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Dylan Reingold, County Attorney William K. DeBraal, Deputy County Attorney Kate Pingolt Cotner, Assistant County Attorney 134 Attorney's Matters - B. CC 5.1.18 Office of INDIAN RIVER COUNTY MEMORANDUM TO: Board of County Commissioners FROM: Kate Pingolt Cotner, Assistant County Attorney �V) DATE: April 25, 2018 ATTORNEY SUBJECT: Thank. You Letters to Members of Congress for the Hearing Titled "Examining Tax -Exempt Private Activity Bonds for All Aboard Florida's Brightline Passenger Rail System." BACKGROUND: In the past, All Aboard Florida has received two allocations of private activity bonds C'PAB"), including $600 million for Phase I of the Brightline project on November 22, 2016, and $1.15 billion for Phase Il on December 20, 2017. Last week, on April 19, 2018, the U.S. House Subcommittee on Government Operations held a hearing titled "Examining Tax -Exempt Private Activity Bonds for All Aboard Florida's Brightline Passenger Rail System." The purpose of the congressional hearing was to discuss' whether AAF was actually eligible to receive these allocations under the PAB program. While the hearing went very well, it concluded with more questions than answers. The members of the Subcommittee .on Government Operations tasked the United States Department of Transportation with providing additional information within 30 days to answer some outstanding questions and to shed more light on the most recent $1.15 billion allocation of PABs to All Aboard Florida. RECOMMENDATION: The County Attorney's Office recommends the Chairman of the Indian River County Board of County Commissioners send individual thank you letters to: Representative Mark Meadows, Representative Gerry Connolly, Representative William (Bill) Posey and Representative Brian Mast to show our appreciation of the referenced hearing. ATTACHMENT(S) Draft thank you letters. 265