U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) shared his priorities for public safety, transit and more during a virtual meeting Friday and conferred with Montgomery County Council members about the support they want from the federal government.
Here are some of the major takeaways from the meeting:
Van Hollen supports bringing ARPA-H to MoCo
County officials are making a bid to be the metro region’s home to the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, a new federal agency focused on biomedical research, MoCo360 reported Monday. And Van Hollen supports the county’s efforts.
“Like you, I would very much like to bring [ARPA-H] to Maryland. And obviously we have a natural ecosystem for that right here in Montgomery County,” he said.
Van Hollen encouraged officials to keep promoting the county as the best spot for the agency, and that they would be backed by Maryland’s congressional members.
Council President Evan Glass (D-At-Large) thanked Van Hollen for his support.
“Our location can’t be matched anywhere else,” Glass said.
And Councilmembers Natali Fani-González (D-Dist. 6) and Kate Stewart (D-Dist. 4) said they specifically can see a home for ARPA-H in North Bethesda.
Purple Line and WMATA improvements
During the meeting, Van Hollen said the Purple Line light-rail extension has been “badly managed” by the state. The estimated date for completion has been pushed to 2027, and he said the federal government will continue to support the project through the $1.7 billion Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act loan granted last year.
Van Hollen said the legislation reauthorized federal commitments to improving public transit systems, which should support Metro ridership.
“We’re trying to make sure that [Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority] has the resources they need to expand and to find the new cars,” Van Hollen said.
He said there needs to be reduced tension between WMATA and the Washington Metrorail Safety Commission in order to make needed improvements. “[That relationship] should not be adversarial.”
Police reform is a priority
In the wake of the killing of Tyre Nichols, Van Hollen said police reform is a must. He said the Senate had difficulty passing the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act in the last session, and the Nichols’ murder could potentially encourage more of a push to pass the bill, but localities need to look into what they can do in the meantime.
“So many of these situations are unnecessary, they escalate, and lead to unjust results or situations that clearly could be avoided” with 911 diversion, he said.
Van Hollen agreed to continue to work with members of the council’s public safety committee on mobile response units for mental health crises.
Addressing fentanyl crisis is multi-pronged approach
Councilmember Marilyn Balcombe (D-Dist. 2) was concerned about fentanyl abuse among county teens. The senator said Congress is working to address the supply of fentanyl and how it’s getting across the border—mostly through legal border crossings and not through illegal immigration, Van Hollen said—but also how to confront addiction.
“We need to do our very best to prevent our residents from, number one, getting addicted in the first place, and number two, provide opportunities for people to handle their addiction. We need a health model for that. We did provide more resources and authority to use Medicaid reimbursement, federal reimbursement for medical intervention,” Van Hollen said.
Balcombe and Van Hollen agreed that it’s important to focus this messaging on teens.
