Nita Lowey: “This domestic priorities and international assistance minibus combines eight appropriations bills: Labor-Health and…”

“This domestic priorities and international assistance minibus combines eight appropriations bills: Labor-Health and Human Services- Education, Agriculture, Energy and Water Development, Interior- Environment, Legislative Branch, Military Construction-Veterans Affairs, State-Foreign Operations, and Transportation-Housing and Urban Development. {time} 1215 The Appropriations Committee is fortunate to have outstanding cardinals, and they have done an extraordinary job negotiating these bills. Because of their hard work, we have secured record funding levels for Head Start, Child Care and Development Block Grants, and title I schools; hundreds of millions of dollars in increases for programs that expand access to housing; $41.7 billion for lifesaving medical research at the NIH, a $2.6 billion increase and a record level; $25 million for gun violence prevention research at the CDC and NIH, which is being funded for the first time in more than 20 years; strong funding for environmental protection, with $9 billion for the EPA, $495 million for the Land and Water Conservation Fund, and robust investments in clean energy to address the climate crisis. Turning to my bill, I am proud that the State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Subcommittee reached bipartisan agreement on a robust bill that rejects the short-sighted, dangerous cuts proposed by the Trump administration.…”