Posthumous Millender-McDonald funding for Long Beach port

Posthumous Millender-McDonald funding for Long Beach port The Port of Long Beach is set to receive millions in federal aid for dredging and construction, thanks in part to efforts by California representatives in Washington, D.C. to fulfill requests by Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald before she died.
   A longtime proponent of the port, Millender-McDonald died of cancer in late-April, leaving the port area she represented without a voice in the Capitol during this year's appropriations battles.
   Despite the fact that the money is less than the city asked for from Congress, city officials would not go so far as to say the four-months of no representation on the Hill were responsible.
   “Obviously, it posed unique difficulties, the tragedy of losing Juanita,” Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster told the Daily Breeze newspaper.
   According to reports, California's senatorial delegation and other Congress members joined together to push through Millender-McDonald's funding requests for the city and port.
   Included in the funding is from $2.5 million to $4.5 million for main channel dredging at the Port of Los Angeles, which sits adjacent to the Long Beach port. The dredging will allow larger ships to enter both ports, which together make up the busiest container port complex in the Western Hemisphere. The Port of Long Beach is also slated to receive about $5.7 million in federal funds for various construction projects.