We are delivering for this project.

To the federal delegation, I'm so grateful that Congressman Sarbanes is here.

I also called Senator Ben Carden um the other day to share the good news.

There's not a lot of good days of good news in this job.

Senator Van Holland, you didn't tell me that when I first ran.

But he was thrilled and he wished he could be here today.

I want to give him thanks and credit as well.

Um it's been said that that Mayor Littman um has taken this project and been so thoughtful and so strategic as we met this critical moment.

And I too received that SOS text message in February.

Um being on the Armed Services Committee, the Naval Abor Naval Academy Board along with uh Senator Van Holland, he asked, can we involve the Navy?

And so uh that was my role to play in this orchestra of support that we all lent here is to call the Pentagon to call the Navy and remind them that the rising seas will also impact the readiness of our United States Naval Academy.

And they made a call as well.

There were so many calls that were made in the month, Mr.

Mayor, since you sent that text message.

And I just want to thank you for your vision and your commitment.

We're gonna hear in a minute from uh Secretary Strickland um from MDE, who has also been just a champion of this throughout multiple administrations.

I want to thank you for your support.

You're also on our call sheet any time we get a major flood, so I want to thank you and your team for that.

Um and without further ado, I want to thank my predecessor who um has has been dedicated and focused to this work uh for his 18 years serving in the United States Congress.

I'm so grateful to be able to call him and turn to him for advice more often than I thought I would uh in this Congress.

But I'm so grateful to my friend Um Congressman John Sarvanes.

Thanks very much, Sarah.

This this is a great day.

I'm gonna be brief.

I promise, you know, if you let a former member of Congress up to a podium, they could go forever.

Um but uh first of all, let me salute Team Maryland, uh Senator Van Holland, Congresswoman Sarah Elfith, representative of the third district of Maryland.

I love saying that to Jared, uh to Stewart, to everybody who's been part of this.

I also want to give a shout out to to Gavin Buckley.

Um I got a lot of SOS from Gavin over the years.

Um so I've got a whole text string there, but thank you, Jared, for kind of picking up the ball and and carrying it.

It means so much to Annapolis, it means so much uh to Ann Arnold County, to the state.

This is an example of people coming together in a very, very powerful way.

This was a Rubik's Cube from the beginning.

I mean, it had so many different and continues to have so many different interlocking parts that require special attention.

Um so getting these resources finally over the finish line is just it's it's a huge win.

And it demonstrates, I think, and and you mentioned this here a moment ago, um, the resilience of the people of Annapolis.

I mean, stepping up, how to conceptualize this, what what would it mean to execute it, putting all the phases together that you're now gonna see kind of rolling out over time.

That that was a huge accomplishment.

And then the last thing I want to say is this kind of a project, this kind of a resilience project, um, in the context of what we know are gonna continue to be uh increasing challenges coming at us in terms of climate change and weather disruption and so forth is going to be a model for how you do these things around the country.

And Annapolis has always been a leader, it's always been a model.

It's always kind of uh taken the lead nationally on innovative creative approaches.

This is another example of that.

Um it's gonna be a tough slog through the execution, uh, but I know one that's gonna be successful.

So congratulations to the people of Annapolis, to to Team Maryland, to everybody who got us to this point, is gonna keep moving it forward.

And obviously, very much um at the reins for this process uh going forward is going to be uh Mayor Littman.

I want to thank him for all his great work and bring him up.

Thanks.

Good morning.

Thank you.

My name is Mayor Jared Littman, and on behalf of the city council members and I, it is our great honor and pleasure to thank and receive the $33 million plus the two and a half million dollars for FEMA.

And I just I am so relieved, frankly.

I know uh your my sleep isn't everyone's concern, but I've been sleeping a lot better the past couple nights, uh knowing that this money was uh is coming.

And this is the obviously the evolution of work from so many individuals, and they've been mentioned, but I just want to point out how our city staff continue to slog away at the financial, the technical, the environmental reviews, meeting every deadline, answering questions from FEMA.

It was a long process, and it seemed to evolve, and they stepped up and they've met all the uh burdens and and uh requests.

And their dedication has absolutely ensured our success.

To go over the funding of this huge engineering and infrastructure project, we have 24 million dollars from the concession agreement related to the building of uh Hillman Garage, 10 million dollars from the state of Maryland, and I I see uh our delegate, uh uh delegate Jones, delegate Baylor, and our uh state Senator uh Henson being represented here.

4.8 million dollars in congressional earmarks, although not called earmarks anymore, two million dollars from the county, and today's 33 billion plus the two and a half million from FEMA, plus the city's bond money to ensure and that we now have all the funding in place to see this project through.

Right.

Woo!

That was amazing.