Washington, D.C. – This week, U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell (AL-07) voted to pass nine of House Democrats’ Fiscal Year 2022 spending bills to fund the federal government through 2022 and make historic investments in working families, infrastructure, health care, education, and our veterans. The bills also include funding for key issues important to Alabama’s 7th District.

“These government funding bills will benefit and uplift hard-working Alabamians by funding education, health care, worker protections, and environmental justice,” said Rep. Sewell. “They also make robust investments in Alabama’s 7th District by funding broadband infrastructure, wastewater infrastructure, civil rights historic preservation, and our HBCUs. I’m thrilled to see these funding packages pass the House and look forward to their consideration in the Senate.”

In addition to ensuring the federal government is properly funded through Fiscal Year 2022, the bills create tens of thousands of good-paying American jobs, rebuild our nation’s crumbling infrastructure, expand access to safe and affordable housing, bolster the nation’s public health infrastructure, and make critical investments in clean energy and science initiatives to combat the climate crisis.

The Appropriations bills will have a direct impact on Alabama’s 7th Congressional District. Among many other provisions, the package:

• Provides historic investment in the Selma Interpretive Center: The bill provides $10 million to expand the Selma Interpretive Center to transform the site into our nation’s premiere Voting Rights center.
• Expands job training in Alabama’s 7th District: The bill provides $3.1 billion in WIOA funds for job training for disadvantaged youth and adults, and for assistance to dislocated workers, an 8.8 percent increase over 2021. This increase would provide $625,000 in additional WIOA funds for job training in Alabama’s 7th District to help youth and adults obtain good-paying jobs.
• Expands Title I funding for schools in Alabama’s 7th District: The bill provides $36 billion in Title I funds, a 118 percent increase over 2021. This increase would provide $68.9 million in additional funding for schools in Alabama’s 7th District to support these children at risk of failing out of school.
• Expands funding for veterans’ health care in Alabama’s 7th District: The bill provides $98.5 billion for veterans’ healthcare, an 8 percent increase over 2021. This increase would provide an additional $81.3 million in funding for veterans’ healthcare in the district. These additional funds will enable the VHA to improve access to health care in key areas like women’s health, mental health, and opioid treatment; provide more veterans with home and community-based services; recruit and retain nurses and physicians; and support crucial medical research that improves veterans’ health and quality of life.

H.R. 4502 includes the following seven appropriations bills and funding amounts:

Labor-HHS-Education - The bill includes historic increases in funding for Democratic priorities including education, health care, worker protections, and our public health infrastructure.

• National Cancer Institute: $7 billion, an increase of $432 million above the 2021 level.
• HIV/AIDS Research: $3.3 billion.
• Programs to Improve Maternal and Child Health: $1.2 billion, an increase of $214 million above 2021, including an additional $156 million for the Maternal and Child Health Block Grant.
• Child Care and Development Block Grant: $7.4 billion, an increase of $1.5 billion over the FY 2021 enacted level.
• Head Start: $12.2 billion, an increase of $1.4 billion over the FY 2021 enacted level.  
• Home and Community-Based Supportive Services: $551 million, an increase of $158 million above the FY 2021 level.
• Federal Student Aid Programs: $27.2 billion, an increase of $2.64 billion above the FY 2021 enacted level, including $6,895 for the maximum Pell Grant, an increase of $400 over the FY 2021 level.    
• Supporting Primarily Minority-Serving Institutions: $1.13 billion an increase of $345 million over the FY 2021 enacted level This includes $402.6 million for Historically Black Colleges and Universities, an increase of $65 million above the FY 2021 enacted level.
• Federal TRIO Programs: $1.3 billion, an increase of $200.8 million above the FY 2021 enacted level.  
• Title I Grants for Local Educational Agencies: $36 billion, an increase of $19.5 billion above the FY 2021 enacted level.  
• Employment and Training Administration: $11.6 billion, $1.6 billion above the FY 2021 enacted level. Within this amount:
  • Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act State Grants: $3.1 billion, $250 million above the FY 2021 enacted level.
  • Strengthening Community College Training Grants: $100 million to help meet local and regional labor market demand for a skilled workforce, $55 million above the FY 2021 enacted level. 
• Social Security Administration’s Operating Expenses: $14.1 billion, an increase of $1.1 billion above the FY 2021 enacted level. 

