Udall Foundation Reauthorization Act of 2023

Floor Speech

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Mrs. CAPITO. Mr. President, as we near the end of the fiscal year 2024 appropriations process, I would like to thank Vice Chair Collins and Chair Murray, as well as my fellow committee members. The Labor-HHS appropriations bill, the largest non-Defense appropriations bill, is one of the most difficult appropriations bills to negotiate.

I see my chair over there. So it is good to be together again.

It is not a stretch to say that every year, when we go into appropriations season, it is assumed that Labor-H will be one of the hardest bills to pass. And many times it is. This is the first year that Senator Baldwin and I have been at the helm of the Senate Labor- HHS Subcommittee, and I am pleased to say we were able to work together to present a bipartisan Senate bill last summer that laid the groundwork for this final compromise bill.

First, I want to thank all of my colleagues, and I want all of my colleagues to know that in this bill we continue all longstanding legacy riders, such as Hyde and Hyde-Weldon conscience protections. And I want to make it clear that we worked together to avoid any new poison pill funding for controversial programs, such as title X family planning.

While we each approached this bill differently, it was important to present a bipartisan result, including Member priorities, such as greater investments in biomedical research, pandemic preparedness, mental health, childcare and education, efforts to combat the opioid epidemic, and rural health.

Our final bill includes $194.4 billion in base discretionary funding, which is $12.9 billion below the 2023 enacted level. Even with additional resources added, the Labor-H bill represents a 1-percent reduction from 2023 levels.

The final bill also allocates limited resources to certain programs by reducing funding by approximately $630 million across 35 different programs.

The Labor-HHS bill provides an increase of $300 million for the National Institutes of Health. This funding provides targeted increases for research in specific areas that are so important, such as Alzheimer's, mental health, and cancer, including funding--one that I am particularly interested in--the Childhood Cancer STAR Act.

We also continue efforts to fight the growing prevalence of substance use disorder. This bill provides $4.95 billion in funding across the bill for addiction prevention, research, and recovery programs. Investments to address this epidemic include $1.57 billion for State opioid response grants to address the opioid epidemic in ways that suit individual States' needs; $2 billion for the substance use prevention, treatment, and recovery services block grant--again, giving our States the ability to address the issues--and $640.5 million for the NIH, for their program Helping to End Addiction Long-term, also known as the NIH HEAL Initiative.

Additionally, we direct more resources to telehealth and rural healthcare programs that help States like my State of West Virginia.

Rural healthcare will receive an additional $4 million to improve rural maternity and obstetrics services, and an additional $4 million for a new rural hospital stabilization program.

This Labor-HHS bill prioritizes our children, starting with early childhood education to ensure children are ready to learn when they enter school, and continues investments for students in high school and college to make sure they are prepared for the jobs today and for those jobs in the future.

Specifically, we provide a $725 million increase for the child care and development block grant and a $275 million increase for Head Start, both to support early childhood education; a $20 million increase for title I grants to local educational agencies to support K through 12 students in low-income schools; and a $20 million increase for IDEA grants to States, which provides special ed services for our students with disabilities; additionally, $7,395 for the maximum Pell grant award for the 2024-2025 school year to support low-income students pursuing postsecondary education.

The Labor-HHS section of this minibus isn't what any of us would have written individually. However, it reflects a four corners negotiation with bipartisan priorities, it protects all legacy riders, and it did not provide any new funding for any poison pill programs.

I stand here today to tell you that this bill can help our fellow citizens, but I am also happy to report that this bill will have a tremendous impact on the people of the State of West Virginia. One of the reasons I am proud to be on this Appropriations subcommittee is because of the impact that we can each have on our home States, and this bill demonstrates that. The priorities that I have advocated for since I started in the Senate and the experiences I have seen and learned from advocates, community leaders, patients and doctors, students, teachers, and parents throughout West Virginia are why I wanted to help write this bill.

So this bill includes ways to grow nursing programs where we have shortages and to look into addiction treatment and recovery programs. It helps with hospital expansions and improvements and workforce initiatives for medical specialties, along with aviation workforce, and water and wastewater technicians.

I cannot list them all, but my partnerships and support for Marshall University, West Virginia University, Bridge Valley Community and Technical College, Shepherd University, the Martinsburg Initiative, Lily's Place, Charleston Area Medical Center, Roane General, Minnie Hamilton Health Center, and numerous other city and county programs are evident by the millions of dollars that we dedicate to the mission and work being done right back home in West Virginia.

Far too often, the Federal Government overlooks what local entities can do to meet the needs and the challenges in their local towns and communities. But do you know what? That is where the solutions are, and they know best. That is why I have been listening to them, and that is why I am bringing those resources home.

I would like to again thank Vice Chair Collins and Chair Murray--I see her on the floor--and all of the members of this committee here and in the House for reaching this deal.

Now I would like to briefly thank all of the staff who worked to put this product together. Many of them are in the Chamber right now. On my staff: Lindsey Seidman, Ashley Palmer, Emily Slack, Tom Pfeiffer, JT Jezierski, Dana Richter, and Addie Bassali.

On Senator Baldwin's staff, I would like to thank Mike Gentile, Mark Laisch, Meghan Mott, Kathryn Toomajian, Amanda Beaumont, Erin Dugan, and Janie Dulaney.

With that, I would encourage my colleagues to vote positively on this bill.

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