RE “LYNCH’S wife tied to agencies he won grants for’’ (Page A1, Nov. 10): As the Globe is aware, I sponsor appropriations for numerous deserving communities, nonprofits, and local companies throughout the Ninth Congressional District. A diabetes clinic for a hospital in Dorchester; autism funding in Randolph; education, job readiness, career counseling, mammography equipment, and clean fuel buses in Brockton; water treatment and sports facilities in Walpole; roads and transportation infrastructure in Avon, Braintree, West Roxbury, Milton, and Norwood; education in Canton, Westwood, and Holbrook - the list goes on, and is publicly available. I rely on local communities and nonprofits to let me know what their focus is and what their priorities are - not the other way around.
While you were right to point out that the Gavin Foundation and the South Boston Community Health Center were the only two organizations in my district that received federal appropriations for substance abuse prevention and treatment, you failed to mention that they were also the only programs that requested substance abuse funding. Equally important is that 85 percent of the residents served by the Gavin Foundation are from outside South Boston. This is not an effort to secure funds for one program over another but rather an attempt to stop what your own newspaper reports as a “public health epidemic’’ in our state.
Many of these projects were supported by my predecessor, Joe Moakley, and I am proud to continue to secure federal funding for my entire district. When families are mended, we all benefit greatly from healthy, productive citizens. This was and will continue to be an honest effort to save young lives.
Stephen F. Lynch
US representative Democrat of South Boston
Boston 
