Thursday, July 20, 2006

WASHINGTON, DC - U.S. Senator Kit Bond today announced that he secured $61 million in federal funds for construction of the Jefferson City Courthouse in the Senate Transportation-Treasury-HUD spending bill.

“Jefferson City needs a new courthouse. Safety and security of the public, judges and law enforcement officers who do business in the courthouse is a top priority,” said Senator Kit Bond. “The funds I secured today will build a safer, more modern facility that will provide enough space to meet current and future needs.”

As chairman of the Senate Transportation-Treasury-HUD Appropriations Subcommittee, Bond secured the $61 million in federal funds in the fiscal year 2007 spending bill, which passed subcommittee earlier this week and is scheduled to pass the full committee this afternoon. Before being signed into the law the bill must be passed by the full Senate and reconciled with the House of Representatives version.

Bond previously secured $5.2 million for site selection, planning and design of the new courthouse and additional funds that determined the need for the courthouse in previous fiscal years.

Bond, a strong advocate of local, state and federal law enforcement, has been instrumental in acquiring federal funding to build new federal courthouses in St. Louis, Kansas City and Cape Girardeau and crime laboratories in Springfield, Cape Girardeau and Joplin. He also initiated and helped fund the Missouri Sheriffs Methamphetamine Relief Team (MOSMART) which is administered statewide by a bipartisan panel of Missouri Sheriffs.

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