Federal Way’s D.C. delegation reviews funding priorities

A delegation from Federal Way will be traveling to Washington, D.C., in March to participate in the National League of Cities and to advocate to secure federal funding. The group will also attend planned meetings with congressional leaders to build relationships and share future city priorities.

Federal Way City Council members discussed what to request funding for at the Finance, Economic Development, Regional Affairs Committee (FEDRAC) meeting on Jan. 28.

The recommendations from VanNess Feldman include requesting Congressionary Discretionary Spending (CDS) dollars on a Mobile Incident Command Vehicle at a cost of $2.25 million, and support with relocating the Day Center at a cost of $2.5 million.

The City of Federal Way has continued its engagement with VanNess Feldman to “support advocacy of Federal Way’s priorities to our Federal Legislative Delegation.”

VanNess supports with lobbying efforts and guidance on what priorities are most likely to successfully be awarded funding. At the FEDRAC meeting, Richard Agnew of VanNess was on hand to present the recommendations and answer council questions.

Legislative priorities are determined by both the actual priorities of the city as well as the likelihood of getting funding based on the current priorities of the federal government.

“The new administration has drastically different priorities than the prior administration,” Agnew said. “President Biden’s administration was really focused on clean energy and environmental justice…they funded a lot of programs with extra funding. You might remember the Inflation Reduction Act had probably triple the normal amount of spending.”

In contrast, he said when it comes to the Trump administration, one of the “first things that the president did in office was issue these Executive Orders that I’m sure you’ve heard about, limiting funding for those types of programs,” as well as further complexities added by ongoing court battles over the rammifications of some of these orders.

Despite the “heightened scrutiny of Republicans being in power and wanting to reduce government spending across the board,” he said that they are “hopeful that there’s still going to be opportunities to apply for these things.”

These funding requests go through a complex and lengthy process before actually being funded. Even if they are earmarked for Federal Way, agencies that allocate the funds still have to develop and open up applications, which the city still needs to complete.

For example, two years ago, Federal Way requested funds toward the Town Center 3 (TC3) development project in the city center at the former Target site. Agnew explained to the council that thanks to Congressman Adam Smith, the city has now received that earmark for $850,000 and the application process is currently in progress to finalize those funds.

Last year’s funding success resulted in “an earmark that Senator Murray put forward on helping to rehab the Community Center,” Agnew said, “but that bill is not completed yet.”

In addition to the two earmark requests, the legislative delegation also plans to share the city’s goals around creating a Healthcare Continuum Hub, increasing child care capacity and creating an international business soft landing campus. The city also has a variety of transportation projects and parks funding, specifically the Federal Way Community Center rehabilitation project that the delegation wants to share with congressional leaders on the trip.

The delegation party will include: Mayor Jim Ferrell, Council President Linda Kochmar, Councilmember Lydia Assefa-Dawson, Councilmember Paul McDaniel, Councilmember Susan Honda, Councilmember Jack Walsh, Economic Development Director Tanja Carter and Amy Glandon, executive assistant to the council.

The legislative priorities will be further discussed at the Feb. 18 city council meeting after being forwarded by the committee.