Agriculture-Rural Development-FDA-Related Agencies - The bill supports the vulnerable by increasing funding for key nutrition programs and ensures that SNAP does not run out of money during the last quarter of the fiscal year. It makes key investments to better the economies of rural communities, including by increasing funding for rural broadband. It also makes investments to improve the safety and security of the food supply and the medical supply chain. In addition, it provides more funding than requested to advance racial justice in USDA programs. 

• Expansion of Broadband Services: $907 million, an increase of $165 million above the FY 2021 enacted level. This includes $800 million for the USDA’s Broadband ReConnect program.
• Rural Water and Waste Program Loans: $1.45 billion and over $721 million in water and waste grants for clean and reliable drinking water systems and sanitary waste disposal systems.
• Loan Authority for the Single Family Housing Guaranteed Loan Program: $30 billion and $1.5 billion in direct single family housing loans, which provide home loan assistance to low-income rural families.
• Rental Assistance and Rental Vouchers for Affordable Rental Housing for low-income families and the elderly in rural communities: $1.495 billion.
• SNAP (Food Stamps): $105.792 billion in required mandatory spending for SNAP.
• Women, Infants, and Children (WIC): $6 billion in discretionary funding for WIC.
• Child Nutrition Programs: $26.9 billion in funding for child nutrition programs.  This is an increase of $1.774 billion above the FY 2021 enacted level.  
• Helping Farmers, Ranchers, and other Private Landowners Conserve and Protect their Land: $1.06 billion, including $170 million for infrastructure for watershed and flood protection and watershed rehabilitation projects. 

Energy and Water Development - The bill sets us on the course for a clean, affordable and secure energy future by creating tens of thousands of good-paying jobs with a focus on deploying clean energy technologies.

• Build Back Better Challenge Grants: $100 million to encourage early action and novel methods developed at the state, local and Tribal level to support groundbreaking and inclusive clean energy solutions at the local level. 
• Appalachian Regional Commission: $210 million, $30 million above FY 2021, to fund efforts in the Appalachian Region to promote economic and community development, education and job training, and critical infrastructure.

Financial Services and General Government - The funding in this bill will help our country continue on a path to recovery by securing opportunities for underserved businesses, safeguarding the future of our democracy and protecting families and consumers. It rebuilds and strengthens the IRS enabling it to crack down on big corporations and the wealthiest few who aren’t paying their fair share to and to provide better service to help working families navigate the system. 

• IRS: $13.6 billion, $1.7 billion above the FY 2021 level. Within this amount is $2.9 billion for taxpayer services, including tax counseling for the elderly, low-income taxpayer clinics, and community volunteer income tax assistance. Enforcement, Operations Support, and Business Systems Operations all receive increases above the FY 2021 level.
• Small Business Administration: $1.0 billion, an increase of $111.9 million above the FY 2021 enacted level.    
• Entrepreneurial Development Programs: $323.8 million for EDP, an increase of $51.8 million above the current level, including funding for Small Business Development Centers.
• Strengthens our democracy by creating a commission to identify and recommend name changes or removal of Federal property that is inconsistent with the values of diversity, equity, and inclusion. 

Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies - The bill confronts the climate crisis by increasing funding for mitigation and adaptation efforts at EPA, the Department of the Interior, and the Forest Service; creating a Civilian Climate Corps; and launching a renewed focus on land and water conservation. It also creates good-paying American jobs rebuilding critical infrastructure and through investments in renewable energy development, including offshore wind projects.  It also invests in a strong and resilient Indian Country, including through education and health care programs. In addition, it dramatically expands environmental justice efforts to address unacceptable pollution in communities of color.

