Rep. Jim Moran

Moran Pushes for Shuttle to Ease BRAC Traffic Burden

By Katie Pyzyk

Residents concerned about the influx of 1,200 government workers into the Barcroft neighborhood could see the addition of a shuttle to ease traffic congestion, if Rep. Jim Moran gets his way.

The Army National Guard had put in a request for shuttle service to the Pentagon Transit Center from Arlington Hall Station, but so far the additional service has not been granted.  Moran has now asked the Director of the Washington Headquarter Service to expedite the request.

The Arlington Hall Station shuttle already provides service from nearby Metro train stops to the National Guard facility. However, it currently doesn’t have access to the Pentagon Transit Center, despite a request for service in June 2009. Moran says that adding service between the Arlington Hall Station and the Pentagon will “undoubtedly reduce the use of single occupancy vehicles commuting to and parking near the bureau facility.”

There’s been an effort to come up with additional public transportation around Arlington Hall as 1,200 workers pour in due to the Base Realignment and Closure Act.  A parking structure was built to accommodate the added workers, but there is only one parking space for every four employees.

Residents have been petitioning for help to prevent commuters from Arlington Hall from spilling over into residential neighborhoods.  Also of concern is the potentially dangerous congestion on George Mason Drive near the complex.

BRAC coordinators are encouraging the new workers to use public transportation instead of driving, and are working with WMATA to increase the frequency of 22A buses in the area.  The addition of a shuttle from Arlington Hall Station to the Pentagon Transit Center would provide another transportation option for commuters, particularly those who use Metro trains.

Commuters who use WMATA’s 22A buses to Arlington Hall will pay the regular public bus fare. However, if the request for a shuttle to the Pentagon Transit Center goes through, Moran’s office says that service would be free to riders because it is provided by the Department of Defense.

 

Moran ‘Proud’ of Vote Against GOP Budget Plan

By ARLnow.com

Rep. Jim Moran says he’s proud to have been among the 190 legislators who voted against a Republican-backed plan to slash federal spending and balance the budget.

The bill passed the House of Representatives 234-190 last night, but faces long odds in the Senate and a presidential veto threat. President Obama and Democrats have called for a “balanced” national debt reduction bill that cuts spending while also raising some taxes.

I was proud to vote against the “Cut, Cap and Balance Act” tonight. The House Republicans have presented us with their vision for America’s future. This is a vision in which the country turns its back on the achievements of the last century and chooses not to invest in meeting the challenges of the next century.

The 18 percent spending cap mandated by the bill would return the government to spending levels not seen since the establishment of Medicare and Medicaid. This would necessarily result in unprecedented cuts in student loans and grants, transportation, education, environmental protection and enforcement, in other words, the physical and human infrastructure of our economy.

The bill also demands that in return for avoiding an economically disastrous default on our debt, we make $111 billion in immediate spending cuts, seriously increasing the likelihood of a double-dip recession.

As an appropriator I have learned that budgets are the firmest expression of our values. This is not the time for the Democratic Party to sacrifice our values, values held by a majority of the American people even in the face of opposition that has reached unprecedented levels of ideological radicalization. We must address our long-term deficits, but we must do so in a balanced manner, combining rational spending cuts and increased revenues.

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

New Restaurant Coming to Penrose Square — Restauranteur Cathal Armstrong is reportedly planning to open a new fish-and-chips restaurant on Columbia Pike, in the new Penrose Square development. The restaurant will be the second location for Old Town Alexandria staple Eamonn’s: A Dublin Chipper. In addition to Eamonn’s, Armstrong owns Alexandria eateries The Majestic, Restaurant Eve and Virtue Feed and Grain. [Eater, Pike Wire]

Galaxy Hut Expanding to Falls Church — The owner of Clarendon’s Galaxy Hut is planning on opening a new location on W. Broad Street in Falls Church. Much like the Clarendon location, the new Galaxy Hut will be a music and entertainment venue, in addition to a bar. [Washington Post]

Moran Holds Deficit Reduction Exercise — Nearly 300 people participated in Rep. Jim Moran’s “Principles and Priorities” national debt reduction workshop on Monday. Moran said he was “shocked” by two conclusions — the group’s near-unanimous desire to freeze defense spending and to gradually eliminate the home mortgage interest deduction. [Patch]

New Signs on Meade Street — There’s a new wayfaring sign for tourists on Meade Street, near the Iwo Jima memorial. The sign lists dozens of attractions in the Rosslyn area. [Ode Street Tribune]

BRAC Traffic Prompts Concerns for Barcroft Residents

By Katie Pyzyk

Barcroft residents are carefully watching the influx of some 1,200 government workers into their neighborhood as a result of the Base Realignment and Closure Act. Some neighbors are calling for action to mitigate what they claim are dangerous and disruptive traffic conditions.

