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Orange County

Congressman Maurice Hinchey has a proven record of getting results for the communities he represents. Since 1995, he has delivered nearly $4 billion for the 22nd Congressional District, including nearly $200 million for the parts of Orange County he represents. In the last two years, Hinchey has secured more than $42 million for projects in Orange County.

These federal investments in our region have created jobs, helped communities provide the infrastructure for economic growth, have made low-cost capital available for business startups and expansion, strengthened our schools and health care systems, promoted our tourism industry and lured new businesses to the area.

Hinchey's efforts in the 109th Congress included:

Transportation and Infrastructure Improvements 
Hinchey has fought to increase the federal government's investment in our transportation infrastructure, which improves public safety, increases economic development opportunities and alleviates the burden of expensive repairs on local taxpayers.  Among the projects for which Hinchey secured funding are:

  • Interstate 86 Upgrades:  The transportation authorization bill provided $12 million to complete the highway upgrades necessary to convert sections of Route 17 in Broome, Delaware, Orange and Sullivan counties to interstate standards.  These earmarks are part of the more than $10 billion that New York State is expected to receive for highway projects as a result of this law.  In April 2005, Hinchey also joined local officials in calling for the expansion of Route 17 to three lanes in each direction from Harriman to Monticello, in order to ease congestion and prepare for continued population and economic growth.
  • Newburgh-Beacon Ferry Launched:  On October 14, 2005, Hinchey joined state and local officials for the inaugural run of the Newburgh-Beacon Ferry, carrying commuters from the west bank of the Hudson River to the Metro North station in Beacon.  Hinchey, who formerly represented the City of Beacon, initiated work with the Army Corps of Engineers on a plan to enable the reconstruction of that city's ferry dock in 1996, while also securing a $187,000 grant for a Newburgh study on waterfront improvements.  These efforts were followed by a Newburgh feasibility study for ferry service in 2001, which Hinchey initiated, and $3.6 million in HUD grants and loans which he obtained to fund dock construction and improvements in both cities.  In 2003, Hinchey secured a $900,000 appropriations earmark to fund the ferry infrastructure.  Over the past two years, Hinchey has also worked with the Army Corps and the Fish & Wildlife Service to obtain necessary permits for the ferry dock at Newburgh and to amend the permits for the Beacon dock, which was slightly altered since the original Army Corps permits were issued.  Hinchey has also continued to work with NYSDOT and Metro North Railroad to ensure that the issue of operational funding for the ferry service was resolved and service could begin.
  • Orange Heritage Trail in Middletown:  Hinchey's office worked with the City of Middletown to obtain assistance from the National Park Service's River and Trails program to move forward with the extension of the Orange Heritage Trail through the City of Middletown.  The Park Service is now working with Orange County and the City to design and implement improvements to the trail as well as to apply for grant money to advance this project.

Economic Development and Job Creation 
Creating jobs and improving the economic conditions of the 22nd District are always Congressman Hinchey's top priorities, and he has worked to bring federal dollars to Orange County that create the climate for economic growth.  Key projects in the 109th Congress included:

  • Broadway Corridor Upgrades, Newburgh:  At Hinchey's request, the transportation bill included $1.5 million for paving and improving local streets and upgrading the traffic signals at key intersections.  Upgrades will be made in a way that retains and highlights the area's historic character.  The work will be done in coordination with other improvements to infrastructure below the road surface and replacement of curbing.  The areas to be repaired are Liberty Street from Broadway north to Water Street; Broadway from Grand Street to Colden Street; and South Street from Liberty Street to Water Street.  These projects will complement ongoing efforts to revitalize downtown Newburgh and bring private investment and economic opportunities to the city.
  • Newburgh Waterfront Redevelopment:  Hinchey successfully earmarked $350,000 to the City of Newburgh for the completion of the Hudson River Waterfront Park, including a pedestrian walkway and a public fishing pier.
  • Orange County Small Business Initiative:  Hinchey, along with program partners Provident Bank, the Federal Home Loan Bank of New York (FHLBNY), the Small Business Administration (SBA) 504 Program, the Cities of Newburgh and Middletown, and the Progress Development Corporation (PDC) announced a new $51 million initiative to boost family-owned and small businesses in Newburgh, Middletown, and Port Jervis.  The Family Business Loan Program will offer local small businesses below-market, fixed-rate commercial loans with reduced equity requirements and processing times.  An estimated 600 jobs are expected to be created through this project. 

