In the News

The Bi-State Reinvestment Corridor, a project looking to make sustainability and infrastructure improvements on both sides of the state line, has gained $5.6 million in grant funding, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II announced Wednesday.

The Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) Grant from the United States Department of Transportation will be used to fund planning for the corridor, which stretches a 24-mile, zero-emissions transit route from Village West in Wyandotte County, Kansas, to Independence, Missouri.

President Biden signed into law today a $280-million spending package for American semiconductor manufacturing.

The investment is designed to make the nation more competitive with China.

U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids believes the law may help create new jobs in the Kansas City region.

Davids met with local technology and manufacturing leaders Tuesday to discuss how to make the most of the CHIPS legislation.

The National Science Foundation awarded $1,487,766 to Johnson County Community College's STEM Scholars Program.

Sharice Davids, Kansas 3rd District State Representative, announced Thursday, July 21 the program will help assist high achieving, low income students with financial need pursuing degrees in STEM.

The project hopes to provide 54 students with scholarships in the next six years for associate degrees with plans to continue on to a four year university.

Monday and Tuesday this week, the Olathe Public Schools Foundation and groups of volunteers are preparing for school supplies drive distribution by stuffing more than 2,000 backpacks with supplies needed to head back to school.

Throughout the summer, the foundation has been accepting donations through public drive drop boxes and by check to its annual school supplies drive. The foundation usually spends about $30,000 in all on the program on top of whatever is donated during the summer.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, travelers trying to get passports have had significant issues.

But now, the government is working on getting them done faster.

In Overland Park, Kansas, Stacy Drake applied for her passport in early March so she could go on a company trip booked to Switzerland in July.

She even sprung for the expedited service, which is supposed to take just five to seven weeks.

"Others were getting theirs back fairly quickly," Drake said.

But months later, there was still no sign of her passport.

Kansas officials and congressional leaders celebrated the unveiling Wednesday of a statue of aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart in the U.S. Capitol.

U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids, from the 3rd District, said Earhart is best known as the first woman to fly solo nonstop across the Atlantic Ocean, but she was also a military nurse, social worker, author, "and a woman who really was breaking the glass ceiling on a field that was dominated by men at the time."

U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids acted as host to U.S. Department of Agriculture Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs Jenny Lester Moffitt in Kansas' 3rd District to highlight lowering costs for processing, packaging and consumer purchasing of locally sourced meats.

Rep. Davids serves on the U.S. House Agriculture Committee which oversees USDA and its Meat and Poultry Supply Chain initiative.

Kansas representative Sharice Davids visited the Gardner wastewater infrastructure project Monday, July 11 with Mayor Todd Winters and Jim Pruetting, city administrator.

The project was recently approved for federal funding to create a new space for residential and commercial development in the city. Gardner has the highest projected population growth rate in the county from now through 2030.

Davids said she was proud to support the wastewater infrastructure project.