The personnel are being added to the Army National Guard Readiness Center, in the Arlington Hall complex, at George Mason Drive and Route 50. Many of them are coming from Crystal City offices, but only a couple hundred have made the move so far. The bulk of staff members are expected to arrive mid-July. This flood of workers has some residents in surrounding neighborhoods worried about an increase in parking and traffic issues.

Although a new parking structure was built to accommodate the additional workers, per the National Capital Planning Commission’s specifications there is only one parking spot for every four workers. That’s creating concern about where all the new employees will park. There are already reports of more cars parked in neighboring residential areas, and residents would like to see that stop.

BRAC Project Coordinator Andrea Morris says she understands the parking issues. She is working with District 3 to increase patrols in the area to ticket anyone parked illegally on residential streets. The problem, according to Morris, is that most of the Barcroft neighborhood does not have zone parking restrictions, so there’s nothing to stop workers from using the vacant spots.

“It’s not a popular answer, it’s not one that is going to get a lot of rave reviews, but unfortunately, it happens to be a fact,” Morris said. “It’s a very, very hard statement for me to make because I hear their concerns.”

Morris says BRAC has partnered with WMATA to increase the frequency of the 22A buses, starting in August. That line should alleviate some of the parking headaches, because it is planned to work as a shuttle for the government workers and not to stop at every point along the bus line.

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Moran Invites Constituents to Examine Budget Choices

By ARLnow.com

As lawmakers in Greece could attest, tackling a large national budget deficit is a thankless job.

Either you make steep cuts that will inevitably draw the ire of many constituents, even your supporters, or you don’t cut enough and allow your country to gradually slip into the fiscal abyss.

Cognizant of the political challenges, nonprofit deficit hawks have stepped in to try to rally public support for tough budget choices by giving voters the chance to play congressman for a day — and thus experience the challenges themselves. One such exercise is coming to Arlington next week.

Rep. Jim Moran is teaming up with the nonpartisan Concord Coalition to host “Priniciples & Priorities,” described as an “interactive exercise in which participants team up to tackle the federal budget deficit by making many of the policy decisions facing lawmakers today.”

The event, which is open to members of the public who register online, will take place at the National Rural Electric Cooperative building in Ballston (4301 Wilson Boulevard), from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. on Monday, July 11.

Moran is not exactly known as a fiscal conservative, thanks in part to public remarks about “earmark[ing] a lot of money through the appropriations process.” Still, the long-time congressman acknowledges that “difficult choices must be made” regarding the budget.

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Keira Moran Needs Your Vote

By ARLnow.com

Rep. Jim Moran isn’t the only member of the Moran family who’s courting your vote. Keira Moran, the congressman’s granddaughter, needs your help to win an national songwriting contest.

Keira’s song “When I’m With You” is one of two finalists in an online competition on SmashTune.com. The 16-year-old T.C. Williams (Alexandria) High School student is neck-and-neck against her fellow finalist, 22-year-old Californian Lucia Sosa. Voting closes today at 2:00 p.m.

Rep. Moran has been campaigning for Keira and posting words of encouragement on the contest page.

“You’re an amazing talent Keira,” he wrote, via Facebook. “I’m so proud of you – not just because of your songwriting and other artistic gifts, but even more so because of what a truly good and kind person you are. I’m one lucky Grandpa!”

In addition to playing the piano, Keira is also the first chair cello in the T.C. Williams orchestra. See her perform other self-written songs here.

We’re turning off the comments to prevent the inevitable creep of politics into a basically non-political story.

Ribbon Cutting for New VT Research Center in Ballston

By ARLnow.com

Featuring next-generation internet connectivity, computational laboratories and multiple meeting and conference spaces, the new 144,000 square foot Virginia Tech Research Center building in Ballston (900 N. Glebe Road) celebrated its grand opening today.

Virginia Tech President Charles Steger, Rep. Jim Moran, and County Board Chairman Chris Zimmerman were on hand this afternoon for a ribbon cutting ceremony on the glimmering glass-and-steel building’s seventh floor.

Zimmerman kicked off the ceremony with references to the “human bandwidth” and “internet firepower” that the building brings to Ballston, Arlington’s science and technology hub. Dr. Steger spoke about the research already underway in the building, including research into military medical care, renewable energy and cyber security.

Calling Virginia Tech’s Ballston presence an “international center of excellence” and an “investment in our future,” Rep. Moran remarked on the benefits it will bring to the area and to the university.

“It will pay substantial dividends to Virginia Tech and enhance its mission to become one of the leading research institutions in the world,” he said. Moran added that it would be a mistake to cut federal research funding in the interest of deficit reduction, citing what he said was the need to supplement the “short term, bottom line” focus of corporate research.

USS Arlington Will Be Commissioned in Norfolk

By ARLnow.com

In a victory for Virginia’s congressional delegation, the Navy has announced that the USS Arlington will be commissioned at the Norfolk Naval Base.