Flood Recovery
The Hudson Valley has been plagued with serious flood events over the past two years.  Hinchey has worked to meet the immediate needs of residents and the long-term goal of flood mitigation for their communities, including:

  • April 2005 Flood Response:  On April 4, Hinchey issued an urgent appeal to Governor Pataki to request a Major Disaster Declaration from President Bush after a week of heavy rains caused severe damage in Ulster and Orange counties, and across the 22nd Congressional District.  Bush approved flood aid on April 20.  In addition, Hinchey worked with the U.S.D.A. to secure $650,000 in emergency farm aid from the federal Farm Service Agency's Emergency Conservation Program to help farmers in Ulster and Orange counties recover from the early April floods.
  • June 2006 Flood Response:  As heavy rains continued to fall on June 28, 2006, Hinchey urgently appealed to Governor Pataki to immediately request a Major Disaster Declaration from President Bush, which clears the way for emergency federal funding.  The next day, he led the New York congressional delegation in calling on President Bush to immediately send federal aid and support to the 13 counties severely affected by the severe floods.  When the president failed to designate all of the affected communities as federal disaster areas, thereby limiting the aid available, Hinchey successfully pushed the Administration to expand its declaration.  Hinchey has also worked to help New York's farmers recover from the flooding, announcing $2.25 million in federal farm aid in August and working for additional funding for the Emergency Watershed Program, which relieves imminent hazards to life and property caused by floods, fires, windstorms, and other natural occurrences.  

Health, Education and Public Safety
Hinchey has taken advantage of his position as a member of the House Appropriations Committee to increase the federal government's investment in Orange County's health care providers, educational institutions and public safety facilities, including:

  • Newburgh Head Start:  Hinchey worked with the Department of Health and Human Services to secure capital funding to develop the vacant former St. Mary School into the Joyce Carey Center, and to renovate an outdoor space as a playground.  The Newburgh Head Start program provides early childhood education programs for 227 three- and four-year-old children in the City of Newburgh. 
  • Benjamin A. Gilman Institute:  The House Appropriations Committee provided $1 million in the 2005 fiscal year for the Benjamin A. Gilman Institute for Political and International Studies, to be housed at Orange County Community College. 
  • St. Luke's Cornwall Hospital Emergency Room Expansion:  In the 2005 fiscal year appropriations bill, Hinchey secured $250,000 to install a state-of-the-art CT scanner in the expanded Kaplan Family Center for Emergency Medicine at the St. Luke's Newburgh campus.
  • SUNY Orange Newburgh Campus:  Hinchey strongly supports expanding Orange County Community College's Newburgh extension campus, and has worked to provide federal funding for the expansion.  In 2004, he secured a $250,000 earmark to expand the Newburgh extension center, got an additional $400,000 for the project in 2005, and $100,000 in 2006.  Hinchey has aggressively advocated the siting of Newburgh's expanded OCCC branch on lower Broadway, which would provide an anchor of community revitalization that would ripple throughout the city.
  • "Weed and Seed" Programs:  Working with the U.S. Department of Justice, Hinchey has announced federal funding from the Weed and Seed Program for the City of Newburgh.  The Weed and Seed Program focuses on "weeding out" violent crime and gang activity while "seeding" the community with youth services.  The City of Newburgh received $425,000 in grants from 2005-2006.
  • Youth at Risk Program:  Hinchey earmarked $150,000 in federal appropriations for the Kingston-Newburgh Enterprise Community (KNEC) to administer a Youth at Risk Program in the Cities of Kingston and Newburgh and provide grant funding to local community-based organizations that are working with area youths.  Funding will be targeted to organizations with a proven track record of providing educational, conflict-resolution, self-discovery and physical activities to local children and adolescents with the goal of helping them make healthier life choices and steering them away from drugs, gang activity, and violence.
  • Middletown Police Department Technology Upgrades:  Hinchey provided $65,000 to the City of Middletown Police Department in a 2006 appropriations bill for a much-needed project to upgrade the computer terminals and network of the department.  The improvements will allow the department to upgrade to a more effective Windows-based records management system and computerized dispatch.  The upgrade also gives the department the capability to interface with the other police departments in Orange County to share information and more effectively fight crime.
  • Safe School/Healthy Students Initiative, Middletown:  In July 2006, Hinchey announced that the Enlarged City School District of Middletown was awarded a $1.9 million federal grant for a wide-ranging program that will help create a safer learning environment, promote healthy childhood development, and prevent youth violence and drug use.  The funds come from a joint program implemented by the U.S. Departments of Education, Justice, and Health and Human Services.  The Middletown grant is one of only 19 grants awarded nationally.  This highly competitive grant program, known as the Safe School/Healthy Students Initiative, attracted 485 applications from around the country.

