Heinrich applauds Senate for passing package of appropriations bills

U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich welcomed the Senate’s bipartisan passage, 82 to 15, of the first package of the Fiscal Year 2024 appropriations bills.

The package included the Department of Agriculture and Food and Drug Administration bill; the Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies bill; and the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies bill.

The bipartisan bills build on the progress made in appropriations packages enacted in recent years to deliver essential resources for the VA, military construction, the FDA and federal agriculture, transportation and housing programs.

“From supporting American farmers and promoting the health and well-being of our children, to strengthening national security and investing in our veterans, this bill delivers,” Heinrich said. “We can do good work for the American people when we push partisan politics aside and focus on real solutions for the real challenges facing families today. That’s what the Senate continues to do. House Republicans need to stop wasting time on extreme proposals designed to create chaos and join us in passing serious, bipartisan funding bills that will grow our economy and put families in New Mexico and across the country first.”

Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration and Related Agencies Bill Highlights

As chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies, Heinrich authored and led bipartisan negotiations of the bill. The bill was previously voted out of committee on a 28-0 vote June 22. Highlights include:

Nutrition: The bill delivers funding to ensure women, infants and children can get the nutrition they need, and it protects vital nutrition assistance programs for families across the country with tight budgets.

• WIC: The bill includes $6.3 billion for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) — a $613 million increase over FY 2023 that meets the president’s budget request. While the bill provides an increase for WIC, estimates for the program continue to rise.
• SNAP: The bill fully funds the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to serve an estimated 42 million people per month — and does not include any new restrictions on eligibility.
• Child nutrition: The bill fully funds Child Nutrition Programs to ensure schools can continue to serve healthy meals. In 2024, this funding will help serve an estimated 5 billion lunches and 2.6 billion breakfasts to kids across the country.

Economic Development: Heinrich secured a $3 million investment in the Southwest Border Regional Commission, which supports economic and community development in New Mexico. The commission is one of seven authorized federal regional commissions and authorities.

Conservation: Heinrich secured provisions directing the USDA to place greater focus and resources on drought resilience and other western water issues. Additionally, it provides $994 million for the Natural Resources Conservation Service and protects funding for operations and Conservation Technical Assistance, which supports voluntary conservation practices on private land.

Tribal communities: Heinrich championed funding for a pilot Bison Production and Marketing Grant Program within the Agriculture Marketing Service to expand markets for private and tribal bison producers. Heinrich also championed funding for federal inspection of tribal bison processing, which supports indigenous food sovereignty by enabling tribes to include bison raised on their own lands in federal nutrition programs like school meals.

Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production: The bill includes $8.5 million for the USDA Office of Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production, which provides technical assistance to urban and innovative producers, increases access to grants for small-scale farmers, and invests in composting and food waste initiatives. Albuquerque hosts one of 17 Farm Service Agency Urban Agriculture Service Centers nationwide.

Food and Drug Administration: The bill includes substantial investments in the Food and Drug Administration, including supporting the FDA’s authority to approve drugs based on safety and efficacy. This bill also includes funding to support the FDA’s efforts to combat the opioid epidemic and builds on support for Alzheimer’s disease with continued access to the accelerated approval pathway and ensuring it remains available to expedite access to drugs and treatments for Alzheimer’s and other diseases.

Housing and Rural Development: In rural communities, including in New Mexico, home prices and rents are higher than ever. This bill protects the housing programs within the U.S. Department of Agriculture and ensures that Americans in rural communities who qualify will receive the housing assistance they need. Specifically, the bill includes $1.6 billion for rental assistance to ensure rural Americans have access to safe and affordable housing. It would also decouple rental assistance from Multifamily Direct Loans, which will prevent thousands of low-income families from losing rental assistance. The bill includes significant funding for 18 local projects across New Mexico, including $375,000 for Santa Ana Pueblo to build a garage and vehicle maintenance facility to house pueblo emergency vehicles, school buses and other vehicles.

Military Construction, Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies Bill Highlights

The bill was previously voted out of committee on a 28-0 vote June 22. Highlights include:

Access to care for rural and tribal veterans: The bill includes report language Heinrich authored to prevent the VA from closing community-based outpatient clinics. This will ensure that veterans have access to care at VA facilities and effectively protect key facilities in rural and tribal areas from being closed through the quadrennial market assessments process conducted by the VA’s Asset and Infrastructure Review Commission.

Transportation for rural veterans: The bill increases funding for the Highly Rural Transportation Grants program to $15 million, an increase of $5 million. This program helps veterans in rural areas travel to VA or VA-authorized health care facilities.

Rural health for veterans: The bill increases funding for an existing home-based primary care program serving veterans located in rural and highly rural areas by increasing relevant research, innovation and dissemination capabilities. Many veterans in New Mexico live in rural and tribal areas, and these veterans often must travel to major medical centers in urban areas for medical care, sometimes requiring multiple-day trips.

Homeless veterans assistance: The bill increases funding to expand Services for Veteran Families Program, the Grant and Per Diem Program, and the Housing and Urban Development-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing Program. This funding will build on the success of FY23 by providing an 8% increase of funding for a total of $3.1 billion. As of January 2020, New Mexico had an estimated 3,333 veterans experiencing homelessness on any given day, as reported by Continuums of Care to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

State extended care facilities: The bill provides $154 million for grants to construct state extended care facilities and includes Heinrich’s request for a review of the VA secretary’s project prioritization process for these grants.

Suicide prevention coordinators: Heinrich successfully advocated for report language that improves veteran access to suicide prevention coordinators. In 2018, the veteran suicide rate in New Mexico was significantly higher than the national veteran suicide rate and the general population suicide rate.

The bill includes significant funding for nine local projects across New Mexico, including $11,000,000 for the Rio Rancho National Guard Vehicle Maintenance Shop.

Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Bill Highlights

The bill was previously voted out of committee on a 29-0 vote July 20. Highlights include:

Rental assistance: The bill increases funding for Tenant-Based Rental Assistance (Housing Choice Vouchers) and Project-Based Rental Assistance. The Housing Choice Voucher Program helps more than 12,000 families in New Mexico.

Tribal housing: Heinrich successfully advocated for an increase of $61.6 million from FY23 for the Indian Housing Block Grant, which is the single largest source of tribal housing assistance.

Housing supportive services: The bill increases funding for the Resident Opportunities and Supportive Services Program and the Family Self-Sufficiency Program. The ROSS program allows public housing authorities to hire a program coordinator who links residents with training opportunities, job placement organizations and local employers, and the FSS program promotes increased earnings and savings among families receiving HUD-funded rental assistance.

Active transportation infrastructure: Heinrich successfully advocated for continued funding of $45 million for the Active Transportation Infrastructure Investments Program at the Federal Highway Administration, which awards grants for communities to invest in active transportation networks that include walking and biking routes that enable people to reach their destinations more safely.

The bill includes significant funding for 16 local projects across New Mexico, including $200,000 for New Mexico State University to partner with Jemez Pueblo to study the processing of wood wastes from forest fire burn scar sites and lumber mills to produce biochar, which can be used as feedstock for district heating, soil additives for carbon sequestration and adsorbents for water treatment.