Connecticut received an additional increase in federal funding after final passage of a federal funding bill over the weekend, bringing the total for local projects across the state to about $174 million.
Congress entered the final stages of approving funding for the final six government agencies early Saturday, including defense, homeland security, labor, health and human services, and education. This avoided a partial shutdown and kept the government open until the end of September, when the next fiscal year began.
As part of the spending bill, members of the U.S. House and Senate can submit requests for direct funding for state and district priority projects and related projects, formerly known as Earmark. In total, Congress approved more than $14 billion in designated funds, about 1% of the total funding package.
A total of 180 local projects across dozens of towns and cities will receive federal funding related to infrastructure, transportation, education, and social services, based on a request from Connecticut's congressional delegation.
Congress' failure to pass a fiscal year 2024 spending bill delayed scheduled funding by six months for towns and cities. Instead, lawmakers approved several short-term bills, known as continuing resolutions, to keep the government running until spending negotiations take place. Trading in recent weeks.
With these funding bills, Connecticut ended up approving more projects for less money than the state approved in previous fiscal years.
In crafting government funding legislation, Congress needed to discuss spending caps on non-defense and discretionary spending negotiated during then-Rep. California Republican Kevin McCarthy remained Speaker of the House.
In two government funding packages passed this month, Congress approved spending totaling about $1.66 trillion, not including money for programs like Social Security and Medicare.
All seven members of Connecticut's all-Democratic delegation supported the second part of the government funding bill. All but Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) voted in favor of the first round of legislation in early March. Murphy opposed the bill, citing changes to the state's background check system related to firearm purchases.
“Despite this extremely challenging budget environment, House Democrats, led by Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro, are resisting these cuts and working with Republicans to implement possible “If we can't increase our funding, we at least try to maintain it,” he said. , District D-2 said in a statement. “This is no small feat in a closely divided Congress, and it will greatly benefit educators, students, and parents in eastern Connecticut.”
Connecticut federal budget breakdown
Connecticut's largest cities – New Haven, Hartford, Stamford and Bridgeport – will receive the most federal funding, but about 70 towns and cities across the state will also receive grants.
Just over half of the allocated funds went to infrastructure and transportation projects, an increase from the previous year, when about a third of the budget was earmarked for such projects.
Some of the projects that raised the most money went to infrastructure investments. his $4 million for improvements to Temple Street in New Haven; $3.6 million to complete the Hop River State Park Trail between Coventry and Columbia. $4.5 million for upgrades to Mill River Park in Stamford; $3.2 million to repair levee leaks in Meriden. and $3 million to build a new social services center in New Haven.
Eight towns and cities will receive funding for police, fire and emergency services. Most of the money will be used to upgrade communications and digital systems at each department, but the town of Madison will receive $114,000 to hire a social worker to work with the town's police department.
Housing projects would also receive a major boost from the bill, including at least 12 affordable housing initiatives in places like New Milford, New Britain, Washington, Waterbury, Winchester and Berkhamsted.
Also included are more than half a dozen projects involving a family housing shelter in Stamford, several homeless shelters in Hartford and New Haven, and a transitional housing program for women veterans and their children in Bridgeport.
The latest federal funding bill provides funding for several Boys & Girls Clubs, YMCAs, domestic violence prevention organizations, and workforce development programs and training.
The CT NAACP's Million Jobs Campaign, a workforce development program that helps formerly incarcerated people find jobs, is affiliated with Yale New Haven Health. The $350,000 budget will go towards expanding the program in New Haven and Hartford.
Also included are about a dozen projects targeting public schools, after-school and summer programs, and child care, including improving mental health services in Hamden and Norwalk public schools and two summer programs in Stanford.
Among them: Ethan Miller Song, founded in 2018 to honor the life of Ethan Song, a Guilford teenager who accidentally killed himself with an unsecured gun in his neighbor's home in 2018; It also includes donations to foundations. Among other things, the group is advocating for legislation known as Ethan's Law that would require safer storage of firearms.