Following word last week that ports outside of Virginia were being considered for the commissioning, the delegation wrote a letter to Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus, saying that it would a “mistake” to commission the Arlington anywhere other than Commonwealth.

“We applaud the Navy’s responsiveness and decision to commission the USS Arlington in the Commonwealth of Virginia,” the delegation said in a statement today. “Commissioning the ship in Virginia is the appropriate way to honor the bravery and sacrifice of the thousands of local police officers, fire fighters, Pentagon employees, emergency first responders and all who lost their lives on September 11, 2001.”

The delegation includes Rep. Jim Moran, Sen. Jim Webb, Sen. Mark Warner and other Virginia lawmakers.

Va. Delegation Calls for USS Arlington to be Commissioned in Norfolk

By ARLnow.com

Rumor has it that the Navy may be thinking of holding the commissioning for the USS Arlington somewhere other than Virginia — and that has the state’s congressional delegation crying foul.

“We have been informed that the Navy is considering commissioning the USS Arlington at several ports outside of the Commonwealth,” the delegation wrote in a letter sent today to Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus. “Given that the ship is named to honor the vital role Virginia played in responding to the attacks of September 11th, we believe it would be a mistake to commission the USS Arlington at any location outside of the Commonwealth of Virginia.”

The bipartisan letter was signed by Sen. Jim Webb, Sen. Mark Warner, Rep. Jim Moran, Rep. Frank Wolf, Rep. Eric Cantor and the rest of the Virginia delegation. Gov. Bob McDonnell has also been lobbying for the commissioning to be held in Norfolk, where the ship will be homeported.

The Arlington, an amphibious transport dock ship, was christened at the Northrop Grumman shipyard in Pascagoula, Miss. in March. The USS New York, another San Antonio-class ship named following the Sept. 11th attacks, was commissioned in New York City in 2009.

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Moran: Arlington an Example for the Nation — Rep. Jim Moran (D) says that Arlington’s transit-oriented growth sets an example for other communities to follow.  For communities currently lacking such infrastructure, Moran says that tax policy can be used to help entice developers to build near transit hubs. [WAMU]

Death Penalty May Be Dividing Line in Race — The death penalty may be a key difference between the two Democrats who are running for Commonwealth’s Attorney in Arlington. “The death penalty doesn’t have a place in a civilized society,” said one candidate, defense attorney David Deane, in a recent appearance. His opponent, Chief Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Theo Stamos, has previously said she supports capital punishment in certain circumstances. [Sun Gazette]

Public Access Idea for Comcast — In response to the news that the county is holding focus groups regarding the upcoming renewal of Comcast’s cable franchise in Arlington, one blogger has floated an idea for a different type of ‘public access’ channel. The idea: allow members of the general public to upload videos to a ‘staging server’ where they would be reviewed, screened for inappropriate content and then broadcast in rotation with other community-generated videos. [Ode Street Tribune]

Moran Acts to Renew Horse Slaughter Ban

By ARLnow.com

Rep. Jim Moran has inserted an amendment into an agricultural funding bill that will continue to ban federal inspections of horse meat. The ban effectively prevents the slaughter of horse meat for interstate or foreign export.

Moran’s office has issued the following press release about the amendment.

Congressman Jim Moran, Northern Virginia Democrat, successfully included an amendment to the Fiscal Year ’12 Agricultural Appropriations Act to eliminate funding for USDA inspection of horsemeat. By defunding federal inspections, the amendment will prevent the cruel practice of horse slaughter in the United States.

“Industrial slaughter of horses should not be condoned by the United States Government,” said Rep. Moran. “We have to put an end once and for all to this practice. These animals are a proud symbol of the American West, treasured by all for their beauty and majesty. They deserve to be cared for, not killed for foreign consumption.”

Identical language was overwhelmingly approved in 2006 and has been included in the Agricultural Appropriations bill every year when introduced in subcommittee. This year the language had been stripped out and the Moran amendment sought to reinstate it.

A ban on USDA inspections halts the issuance of certifications for horsemeat exports, which has stopped operations at horse slaughter facilities and prevented new facilities from opening. In addition to improving U.S. animal welfare, the Moran amendment will reduce federal spending by $5 million each year. The FY’12 Appropriations Act now heads to the floor for a full vote by the House of Representatives.

The amendment has received the support of the Animal Welfare Institute and the Humane Society of the United States.

“Adding millions of dollars to the federal budget to inspect foreign-owned horse slaughter plants would have been a step backwards for America’s iconic horses and a waste of tax dollars,” said Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of The Humane Society of the United States. “We are grateful to Congressman Jim Moran for leading the charge to restore this critical horse protection provision, and to the House Appropriations Committee for reining in this multi-million-dollar subsidy that would paved the way for the needless killing of American horses for foreign gourmands.”

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