Tuesday, March 10, 2015
Member Only Board of Directors Meeting
San Bernardino Community College District
114 S. Del Rosa Drive
San Bernardino, CA 92408
Minutes
Present: Deborah Barmack, Peter Barmack, Carole Beswick, Tom Brickley, Mike Burrows, Ken Coate, Allison Ellingson, Scott Hofferber, Mark Kaenel, Lowell King, John Mirau, John Prentice, Brian Reider, Susan Rice, Kristine Scott, Wendy Strack, Carlos Valdez, Steve von Rajcs, Phil Waller, Hassan Webb and Janet Weder.
Guests: Ed Lasak
Announcements: 1) If you have one, remember to bring your Metro SmarTrip card as the group often travels by the Metro system in D.C. An e-mail will be sent to the D.C. participants with further information about accommodations, schedule, etc. Washington, D.C. participants should plan to attend an organizational meeting held at 8 a.m. on Monday morning in the lobby of the Palomar Hotel for a briefing and schedule.
M/S/P: Minutes from March 3, 2015.
Committee Chairs & Co-Chairs summarized the following 2015 federal issues:
Air Quality
- Encourage enhanced federal role in reducing emissions from intrastate and international goods movement vessels.
- Encourage Inland Empire legislators to develop a strategy to avoid the loss of transportation funding resulting from recent EPA proposals to adopt more stringent standards for ground-level ozone.
Economic Development
- Support Reauthorization of the Authority of the Export-Import Bank of the United States to assist the continued growth and expansion of small business manufacturing and employment through exporting.
- Support Congressional efforts to encourage return of Ontario International Airport to local control.
Education
- Support Pell Grants, making it possible for all eligible students in higher education, including public, private, for-profit and community colleges, to receive grants.
- Support FAFSA prior-year income data use to increase the number of students who fill out FAFSA forms, thereby increasing the number of students who attend college.
- Support proposed reform or reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, also known as the No Child Left Behind Act.
Environment
- Support H.R. 291 and S. 176, Water in the 21st Century Act.
- Support H.R. 594, Waters of the United States Regulatory Overreach Protection Act of 2105, to halt a proposal by the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers until proper coordination with local stakeholders is undertaken.
- Request that the Department of Fish & Wildlife coordinate with local agencies when making resource policy decisions, including doing expanded cost/benefit analysis.
- Support Desert Conservation and Recreation Act. Continued discussion among stakeholders will be productive.
Homelessness
- Support the Homeless Children and Youth Act that will expand the definition of homelessness, allowing approximately 900,000 homeless children and families nationwide to access federal assistance programs.
Transportation
- Enact long-term surface transportation legislation with appropriate funding levels and additional streamlining provisions to support the nation’s current and emerging infrastructure needs.
- Develop a dedicated federal fund source to resolve goods movement issues and encourage stakeholder participation in plan development throughout the full corridor.
- Support funding for critical transportation projects and partner with State and local agencies to develop multi-modal systems that link vital transportation corridors.
- Support continuation of TIFIA loans which greatly leverage scarce federal resources available for transportation projects.
- Implement project delivery streamlining changes that can deliver mobility improvements to commuters more efficiently.
The priority issues will be
- Encourage Inland Empire legislators to develop a strategy to avoid the loss of transportation funding resulting from recent EPA proposals to adopt more stringent standards for ground-level ozone.
- Support Reauthorization of the Authority of the Export-Import Bank of the United States to assist the continued growth and expansion of small business manufacturing and employment through exporting.
- Enact long-term surface transportation legislation with appropriate funding levels and additional streamlining provisions to support the nation’s current and emerging infrastructure needs, including a dedicated federal fund source to resolve goods movement issues.
- Support H.R. 594, Waters of the United States Regulatory Overreach Protection Act of 2105, to halt a proposal by the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers until proper coordination with local stakeholders is undertaken.
Meeting adjourned at 8:38a.m.