The organization will receive $59,000, $9,000 more than originally requested, to help create a K-12 gun safety curriculum.
Earmark, now known in the House as Community Projects Funding and in the Senate as Congressional Directed Spending, has been reinstated for the first time in several years after a 10-year ban. U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-3rd District), then-chair of the House Appropriations Committee, helped oversee the land recovery push.
Many legislators see these as a way to not only exercise greater influence over the spending process, but also to directly reach out to communities.
Others, mostly Republicans and some Democrats, have negative connotations about earmarks, viewing them as extraneous measures for pet projects that inflate Congressional spending.
This time, Republicans limited House members' quota requests to a few agencies, including labor, health and welfare, and education. Many of them objected to Democrats' demands to fund LGBTQ+ centers. However, senators could still make requests under these agencies.
Lawmakers and their immediate family members will have to prove they have no financial ties to the request. Government and nonprofit organizations can receive funding, but for-profit organizations are not eligible. Representatives can request up to 15 projects, while senators have no limit to the number. Many requests are made jointly by senators and representatives.
Although Connecticut's funding is lower than in previous years, it is up from fiscal year 2022, when the budget was first returned to the Legislature, at nearly $150 million.
What else is included in the government funding bill?
President Joe Biden signed the bill over the weekend, calling it “a compromise that means each side gets everything it wants.” Both parties celebrated the victory and the repeal of controversial policies.
However, some lawmakers objected to the bill. Hardline conservatives wanted deep spending cuts, while some progressives expressed major concerns about suspending funding to U.N. agencies and increasing funding for border security.
The bill increases funding for the Department of Defense by 3% while keeping funding levels for non-defense domestic spending relatively the same. The bill grants military personnel a 5.2 percent pay raise granted in the National Defense Policy Act that Congress passed late last year.
It will also provide an additional 12,000 special immigrant visas to Afghan nationals who worked with Americans during the war and fled after the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan in 2021.
Republicans touted border-related measures such as deploying 22,000 Border Patrol agents and increasing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention beds.
They also emphasized blocking funding to UNRWA, the United Nations agency that works with Palestinian refugees and provides aid to Gaza. The suspension came after Israel accused about a dozen UNRWA personnel of participating in Hamas' October 7 attack on Israel.
Despite some cuts in the Labor, Health and Education bill, Democrats tout $1 billion increase in child care costs and Head Start, the federally funded early learning and education program for children up to age 5. did. He also emphasized increased spending on cancer control. Alzheimer's disease research, the Department of Defense's climate change investments, and more funding for Title 1 schools.
The $810,000 requested by Murphy and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) will be used to renovate the child care center at Grace Baptist Church in Waterbury.
The first government spending package includes $2.4 billion for Amtrak (with some of the funding going toward strengthening the Northeast Corridor) and $680 million for Long Island Sound conservation, along with other funds from the Connecticut delegation. priorities were also included.
The bill provides a $1 billion increase for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, bringing total new funding to more than $7 billion. More than 40,000 Connecticut residents take advantage of her WIC benefits.
The bill also mandated $119 million in funding for the SNAP program, formerly known as food stamps, and other nutrition assistance.
The bill also secured funding for the New London Naval Submarine Base project that Mr. Courtney and other delegates pushed for.
“Americans struggling with the high cost of living want a government that is on their side and puts the needs of their families ahead of politics, big business, and billionaires,” DeLauro said in a statement. will do just that.” The House and Senate came together to pass all 12 2024 funding bills to support hardworking people, protect women's rights, combat climate change, and keep our communities safe. ”
“When Democrats and Republicans work together, we can invest in programs that move America forward and keep us safe and healthy,” he added. “We must avoid a repeat of this year’s disruption in the 2025 funding process.”
The position of Federal Policy Reporter at the Connecticut Mirror/Connecticut Public Radio is made possible in part through funding from the Robert and Margaret Patricelli Family Foundation.
This article originally appeared in the Connecticut Mirror.
