December 22, 2022

Key Duckworth Priorities Included in Senate-passed Omnibus Bill

 

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – With the Senate voting 68-29 to pass the bipartisan Fiscal Year 2023 (FY23) Omnibus Appropriations Act today, U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) highlighted several key priorities she championed that are now set to become law if passed by the U.S. House of Representatives. The bipartisan agreement also included the Electoral Count Act, which will help secure and protect the integrity of our elections and make it harder to steal a presidential election—something that nearly happened on January 6, 2021.

“Our state and our nation are stronger when we invest in our communities and families—and that’s what this bipartisan compromise does,” said Duckworth. “There are certainly items in it that I do not support, but I’m particularly proud that it includes many of my key priorities to help hard-working Illinoisans save money, improve housing and childcare for military families, keep our promises to Veterans suffering from toxic exposure, better compete with China on microchips, support job creation and lower heating costs for working families as we head into the winter months. With this bipartisan legislation, we’re taking important action to protect and secure future elections while also sending much-needed aid to our Ukrainian allies as they fight to defend their nation against Putin’s unjustifiable war of choice.”

Duckworth-led omnibus provisions will:

  1. Support working families by increasing funding for the nation’s diaper banks, helping ensure more families can access diapers that are essential to the health and well-being of children. The $10 million increase in support builds off of funding Duckworth secured in the FY22 appropriations package. Last year, Duckworth also successfully secured provisions in the American Rescue Plan that mirrored her bipartisan End Diaper Need Act, which is helping provide low-income families with diapers and diapering supplies.
  1. Lower the levels of toxic heavy metals in baby food and address infant formula shortages by increasing funding for Maternal and Infant Health programs at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
  1. Help get the lead out of schools by increasing support for the EPA Lead in Schools grants.
  1. Increase Sewer Overflow Control grants to update our aging and dangerous wastewater infrastructure.
  1. Support the EPA Section 319 Nonpoint Source grants to assist communities in complying with the Clean Water Act.
  1. Improve women’s health research by having the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine conduct a study to identify gaps in women’s research funding across all institutes and centers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Additionally, Duckworth successfully established a directive to NIH that would create a research category for the menopausal transition and its related health conditions.
  1. Enhance disabilities rights by providing for the Protection and Advocacy for Individual Rights (PAIR) program to better advocate for individuals with disabilities. Duckworth also urged the administration to establish clinical care standards for treating people with disabilities.
  1. Secure tens of millions of dollars to benefit the world-leading research being done at Argonne and Fermi National Laboratories, including improvements for facilities and infrastructure and funding for promising projects.
  1. Increase investment for a state-of-the-art Hypersonic Testing Facility at the University of Illinois that will give the U.S. the largest and most advanced wind tunnel of its kind operated by a university, helping further advanced research into high-speed flight capabilities critical to the U.S.’s future national security interests.
  1. Increase investments in vital Army programs like additive manufacturing for ground vehicle components and Soft Recoil for Extended Range Artillery Systems, new technologies for our troops that are being tested and developed by the skilled workforce at Rock Island Arsenal. Duckworth also championed additional funding for an Army program (sometimes known as “Zillow.mil”) that helps installations like Rock Island Arsenal find new tenants, improving efficiency at military bases to save taxpayer dollars.
  1. Help on-shore Navy battery cell manufacturing to ensure that power components critical to our Navy are built in the U.S., reducing our reliance on overseas supply chains and manufacturing.
  1. Support small and medium businesses as they seek to achieve the cybersecurity compliance needed to do business with the Department of Defense (DoD), improving both their security and their ability to compete to contract with the U.S. government. MxD, a public-private partnership based in Chicago, has been designated the National Center for Cybersecurity in Manufacturing, and is a leader in providing this cybersecurity support to the small businesses that are the backbone of our economy.
  1. Expand research and development of high-energy fuel alternatives to reduce the military’s reliance on foreign fossil fuels. Northwestern University is doing ground-breaking research in this field.
  1. Provide civilian-based emergency response trauma and critical care training to National Guard members to provide the citizen-warriors in the Guard with important medical skills, improve unit readiness and meet mission requirements.
  1. Provide major investments for drinking water and wastewater programs and projects at U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
  1. Rebuild green space in our cities by increasing funding for the Urban and Community Forestry grant program.
  1. Create further investments to the FWS National Wildlife Refuge System that would help protect our public lands, waters and wildlife.

Duckworth also championed provisions to:

  1. Help working families afford rising energy costs by providing $5 billion for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP).
  1. Better support home and community-based services (HCBS) with $2.25 billion total in the next five years for the Medicaid Money Follows the Person demonstration program.
  1. Improve maternal health and make permanent an option that will allow states to continue to provide 12 months of continuous coverage during the postpartum period in through Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). This provision was based off the Durbin-Duckworth MOMMA Act to reduce America’s rising maternal and infant mortality rate, especially for moms and babies of color who are significantly more likely to die during or shortly after pregnancy.

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