Infrastructure projects in Oregon's 4th District are chosen for federal funding, but there's a caveat

U.S. Rep. Val Hoyle has announced she’s secured over $16.6 million in federal funding for community infrastructure projects across Oregon’s 4th district. But, the funding announcement comes with a caveat.

Each year, members of Congress are allowed to nominate up to 15 local projects in their district for Community Project Funding. If Congress passes the final appropriations legislation and they are signed into law, the funding becomes available.

Hoyle—A Springfield Democrat—has successfully secured projects for funding such as affordable housing in Douglas and Lincoln counties, updates to the Curry County Jail, and a seafood workforce training facility on the Oregon coast.

One approved project in Lane County is an upgrade to the Mapleton Water District’s drinking water storage tanks. Board co-chair Art Donnelly said the district is pleased to make it to the Appropriations Committee’s short list–-but funding is far from guaranteed. It will depend upon the full Congress.

“If there is another continuing resolution to pass a budget—the same way as happened earlier in 2025—that’s it,” Donnelly said. “It doesn’t matter what’s happened already—we won’t get any money.”

Mapleton Water District has been here before. In April, over a million dollars of congressionally approved funding—tapped for water system upgrades—was eliminated. Since then, the district has been scrambling to find replacement funding sources.

Tiffany Eckert

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KLCC

Donnelly said the water tanks targeted for refurbishment with Community Project Funding have exceeded their service life.

“Combined, they need about a million dollars in work to extend their service life out another ten years,” he said. “Either that or we’re soon going to be without water storage all together.”

Donnelly said Hoyle’s office has been “realistic” with them about the prospects for 2026 funding bills and how things could go in Washington D.C.

“Things aren’t normal right now,” Donnelly said.

Cheri Brubaker, Field Representative for Hoyle, made clear in a correspondence to project sponsors that the appropriations are not a done deal.

“While this is an important milestone, this funding will only become available if Congress passes a full-year appropriations bill," Brubaker wrote. "If Congress instead passes a full year Continuing Resolution, as it did earlier this year, it’s extremely unlikely this project will receive funding.”

A Continuing Resolution (CR) is a temporary funding measure to keep the federal government operating when it has not been able to pass all of its regular appropriations bills by the start of the new fiscal year. Basically, it's a stopgap measure to avoid a government shutdown.

The House Committee on Appropriations has approved funding for all 15 projects on Hoyle’s list. If Congress finalizes the annual appropriations bills in 2026, project sponsors will be asked to submit formal grant applications. That means funding might not come through until late 2026 or early 2027.

Not waiting around

The situation is different for another of the funding proposals on Hoyle's list.

The Oregon Coast Community College is developing new programs focused on maritime trades, and soon will be breaking ground on a facility to support them. Construction of the trades education facility is primarily funded via a bond measure approved by Lincoln County voters in 2024.

College officials are hopeful some additional funding, to the tune of $1 million, will come from the appropriations bill. But they know there’s no guarantee of that happening.

"We’re not counting these chickens yet,” said Dan Price, vice president of engagement at Oregon Coast Community College. “What they tend to do instead is to pass things called continuing resolutions, and none of these extra congressional spending requests make it through on a continuing resolution. So the odds are that this might not happen."

The college isn’t waiting around to see if Congress approves the funding. They’ve scheduled a groundbreaking for their new trade center next month in Newport. If all goes as planned, the facility will open in the fall of 2027.

The Oregon Coast Advanced Technology & Trades Center will offer students the opportunity to explore areas of study related to marine diesel mechanics, marine refrigeration systems, and aquaculture technician training.

In the process of planning for the new facility, OCCC officials reached out to members of the local maritime industry to see where they needed help.

“100% of surveyed respondents, captains, boat and vessel owners, identified a lack of diesel and refrigeration technicians as limiting factors in their operations,” said Price.

The majority of surveyed respondents also agreed to offer pre-apprenticeships for students on board their vessels. “To us, that was overwhelming support,” Price said.

The end goal for these new programs is to keep seafood and maritime opportunities in local economies, rather than sending it to other cities for processing.

For example, Price noted that the current system will sometimes send seafood caught on the Oregon coast up to Washington.

“Think of the footprint of driving a crab to Seattle, processing it, and driving the crab meat back,” he said. “The more capability we can build here, then the more value we can keep in our local economy, the more local seafood we can see consumed here.”

Full list

2026 Community Project Funding projects and their recipients throughout Oregon’s 4^th Congressional District are listed here: