Udall Foundation Reauthorization Act of 2023

Floor Speech

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Ms. BALDWIN. Mr. President, I am going to start where my vice chair left off by thanking and appreciating our incredible staff for the hard work and the long hours that they contributed to this product.

Then I want to join my vice chair in appreciating the heroic work of Patty Murray, our committee chair, and Susan Collins, our committee vice chair, for their leadership in ushering all 12 appropriations bills to the finish line.

I also want to thank Senator Capito for her approach and cooperation on the Labor-HHS-Education bill this year.

We started the fiscal year 2024 appropriations process nearly a year ago, including marking up 12 appropriations bills in an overwhelmingly bipartisan process last summer. The Labor-HHS-Education bill was reported out of committee 26 to 2, and I am very proud of that. The goal then was to produce bills free of extreme and partisan policies that could pass the House, pass the Senate, and be signed by the President, and that is what we are here to finish today.

The Labor-HHS-Education bill that is included in this package addresses some of our country's most pressing issues. It invests in our workers, our families, and our economy--from substance use and mental health programs to childcare, to biomedical research, to education programs and workforce training. This bill delivers for the American people. This year, we received 9,185 programmatic appropriations requests from Senators for important programs throughout this bill.

To Senators who might claim they didn't have a say in what is included in this bill, our doors have been open since the process began last year. We have tried to reflect the priorities of every Senator who has engaged in the appropriations process. Balancing the many competing priorities throughout the Labor-HHS-Education bill is difficult in any year, but this year was especially challenging because it includes less overall funding than it did last year. Consequently, this isn't the bill I would have written alone, but it honors the terms of the debt limit deal that was agreed upon last spring.

The Labor-HHS-Education bill included in this package is very much of a compromise, but despite the challenges we faced over many months in writing this bill, I am really proud of our finished product. It rejects proposals included in the House Labor-HHS-Education bill to completely eliminate critical programs. We saved programs such as those that are working to end HIV, ensured initiatives that increase access to contraceptives stay alive and well, and we kept programs in place that deliver support for moms and babies.

It rejected devastating cuts found in the House bill that would have gutted funding for educators and schools, gutted funding for biomedical research, gutted funding for Head Start, and gutted funding for Federal financial aid for college students and public health programs. So we rejected those devastating cuts. It also rejects dozens of extreme policy riders that would have restricted reproductive healthcare and women's freedom to control their own bodies as well as attacks on the LGBTQ community and workers' rights.

In doing so, this Labor-HHS-Education bill protects the vast majority of investments made in the last 2 years and, in some cases, builds upon them.

This bill addresses some of the most pressing needs that I hear about when I am traveling in my home State of Wisconsin. In Wisconsin right now, families are paying 20 percent of their income on childcare, on average, and that is for those who can afford and access it. Over half of Wisconsin is in what we call a childcare desert, meaning that, for every open childcare slot available in their communities, there are three or more children who need it.

I hear from families and businesses and educators about our dire need to invest in childcare, and I am proud to have done just that in this bill. This bill includes an increase of $1 billion for childcare and Head Start, building on our major gains in the past 2 years. And I want to recognize our full committee chair, Patty Murray, for making this such a high priority.

Look, I know that more needs to be done to fix our childcare system so that it works for families, providers, and our economy, but this is progress. This will help kids get the strong start that they deserve, get parents back into the workforce, and help our businesses get the talent that they need.

I am also proud that we are investing in our future generations' health. To cure the diseases that plague our families and communities, we successfully boosted lifesaving and life-changing biomedical research by $300 million. We are doubling down on Alzheimer's disease research because we need to find new treatments, preventions, and, ultimately, a cure. As cancer continues to devastate families of all stripes, I am proud to report that we have increased cancer research funding by $120 million. As we work to address the mental health crisis in our communities, we also increased funding for mental health research.

One issue near and dear to my heart is the issue of opioid use disorder. My mother struggled with addiction to prescription painkillers throughout her life. Sadly, my mother's story is all too common, and the opioid epidemic knows no bounds--geographic or ideological. But in recent years, this crisis has taken to new heights with the increased prevalence of synthetic drugs like fentanyl. While our country grapples with deadly poisonings and overdoses from fentanyl, this bill protects investments in substance use programs. As an increasing number of individuals, especially youth, are seeking crisis care, it includes an $18 million increase for the 9- 8-8 suicide prevention hotline that I was so proud to help create.

