$35M won't be coming to 17th District

About $35 million worth of federal money for 27 projects in the 17th Congressional District — most of it for Mahoning and Trumbull counties — approved by the U.S. House Appropriations Committee isn’t coming.

Getting approval from the powerful committee is a “huge hurdle” to overcome, said Heather McMahon, spokeswoman for U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Niles, D-17th, who sponsored legislation for those earmarks.

But there were no guarantees that money from federal appropriation bills would have been awarded for those projects, she said.

“Everyone knows it has to pass the House and the Senate and then both have to reconcile the budgets” before the funding would come, McMahon said.

The House never voted on any of the budget bills, and won’t consider votes till March, she said.

For the complete story, read Thursday’s Vindicator or Vindy.com