On the recordFebruary 14, 2019
Mr. Speaker, this bill--Commerce, Justice, Science-- comes in at $71.5 billion, which is $1.6 billion above 2018. One of the highlights of the bill is that it restores many programs that had been zeroed out by the administration, including the Legal Services Corporation, which comes in at over $368 million. NOAA gets extra money for climate research, and we put in $368 million for opioid epidemic issues. The President wanted $336 million; we came in at $368 million. To me, the greatest accomplishment in this particular part of the bill is $1 billion for the Census, to continue to work on the Census. This is a major victory, and we thank the other side for agreeing that this is something that has to be done and something that is important for all of us. So I am asking not only for you to applaud the CJS part of the bill but also to vote for the whole bill.