With more than 100,000 individuals on the organ transplant waiting list, this bill invests in modernizing the Organ Network and Transplantation Network to better serve those families and give those families more hope.

Accessing healthcare in our rural communities is often a challenge. I know we are acutely experiencing this in the western part of Wisconsin right now, and our bill includes targeted increases to rural health to help turn the tides.

Last but certainly not least, our legislation invests in our future. It protects funding for foundational K through 12 and postsecondary education programs that support students and educators. It increases funding for career and technical education while maintaining investments in workforce development programs to help prepare workers for good-paying jobs in in-demand careers. This will help people find careers that provide a stable, middle-class life and help grow our economy.

I wish we could have done more. I am disappointed that this bill isn't able to increase funding for family planning or include larger increases to any number of programs that truly meet the needs of families and communities, but given the hand that we were dealt, I am proud of the investments that we were able to make and protect in this bill.

Nearly 6 months into the fiscal year and nearly a year after we started this appropriations process by soliciting input from every Member of the Senate, it is past time for us to get serious. This bill does that, and I look forward to supporting its passage today.
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Ms. BALDWIN. Mr. President, over the last several days and weeks, I have heard a lot of discussion from some of my colleagues here in the Senate and in the House of Representatives about what they consider to be inappropriate congressionally directed spending projects. The majority of those projects appear to be objectionable simply because the organization involved provides services to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Americans.

First, let me say that all of the CDS projects identified in the Labor-HHS-Education bill were in the Senate bill that was reported out of the Appropriations Committee last summer by an overwhelming bipartisan vote of 26 to 2.

Second, and more importantly, I am deeply concerned about why these projects are being singled out. They are being singled out and discriminated against because they serve a particular group of Americans, a group of Americans whom every single one of us in this Chamber represents. We all have gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender constituents, and just like any other group of constituents, they are deserving of getting healthcare, mental health care, affordable housing, and a little help to lead a successful life.

However, the bullying campaign against organizations that help people who are just living their true, authentic lives is just wrong. For example, one project singled out provides services for LGBTQ seniors as part of a housing project. The project is to help low-income seniors age in place. The Labor-HHS-Education bill includes multiple CDS projects that help our seniors get the care and housing they need as they age, but this is the only one that has been on a list as being somehow objectionable.

Another is a federally qualified community health center--basically, one of our community health centers that provides services for individuals struggling with substance use disorder. That organization has noticed an increased need among members of the LGBTQ community and noted in their CDS request that that is a population that they serve and who needs service. For this, the CDS project was again, by some of my colleagues, identified as somehow controversial.

In fact, several of the projects that have been identified as problematic are to provide mental health services to people in the LGBTQ community, including LGBTQ youth. LGBTQ kids are just like any other kids. They have stressors in life. They face depression, anxiety, and other challenges, and they need help navigating it. Some of this criticism has been blatant misinformation, including one in my own home State. An organization in Wisconsin has, for a long period of time, helped kids who experience homelessness get help to get back on their feet with employment help, mental health and counseling, with finding housing, and more. I was proud to secure funding for a very specific and narrow program of theirs that provides mental health support and counseling for kids experiencing homelessness. This would be for all kids. In fact, the organization does such great work that it has received Federal funding for years, including under the Trump administration, but since the organization has a program--which will get exactly zero dollars of this Federal funding--to help LGBTQ kids, it was ruthlessly attacked and smeared.

These attacks do not live in a vacuum, and they have real-world consequences. When this body says to LGBTQ community members that they are not worthy of our help, what kind of message do you think that sends?

Also, considering that we agree that the country is facing a mental health crisis, why would we be barring resources from helping a certain group of people, particularly a group that is acutely feeling the mental health crisis?

A recent survey of LGBTQ youth revealed that nearly half--nearly half--of LGBTQ youth seriously considered attempting suicide in this past year. Nearly one in four LGBTQ youth attempted suicide, and nearly three in four reported persistent feelings of sadness and hopelessness, but almost 60 percent of LGBTQ youth who wanted mental health care in the past year were not able to access it. These statistics are all young people--someone's child, sibling, neighbor, student, or classmate--and maybe one or more will occupy these seats, working collaboratively with colleagues to serve their States and their country.

I hope we can pause to consider that when we single out a group of Americans, it has a real impact. Our work and our words here matter, and I hope we can rise above the bullying and can, as we have for months, work across the aisle to deliver for all of our constituents.

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