Historic and Environmental Preservation 
As a national leader in environmental and historic protection, Hinchey's efforts have always begun in his own backyard.  The Hudson Valley's most important assets are its natural resources and historic treasures, but Hinchey knows that it takes hard work and smart planning for communities to preserve the quality of life in our region.  He has supported these efforts, and his key projects in the 109th Congress included:

  • Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area:  As the creator of the Heritage Area, which is tasked with protecting, promoting and interpreting the Hudson Valley's rich historic, cultural and industrial importance, Hinchey has continued to champion the program and provide it with federal funds, garnering more than $1 million in 2004-2005, with an additional $500,000 in 2006.  In 2004, Hinchey hosted a day-long Heritage Area Summit at the Wallace Center in Hyde Park, resulting in recommendations to increase signage for historic sites, identifying revenue sources for ongoing restoration work, using the Internet to create virtual tours and coordinating operating hours of sites.
  • American Revolution Anniversary Legislation:  Hinchey's legislation to commemorate the 225th anniversary of the American Revolution was enacted and he set aside $200,000 in an Interior Appropriations earmark to fund the implementation of this commemorative project, which will highlight the Hudson Valley's role in the founding of the nation. 

NYRI Power Line Proposal
Hinchey has been a vociferous opponent of New York Regional Interconnection's (NYRI) proposal to construct a high voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission line from Oneida County to Orange County.  In May 2006, Hinchey wrote to the U.S. Department of Energy, calling on the agency to reject a request for a special federal designation for NYRI that could expedite and facilitate the power line construction.  NYRI requested that the DOE designate a 200-mile corridor running from Marcy to New Windsor as a National Interest Electric Transmission Corridor (NIETC), which could preempt New York State's authority over the review and approval of transmission lines, and would directly conflict with an existing federal mandate to preserve a scenic and environmentally important part of the state.  Hinchey opposed this designation based on the fact that one of the two currently proposed routes for the transmission lines runs through the federally protected Upper Delaware Scenic and Recreational River corridor.  The following month, the Department of Energy agreed and denied NYRI's request for an early designation.  Hinchey also submitted testimony to the New York State Assembly's Standing Committee on Energy strongly opposing the NYRI proposal and highlighting how federal and state deregulation of the electricity industry has set the stage for this and other similar proposals.

Middletown Trash Transfer Proposal
Hinchey has led the opposition to the proposed construction of a private, solid waste transfer station in the City of Middletown.  Immediately after the proposal was reported, Hinchey sent a letter to the heads of the federal Surface Transportation Board (STB) requesting their intervention in the matter and followed up with a meeting on March 15 with STB officials.  The congressman also cosponsored legislation in the House that would explicitly prevent rail operators from using federal railroad preemptions to site waste transfer station facilities on their property without local and state reviews and regulation.
Hinchey also submitted testimony to a House panel investigating the impact of such stations across the country.  He told the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure's Subcommittee on Railroads that Chartwell International, the company that has proposed a rail waste transfer station in Middletown, is misreading federal law in order to advance its plans.  Hinchey said Chartwell is wrong when it claims that federal law exempts the company from having to get approval for the proposed station from local and state authorities and asked the committee to help clarify the law that Chartwell is misinterpreting.
Hinchey's efforts to block the transfer station culminated in June 2006 in a successful amendment to the House-passed version of the Transportation-Treasury Appropriations bill which clarifies that Congress did not intend for rail transfer stations, such as the one Chartwell International had previously announced for the City of Middletown, to be developed without local and state review.
Chartwell announced at the end of September that it was no longer interested in processing trash in the City of Middletown and is working towards a compromise with the City of Middletown to advance a business plan to ship other commodities.  Hinchey's office facilitated discussions between the City of Middletown and Chartwell on such a compromise that would allow economic development in the City without the threat of garbage processing and shipping.
PCB Cleanup
For decades, Hinchey has led the fight to begin the cleanup of PCB contamination in the Hudson River and hold General Electric accountable for its pollution.  When GE and the Bush Administration's Environmental Protection Agency have tried to stall the process, Hinchey pushed harder.
When GE inserted a provision into legislation in 2005 that would have stalled the cleanup while another National Academy of Sciences (NAS) dredging study was conducted, Hinchey negotiated a deal to ensure that the study could not delay dredging in the Hudson River.  In addition, Hinchey also negotiated changes in the direction of the study to make it more balanced.
In April 2006, Hinchey met with Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Stephen Johnson to lobby for the agency's support of a real-time monitoring system that would continuously track the levels and locations of PCB contamination in the Hudson River throughout the cleanup process.  He secured a promise from Johnson that the agency would look for ways in which they could possibly fund a real-time monitoring system. 

Indian Point
Deeply concerned about the overall safety of the Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant, Hinchey introduced legislation with several of his New York House colleagues that would require the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to conduct an Independent Safety Assessment (ISA) of the facility.  The measure would also force the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to explain why it has approved an evacuation plan for Indian Point that has been rejected by the vast majority of local leaders.

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