WASHINGTON – Today Rep. Jim Cooper (TN-05) announced funding for American Baptist College, Meharry Medical School and a Jefferson Street Interstate Cap was included in the final omnibus spending agreement that passed the House.
The massive spending package is expected to be quickly passed by the Senate and signed into law by President Biden.
Last year, Members of Congress submitted specific requests for their districts, known as Community Project Funding, to be included in the annual congressional spending bills. Cooper secured $4,796,812 for these projects last summer. Final approval was delayed until agreement could be reached on an overall spending agreement. The approved projects in TN-05 included in the omnibus spending agreement are:
American Baptist College, in partnership with the Metro Historical Commission, to restore buildings on the campus of American Baptist College where many notable Civil Rights leaders received their education and training, as well as create a complementary Civil Rights walking tour of the campus to educate the public about the college’s significance and role in the Civil Rights story.
Meharry Medical School to fund a supercomputer cluster to support student- and faculty-specialized genomics research at their new School of Applied Computational Sciences.
Metro Nashville to construct a Jefferson Street Cap and Connector, an interstate cap located over I-40 from the D.B. Todd Blvd bridge to 17th Avenue North, which would help reconnect the North Nashville community and support revitalization of the historically significant Jefferson Street commercial district.
“I’m happy these projects were finally approved and will become law,” Rep. Jim Cooper said. “These projects are vital to making Nashville more inclusive and growing our community more equitably.”
