Editor’s note: The following QuadCity Times news article by Ed Tibbetts is reprinted from Monday, January 13, 2014. The photo was added by thecity1.com.
A $1 trillion spending bill hammered out by U. S. House and Senate negotiators includes “robust” funding for new Federal prisons, according to area lawmakers, calling it a boost for the Thomson Correctional Center.
The bill also includes provisions said to help the Rock Island Arsenal.
The compromise bill is aimed at funding the Government through the end of September [2014], and it comes on the heels of a separate bill passed last month that set spending targets.
Senator Dick Durbin, D-IL, and Representative Cheri Bustos, D-IL, announced the provisions late Monday as the text of the 1582-page bill was released.
The stopgap measure currently funding the Government expires this week, so there will be pressure to move quickly on this funding bill.
The legislation does not specifically mention Thomson, but it includes $90 million for construction, acquisition, and modernization of Federal prisons.
More precise spending plans are due to Congressional committees within the month.
“Once this legislation is passed by Congress and signed into law, [Representative] Bustos and I will hold the Bureau of Prisons to their commitment to opening Thomson as soon as possible,” [Senator] Durbin said in a statement.
Federal Bureau of Prisons officials already have testified that opening the vacant prison is one of their top priorities.
The prison, about 50 miles north of the Quad-Cities, has been mostly vacant for years, but opening it would create about 1100 jobs, according to Government estimates.