On August 23, U.S. Rep. Jason Crow, now in his third term representing Colorado’s 6th Congressional District, paid a visit to the Cherry Hills Village Mayor and City Council, accompanied by members of his local and Washington, D.C. staff
Crow talked about his constituent services team, headed up by Terrell Horton, who can be reached at Terrell.Horton@mail.house.gov. The congressman encouraged constituents to contact that group if they have, “issues that involve the I.R.S., Social Security benefits, Veterans’ benefits, Medicaid, Medicare, any situation in which you aren’t getting money or benefits to which you are entitled from an agency of the federal government,” adding, “Since I’ve been in office, we’ve closed over 5,000 cases and returned over $17,000,000 that was owed to constituents.”
He also talked about community project funding (CPF) that was re-instituted in the Congress in 2021. Crow emphasized that unlike earmarks, discontinued ten years earlier after they were shown to be used for sometimes highly questionable purposes, CPF includes “a ton of oversight,” and fully transparency. “All these requests are posted on Members of Congress’ websites,” he explained, continuing, “There are very stringent criteria about who is eligible to apply. The application and review process is based on the notion that if the government is going to spend money for services, the representative for the community is best situated to help direct that money.”
He went on, “One percent of discretionary funding is allocated to CPFs. That allows me to see where the largest needs are and direct the money.”
Last year, Crow said, he was able “to get $21 million in funding for 16 projects focused on mental health, domestic violence response, police training and equipment, and even a new kennel for the K-9 unit of the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Department.” Other uses of CPF funding in Crow’s 6th Congressional District included, “Several million dollars to help build the new Aurora Mental Health Facility and $1.5 million for the Cherry Creek School District’s new Traverse Academy for students in grades four to 12 struggling with serious mental health challenges. Our areas of focus during the past two years have been community safety, infrastructure, and mental health,” he shared.
Using the normal appropriations process, Crow told the council that he was able to get $20 million, which was matched by the state, to construct the new I-70 and Picadilly Street interchange, currently under construction in east Aurora.
CHV Mayor Katy Brown brought up the failed land use bill that was proposed by Governor Polis during the late days of the 2023 legislative session and, she said, “will be making a return” (in the 2024 legislative session), noting that it is “an enormous issue for a city like CHV.”
Mayor Brown pointed out, “We know that affordable housing is a problem…but, a 2.5-acre vacant lot in CHV just sold for $4.2 million; it’s not possible to turn land like that into affordable housing.” She asked Crow to exert any influence he could to prevent a repeat of what happened during the last legislative session when the cities were at cross-purposes with the state. Crow acknowledged that there is a conflict between the desire of state officials to provide housing that people can afford to buy and the legitimate concerns of cities like CHV.
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