House spending package includes over $1.5 million for Tree of Life rebuild, mental health care for Jewish community

The U.S. House passed a $460 billion spending package Wednesday that would avoid a shutdown and keep the government running through the next fiscal year.

As part of the package, the Pittsburgh region would receive over $28 million worth of community project funding.

That includes $1 million for the reconstruction project at the Tree of Life synagogue in Squirrel Hill and another $547,000 for trauma services related to the Pittsburgh Synagogue shooting and trial.

U.S. Reps. Summer Lee, D-Swissvale, and Chris Deluzio, D-Aspinwall, helped to secure the funding and voted in favor of the package. They said the money will fund about 30 community projects.

Deluzio said the funding will go to “better roads and transit service, funding for cops and firefighters, parks and housing, infrastructure and business district revitalization, and more.”

The Tree of Life Educational Space Rebuild will receive $1 million. The project, which started demolition in January, will include an educational space to teach about antisemitism and a memorial to the 11 victims killed during the mass shooting in 2018. The structure has sat empty since the shooting.

Lee said the project will “create a vital community gathering space to educate against antisemitism and white supremacy in all its forms — breathing life back into a community hub that has remained dormant following the tragic antisemitic attack.”

The 10.27 Healing Partnership will receive $547,000. The program provides trauma services to community members in the aftermath of the mass shooting.

“Federal funding has allowed us to provide counseling and programming, including during the recent trial, and each year at the Commemoration Ceremony,” said Maggie Feinstein, director of the 10.27 Healing Partnership. ”We are grateful.”

The regional funding allocation also includes:

• $1 million to rehabilitate the Allegheny YMCA building in Pittsburgh’s North Side

• $1.6 million to construct a sports and community performance space in Homewood

• $1 million to the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank

• $1.6 million for affordable housing project in Wilkinsburg

• $500,000 to replace a roadway bridge that runs over the Norfolk Southern railway in Irwin, and other projects.

• Etna will receive $3 million to build a mixed-used redevelopment that includes a new multi-municipal public library and community center.

“Etna Borough is thrilled to partner with the Etna Community Organization to bring back library service to our community which we lost long ago,” said Etna Borough Manager Mary Ellen Ramage. “This resource center is vital to providing opportunities for, and to, everyone in our community.”

The spending package bills head to the Senate, where they are expected to pass by Friday, according to The Associated Press. President Joe Biden has said he will sign the package of bills.