), who represents Baltimore, Anne Arundel, Howard and Montgomery Counties, to discuss major developments in the U.S. Congress affecting American democracy, policing, and the right to vote. They also briefly covered the states holding primaries and special elections on June 9th, and the voting problems being experienced, especially and as represented by Georgia with an interview with Tricia “CK” Hoffler, incoming president of the National Bar Association and Chair of the Board of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition.     

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Senator holds up Trump nominations until he gets answers on fired IG’s
Eric White, Federal News Network

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$8M federal grant to help reduce bottlenecks for Baltimore train commuters
Ethan McLeod, Baltimore Business Journal

A project to increase speeds for Amtrak and MARC trains currently slowed by aging rail infrastructure in Baltimore is getting a boost from an $8 million Federal Railroad Administration grant.

The money, announced Wednesday by the agency, will help to rehabilitate and upgrade a five-mile section of Amtrak's Northeast Corridor and allow trains to travel 50% faster, up from 60 mph to 90 mph. The improvements will take place between the north end of West Baltimore Station to Winans at the southern end of Halethorpe station, which serves both MARC and Amtrak trains.

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Voter guide: John Sarbanes, Congress, District 3
The Baltimore Sun

Why are you running for office?

I am running, as always, to serve the needs of my constituents. In this moment, that means being a steady and trusted voice as we navigate the ferocious challenge of the coronavirus pandemic. On the policy front, I will bring my background in the health field – seventeen years representing health care providers in Maryland – to inform our deliberations in Congress on how to address this public health crisis. Along side the full-court press on public health, I will continue my work to strengthen our democracy by ending the influence of big money in politics, protecting the right to vote and ensuring that public officials work for the public interest. To make progress on the most pressing issues we face – including designing a health care system that serves everyone -- we need a government that responds to the many, not the money.

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Rick Bright and the Pandemic Path Not Taken
Amy Davidson Sorkin, The New Yorker

Many Americans are replaying, in their minds, the steps they have taken and the choices they have made with regard to the coronavirus crisis, but perhaps few with such tragic force as Rick Bright, who testified in a House hearing on Thursday. Bright, who in April was transferred from his position as the head of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, which is part of the Department of Health and Human Services, had caused a “commotion,” as one colleague put it, by urging more action at pandemic-planning meetings as far back as January and February. At the hearing, Representative John Sarbanes, a Democrat of Maryland, who had a pewter-gray mask around his neck—the members lowered their masks when speaking or, in some cases, when seated—asked Bright to return to that period. “I am sure that there are specific conversations, e-mails, moments in time that you remember like they happened yesterday,” Sarbanes said. Could he recall any particularly haunting ones that had caused a “sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach?”

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Republicans and Democrats barrel toward collision on voting by mail
Zach Montellaro, POLITICO

Americans want to be able to vote by mail in November — but Democratic proposals to require it appear to be going nowhere fast in Congress.... Democrats argue that the public widely supports their proposals — and that the election security grant funding mechanism included in the HEROES Act is of critical importance. “On balance, [voters] think voting by mail is a good idea, and that we ought to expand that opportunity. They also, based on preference or access or other factors, want to make sure that there’s going to be some meaningful in-person voting opportunities,” said Rep. John Sarbanes (D-Md.), who helped shepherd H.R. 1 through the House last year. Sarbanes and other Democrats also said all forms of voting need to be available in November. Those include "expanded vote by mail, significant early voting opportunities, and then safe in-person voting opportunities on Election Day," he said. "We need all three of those things.”

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