For A Full List of Local Projects Funds That Brown Secured, Click HERE
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Last night, the Senate passed a funding package that provides funding for essential priorities for American families. U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) was able to secure key wins for Ohio including in education, childcare, healthcare, the environment, science and research, agriculture, public safety, local projects and many more. It also includes a reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, and historic assistance to the Ukrainian people. The package passed the House earlier this week and now heads to the President’s desk to be signed into law.
“This is a bipartisan success for Ohio that builds on our work to create jobs, invest in workers and their families, and lower costs for Ohioans. We are making critical investments that our state needs to do everything from expanding manufacturing partnerships to cleaning up Lake Erie to supporting local communities and economic growth,” said Brown. “This will also get vital resources to the people of Ukraine, whose heroism and resolve have surprised and embarrassed Vladimir Putin, and inspired the world. This historic infusion of resources will help Ukrainians defend their country, provide humanitarian relief, and enforce the punishing sanctions the president has led the free world to impose on Russia.”
Brown secured priorities that will help create jobs, lower costs for families, and invest in Ohio communities. In addition, the bill includes significant funding increases for biomedical research and our public health infrastructure to support our continued fight against COVID-19 and address other urgent public health crises, including health disparities, maternal and infant mortality, addiction, and mental health.
Creating Jobs and Supporting Workers:
Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) program funding:
Brown secured $158 million for this program, $8 million above the FY 2021 level to help small- and medium-sized American manufacturers create and preserve jobs. This program is a public-private partnership consisting of MEP centers throughout all 50 states. Brown has been a strong supporter of the MEP, which provides approximately $5 million a year to Ohio’s seven MEP centers. These centers help small- and medium-sized manufacturers increase sales and achieve cost-savings.
Research Funding Support:
Cleaning Abandoned Mine Land:
The bill provides $122.5 million for the Abandoned Mine Land Economic Revitalization (AMLER) Program. The program helps reclaim abandoned mine land while promoting economic growth and good-paying jobs. Of this total, Ohio is estimated to receive $26.6 million in grants. Brown recently joined Interior Secretary Haaland to announce AMLER funds provided in the bipartisan infrastructure bill.
Supporting Workers:
The bill helps to create and sustain good-paying American jobs through investments in job training, apprenticeship programs, and worker protection, including:
Strengthen Enforcement of Unfair Trade:
Lowering Costs:
Improving Taxpayer Service:
The bill includes $675 million above the FY 2021 enacted level – the largest increase since 2001. This additional funding will help the IRS deal with the unprecedented backlog that is delaying taxpayer refunds, hire more people to answer the phone and assist taxpayers, and update their obsolete technology.
Increase in Grant Funding for the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) Program:
Brown secured $30 million in grant funding for FY2022. The VITA program provides support to free tax preparation sites that help individuals and families file their income tax returns. Brown has long fought to secure funding and support the VITA grant program, which was authorized for the first time when Brown’s VITA Permanence Act became law in 2019.
Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development:
Education and Child Care Funding:
Investing in Ohio Communities:
Military Construction, Veterans Affairs:
Lima’s Joint Systems Manufacturing Center (JSMC)
Homeland Security:
Public Safety:
Critical funding for NASA programs in Ohio:
Energy and Water:
$195 million to fund the Appalachian Regional Commission to promote economic and community development, education and job training, and critical infrastructure throughout the region.
$467 million is provided for cleanup at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon, an increase of $36.7 million over the prior fiscal year which will ensure that cleanup continues as planned. Brown fought to ensure that workers at Piketon receive the necessary funding to maintain workforce levels and keep cleanup on pace.
$348 million for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) which plays a critical role in restoring and reclaiming the Great Lakes and its tributaries: GLRI is a results-driven program, and this funding ensures that it has the resources it needs to address the most serious issues that threaten the ecological and economic wellbeing of the Great Lakes basin, including invasive species, pollution, and toxic contamination. This $320 million is the largest annual investment in the Great Lakes’ health, ecosystem restoration, and water quality, and has already helped combat harmful algal blooms, invasive species, and pollution in the Great Lakes.
Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF): The bill provides $900 million now permanently available from the LWCF as a result of enactment of the Great American Outdoors Act. These allocations include $418 million for the federal program, $330 million for the state grants program, and $152 million for other non-federal grant programs. Brown cosponsored the legislation to permanently fund LWCF.
New NIOSH Facility in Cincinnati: The bill protects funding for the Cincinnati NIOSH facility, a project which Brown secured $110 million for, and includes requirements for the Department of Health and Human Services to provide quarterly reports on the ongoing project to keep Congress updated on its progress in completing the new facility.
$107 million for Local Projects across Ohio:
Brown and his office worked with local entities across Ohio to
secure Congressionally Directed Spending (CDS) funding through the Senate
Appropriations Committee. Brown’s office offered a reliable, easily-accessible
and user-friendly program for local leaders across Ohio to submit CDS requests,
with the goal of using every tool available to get resources to Ohio
communities.
In addition, the omnibus spending bill includes landmark legislation to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA):
The bill reauthorizes VAWA through 2027, preserves advancements made in previous reauthorizations and includes a number of additional improvements to the current law. It also includes Brown’s Trafficking Survivors Housing Act of 2021, which would require the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development to study and report, in partnership with federal agencies, survivors, and the organizations that serve them, on the availability and accessibility of homelessness and housing services for survivors of trafficking. Brown reintroduced this bipartisan legislation in June 2021 and previously introduced it in 2019 and 2018.
Finally, the Bill Includes Essential Support for Ukraine And Our NATO Allies:
Humanitarian Assistance:
More than $4 billion to address the dire humanitarian needs of the hundreds of thousands of refugees who have fled Ukraine or have been displaced within Ukraine.
Defense Assistance:
Provides strong support to Ukraine and American allies and partners in the Baltics and Central and Eastern Europe so they can defend themselves against Russian aggression:
Economic Assistance:
The bill includes nearly $1.8 billion to flexibly respond to macroeconomic needs in Ukraine and its neighbors, including energy and cybersecurity efforts.
The bill provides $25 million to the U.S. Agency for Global Media to combat disinformation and $120 million for USAID Transition Initiatives to support local actors, such as activists and independent media, through flexible short-term assistance in Ukraine and promote accountability for Russian human rights violations
Sanctions Enforcement
Provides substantial new funding to the Departments of Treasury, Commerce, and Justice to implement and enforce tough, comprehensive new sanctions imposed on Russia and Belarus, to implement powerful new export controls limiting sophisticated technology to Russia, and to prepare for and respond to cyber threats.
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