• National Park Service: $3.5 billion, an increase of $347 million above the FY 2021 enacted level. This includes $28 million for competitive grants to preserve the sites and stories of underrepresented communities’ civil rights struggles, and $10 million for grants to Historically Black Colleges and Universities.  
• Targeted Grants for Drinking Water Contaminants and Wastewater Treatment: $326.6 million, $117.5 million above the FY 2021 enacted level and $7.6 million above the President’s request.
• Superfund Site Cleanups: $1.54 billion, an increase of $331 million over the FY 2021 enacted level and $2.5 million more than the President’s request.
• Environmental Justice Activities: $248 million, an increase of $235 million above the FY 2021 enacted level.

Military Construction and Veterans Affairs - The bill supports our nation’s veterans with investments in health care, including funding for women’s health, mental health and homelessness assistance.

• Child Development Centers: $213 million for child development center projects to support increased child care capacity and better facilities for the 1.2 million children of active duty service members worldwide. 
• Family Housing Construction: $1.423 billion for family housing, $87 million above the FY 2021 level and equal to the President’s request; including $116.2 million for Family Housing Support and Management to address issues such as mold, vermin and lead in military family housing.  
• VA Mental Health Care Services: $13.2 billion, $2.9 billion above the FY 2021 level and $1 million more than the request – including $599 million for suicide prevention outreach. 
• VA Opioid Abuse Recovery and Prevention: $621 million, an increase of $149 million above the FY 2021 level and equal to the request. 

Transportation, Housing and Urban Development - The bill includes critical funding to create tens of thousands of good-paying American jobs by rebuilding our nation’s crumbling infrastructure with significant investments in airports, highways, transit, rail and port systems. It fosters opportunity through homeownership and rental assistance, supports the vulnerable through investments in public housing safety, maintenance and improvements– building a more equitable future.  

• National Infrastructure Investments Program: $1.2 billion, an increase of $200 million above both the enacted level and the President’s budget request. 
• Federal Transit Administration: $15.5 billion, an increase of $2.5 billion over FY 2021 levels and $1.99 billion above the President’s request.
• Department of Housing and Urban Development: $56.5 billion for HUD, $6.8 billion above the FY 2021 level.
• Public Housing: $8.64 billion for Public Housing, an increase of $834 million above the current fiscal year and $65 million above the President’s budget request. 
• Choice Neighborhoods Initiative: $400 million for the Choice Neighborhoods Initiative – double the FY 2021  level and $150 million above the budget request.  
• Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Program: $3.7 billion for Community Development Block Grants, $253 million above the enacted level. 
• Homeless Assistance Grants: $3.4 billion for Homeless Assistance Grants, an increase of $420 million above the FY 2021 level.

H.R. 4373, the State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs funding bill:

• Supports the displaced and vulnerable by providing $4.7 billion for International Disaster Assistance, run by USAID, and $3.8 billion for Migration and Refugee Assistance, managed by the State Department. 
• Rebuilds public health infrastructure with $10.6 billion to support the health of families and communities around the world and $1 billion for global health security to prevent future pandemics.
• Confronts the climate crisis, providing $3 billion for work on climate change and includes the first direct appropriation for the Green Climate Fund, a $1.6 billion investment.
• Advances women’s rights through $760 million for family planning and $70 million for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), and repeals restrictions that block women around the world from accessing safe and legal abortion.
• Promotes democracy around the world by providing $1.6 billion to promote a free and open Indo-Pacific and help counter the growing influence of the People’s Republic of China in developing countries and funds a $2.5 billion effort to bolster global democracy, including $300 million for the National Endowment for Democracy.

A detailed summary of H.R. 4373 is available here. 

H.R. 4346, the Legislative Branch funding bill:

• Supports the Capitol Police and honors their commitment with funding to improve training, recruitment, retention, readiness, and wellness support. It also promotes transparency, diversity, and leadership training.
• Protects our democracy by bolstering the safety and security of all who work in and visit the United States Capitol.
• Strengthens Congressional capacity by providing increased funding to allow Congressional offices and support agencies to recruit and retain a skilled, diverse workforce.
• Grows opportunity by providing $18.2 million in funding for paid internships on Capitol Hill and permitting Dreamers to work in the Legislative Branch.

A detailed summary of H.R. 4346 is available here.