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| Wilson Seeks Funding for Important New Mexico Agriculture and Telecommunications Projects |
March 21, 2003 |
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Washington, DC-Congresswoman Heather Wilson sent a letter today to Henry Bonilla, Chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration to request funding for high priority projects in New Mexico. The projects would be funded through the Fiscal Year 2004 Agriculture Appropriations bill.
·$1 million for a demonstration project to pave the way for deployment of digital translators to extend the benefits of digital services for much-needed educational and training services to rural communities throughout northern and central New Mexico.
KNME TV, located in Albuquerque would use project funding to set up digital television translator relays into Taos and Gallup. The University of New Mexico has a branch campus in Taos that is not currently served from KNME’s digital transmitter on Sandia Crest. The Navajo Nation has expressed an interest in receiving KNME-DT signals from the Gallup site and relaying DTV educational television services throughout the Navajo Nation. The KNME analog service is used extensively as an education resource in Navajo schools. A new digital translator near Gallup would also bring educational digital television services to New Mexicans living within a forty mile radius surrounding the city of Gallup.
·$50,000 to be used for the creation of a soil conservationist/technician position within the Ciudad Soil and Water Conservation District. This funding request is for much needed technical assistance at the Albuquerque field office of the Natural Resources Conservation Service.
This field office provides technical assistance to private landowners, local units of government, and community organizations, addressing a variety of natural resource issues. With a population of close to 700,000, the Albuquerque field office typically provides assistance to 300 to 400 entities. Water conservation, urban runoff, urban/wild land interface issues, agricultural preservation, and both air and water quality are only a few of the priority resource concerns needing attention at this time.
·$500,000 to Sandia National Laboratories to begin the development of an agri-security team. The U.S. agricultural infrastructure represents a multi-billion dollar industry encompassing all phases of production, processing, and distribution to wholesalers and the consumer. Gross farm product was $100 billion in 1999. The total share of gross domestic product for food alone in 2000 was $880 billion, and the export value of agricultural products was about $48 billion. Even more important than the size of the agricultural infrastructure, however, is its pervasiveness. Every U.S. citizen depends on safe agricultural production, processing, and distribution for life and health. Security of the farm-to-fork chain is essential.
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